FOREST DESTRUCTION

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 78, 28 September 1940, Page 20

FOREST DESTRUCTION

PRESENTING FIRES

REGULATIONS TIGHTENED

An intensification of. the campaign \ tor • preventing and combating forest! fires during the dry months is to be undertaken this season, according to a statement made this week by the Commissioner of State Forests (the Hon. P. Langstone), who announced new regulations. ".•".' "Previously reliance was placed on the somewhat restricted provisions of earlier enactments, conditions in licences, and leases, general educational propaganda, co-operation with other Departments, and .with sawmillers," said Mr. Langstone. "Experience has, however, indicated the inherent weaknesses of this procedure, and it is in conformity with the Government's desire to abrogate methods of dealing with this important problem that the new regulations have been introduced. "In. recent years far too many forest flres have.been recorded with the inevitable sequel—destruction of valuable milling timber, land slides, soil erosion, silting up of rivers, flooding of valleys. No one wishes to see the disastrous bush fires of Victoria less than three years ago paralleled in this Dominion, and our fire prevention and fire-fighting methods must be strengthened and improved if a major catastrophe is to be averted; hence the need for these regulations. "The regulations have been framed lofith a view to providing the utmost protection to . the forests consistent with as little interference as possible in the normal life of the community. Briefly, the general effect will be to impose on the State, owners of private forests, all neighbours and users of such forests, a mutual obligation to safeguard one another's interests. ' "Under the regulations forest officers are given power to enter private lands for the suppression of fires where State forests or fire districts are endangered. Engines of all kinds operating in State forests or fire districts from August 1 to April 30 must be equipped with spark arresters, and in addition steps must be taken for the prevention and escape of fire and live coals from ashpans and fire boxes and for the disposition of ashes in such a manner as to prevent the outbreak of fire. Certain relaxations are granted to milking machines and shearing plants. SUSPENSION OF OPERATIONS. . "As a further safeguard the Director oi Forestry may, during periods of extreme fire danger, suspend logging or sawmilling operations by notice over the radio, or otherwise. Provision is made for right holders—the holders of State forest privileges—to suppress outbreaks of fire and arrange for the nearest forest' officers to be notified of the outbreak. A right holder must also provide and maintain fire-fighting equipment in places readily accessible for use. "Another provision, and to my mind a most essential one, makes it an offence for any person to throw or drop any kind of smouldering substance in a State forest or fire district from August 1 to April 30. Experience has shown that frequently forest fires have their inceptfdn through the negligence and wilful actions of unauthorised persons in State forests. It has therefore been made an offence to enter a State forest or any exotic forest in a fire district without a permit, and likewise'the non-observance of the conditions of a permit; has been made an offence. ''''*■■' "It has been made compulsory for the owner or occupier of land adjoining a State forest or in a fire district where a fire likely to endanger a State forest or fire district starts, to notify the nearest! forest officer and to use every endeavour to control the fire till his arrival. Similarly, any person engaged or employed in a State forest or in a fire.district shall on discovering an outbreak of fire advise the nearest forest officer and immediately leave his own work to fight the fire. 'As, an extension of this principle, any person who discovers a fire burning unattended in a State forest or fire district has the same obligations as a person engaged or employed in a State forest. Thus for the first time in the Dominion the responsibility is placed on every person who works in or adjacent to a State forest or a fire district or happens to be within those areas for any purpose whatsoever to tend and control forest fires. "I am convinced that our present fire incidence could be reduced by at least 75 per cent, with the'support and co-operation of all patriotic New Zealanders," said Mr. Langstone. "Regulations alone are not enough; may I therefore on the eve of the fire-danger season appeal to my fellow-countrymen of all walks and ranks wherever they are to. get behind the State Forest Service and give it every possible assistance in the national campaign against .fire. Let our slogan be, 'Keep New, Zealand green.'"