BUSH AND GRASS FIRES.

Evening Star, Issue 10212, 14 January 1897, Page 4

BUSH AND GRASS FIRES.

Fires are still raging everywhere in the Hamilton (Auckland) district, and are doing an immense deal of damage to settlers who possess land of a swampy nature. The homestead on the Rnkihi Estate had a narrow eaeape from destruction. One small holder living a couple of miles from Hamilton estimates his loss from the destruction of stock and crops at £l5O. The water in the drains running through the burning swamps is kept almost at boiling paint, and dead eels of all sizes may be picked up in hundreds. The manager of the Monte Carlo mine reports that the camp Was destroyed by fire. The fire started on the eastern boundary of the Vanderbilt claim about nine o'clock on Saturday morning, and in less than five hours had spread over six miles square of country, the Omoho Valley being nothing less than a raging furnace. The bush being very dry, the fire travelled with great speed, and the Monte Carlo claim being in the centre of the valley the fire was all round the camp, so that the men barely escaped with their lives, having to face and fight the fire to get out on to fiat country. The men got away with nothing but what they stood up in, losing all their swags and a fortnight's provisions. The company's tools, bellows, etc., were destroyed. The present bush fires in the Wairarapa district are the wont ever known there, and the damage can as yet hardly be estimated. The fires are still raging at Mangamahoe, Mikimiki, HastwelL the Stirling settlement, Terewaitai, and other smaller places. At Stirling there is great danger of all the settlers' houses beiDg destroyed. Every assistance is being rendered to the unfortunate settlers, but it is feared that a good many of them will be ruined. A grass fire swept the seaward portion of Ashburton County on Tuesday, burning large areas of feed, 800 sheep, many miles of fences, several stables, and a schoolhonse. Stacks and standing corn were saved with difficulty, and homesteads only by ploughing fireguards. The scene of the fire was between Chertsey and Rakaia to the sea. / .