COAST WANTS RAIN

Evening Star, Issue 19765, 16 January 1928, Page 8

COAST WANTS RAIN

BUSH FIRE MENAGE |Pbb United Press Association.] GREYMOUTH, January 16. Throughout the Coast bush fires aro burning in more or less serious proportions, and, were a gale to spring up, considerable damage to property would eventuate. The long spell of dry, hot feather has made the usually damp yegetation like tinder, and a carelessly dropped match or cigarette butt is all that is required to start a bush fire £' at will destroy many acres of the med Coast scenery. The fires may hare been started by Bottlers desirous of clearing bush, hut later fires are reported right from Otira to South Westland. At Lake jKanieri yesterday, smoke obscured part of the lake itself, as well as the surrounding hills, and the setting sun presented a queer spectacle, appearing as B blood-red orbit of fire through the jkaza. The sawmill at Koluku was reported yesterday to be menaced by bush fires, fend the Molloy’s Creek Mill, near 801 l (Hill was destroyed. The water tanks upon which many Coasters depend are becoming at low ebb. Many of the smaller streams and creeks are dry, and the dust clouds felong the roads, due to the abnormally 'heavy motor traffic, are as dense as the Smoke from bush fires. Therefore, there is presented the nnJisnal state of affairs of West Coasters graying for rain.