N.S.W. WHEAT FIRES

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 February 1937, Page 14

N.S.W. WHEAT FIRES

MAGNIFYING GLASS & MATCHES. NARRANDERA, February 9. The discovery of contrivances for causing fire, by the action of the sun s fays in wheat crops at Euroley, was described to the Griffiths Coroner (Mr. A. Savage) to-day. Witnesses stated that they found magnifying glasses fixed so that the sun’s rays would strike through them on to boxes of matches.

The coroner held an inquiry into the cause of a fire in stubble adjoining the wheat crop in Earnest J. Watts’s paddock at Euroley, on December 27, 1936; also a fire in the wheat crop of John Richard Buchannan, a neighbour of Watts, of Euroley, on December 28. Evidence was given that at about 10.30 on the morning of December 26, fire broke ouf in Watts’s paddock, a portion of which was stripped. A man was working on a header in the crop some distance away at the time Watts and others put the fire out. Watts said: “These things don't start on their own account. We have to look and see if we can find a cause.’’ A party made a search of the spot where the fire started, and a man named Donald Bornholt found a contraption consisting of two boxes of safety matches along which were two sticks affixed by nails on top of a piece of magnifying glass, which was apparently a reflector from a bulldog lantern. The magnifying glass was focussed on to the match boxes. The matches had been ignited and the glass and boxes scorched. A motor car was seen driving slowly along the road about half a mile away on the previous night, but no evidence as to who might have placed the contrivance there was obtainable. The adjoining crop was insured. s In the case of the fire at Buchanan's, which destroyed about four acres of wheat crop, an investigation was made and match boxes were found, also a glass reflector, apparently from an electric torch, several live matches, and two pieces of stick. The matches’ were behind the box, which was resting on a clod and one stick. The other stick was resting on the box. The glass rflector was about two feet away. None of the matches had been affected by the fire. Police expressed the opinion that the glass was not the cause of this fire. The coroner found that the fire at Watts's property was cause* 4 by the contrivance found, but that it was placed in the stubble by a person unknown. The Buchanan tire was not caused by the contraption found, but the evidence did not enable him to state the means by which it was caused. It had also been caused by a person unknown.