BUSH FIRES

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 13 December 1926, Page 11

BUSH FIRES

AUSTRALIAN CONFLAGRATIONS SPREADING IN N.S.W. LIFE AND PROPERTY LOSSES. BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION-COPYRIGH" Received 12.45 p.m. to-day. SYDNEY, Dec. 13. Further mes-sages from the southern and western districts emphasise the seriousness of the bush fires. Enormous damage has been done. Nearly half .the State is affected. Scores o p farmers have lost the fruits of years of labour. The losse-s include dwellings, outhouses, machinery, crops, pastures and stock. In some- '■’rts tbe flames travelled a-t the rate of forty miles per hour, going through farm after farm. Reports from Alhurv -states that the total loss in that district exceeds £50,LOO. in the Wagga district practically evei-y, farmer in a strip of country five to fifteen mites wide for. a distance or thirty miles suffered serious Jo sees. The township of Adelong is threatened bv fire advancing upon it. A fatalitv is reported from Junee, where it is said the. fires are the bigo*est ever seen in the district-. " At Milton tbe timber mil; 1 , was de-str-oved despite a fire-break which was prepared round the mill. A large number of men will lie thrown out of employment. It is impossible t-o estimate the damage done in the western district. There, too, the- tes® of -stock is heavy, as well as the loss of standing crons and bagged wheat. Two men are reported missing near Forbes; also two others near Elongelon.g. *