SUN GOD AND FIRE FIEND

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 13, 17 January 1933, Page 6

SUN GOD AND FIRE FIEND

Rain that fell last evening was an appropriate ending lo Wellington's hottest day for years—a day at over 80 degrees—-and was something of a reply to our remarks yesterday, under the heading "Dry-Lipped Summer." But it was not a very ade-

quate reply. It barely tickled the onion, bed, and did not appreciably reduce the fire risk of the tinder-like grass on the Town Belt and in other j reserves and on private lands. On the Belt and reserves, visible or invisible among the grass, are thousands of young trees that have survived the .high winds of spring and early summer. It would be a thousand pities if grass fires swept the slopes round about Wellington and killed these forests of tlie future, which mark the biggest step .yet made toward complete reforestation. Another asset is the indigenous forest at Otari Plant Museum. No doubt the authorities are keenly alive to the fire risk and to the value of prevention. In the Hutt Valley basin the Water Board's huge reserves also become vulnerable in a record dry summer. Does fire-prevention come within the category of work for unemployed? A few live men stationed here or there might save more in a day than they could plant in a year. . .