FARMHOUSE RAZED

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 18 January 1935, Page 9

FARMHOUSE RAZED

' PEAT AND SCRUB FIRES SPREAD

MENACE IN THE WAIKATO THOUSANDS OF ACRES SWEPT. (By IftWgripH—Trees Association; HAMILTON, Jan. 17. Widespread peat anil scrub fires are raging in many parts ot the W aikato. Powerless to cheek the devastating spread ot the flames, Mr E. L. Burr, bharcmilker. Newstead, wnteheil his home reduced to ashes when enormous peat lires spread over the property last evening. The farm, which is owned by Mr G. Crossley, Rukuhia, has been turned into an arid waste as the result of the steady advance of the flames from an adjoining swamp peat fire menacing a thousand acres in the Newstead district. Much of the land is of a swampy nature and extends from the railway line to the main Hamilton-Morrinsville road. The settlers have been compelled to remove stock and leave their homes to the mercy of the ad\ ancing fires. At the end of a clay road which runs far into the swamp from the main highway, Mr Crossley’s property of 400 acres lies devastated. It is surrounded by a waste of arid peat and only about 50 acres of pasture remains. The icmaiuing 350 acres -is a treacherous smoking desert upon which it is sate for none to trespass. Yesterdav Mr and Mrs Burr mcic powerless to fight the spread of tue flames and were compelled to remove furniture and other belongings and take refuge in a whare in a more secure part of the farm. Mr Burr was not prepared to lose his home without a struggle and for hours he toiled in the smoke and heat to check the advance of the Are by digging a deep trench. His work was of no avail, however, as the flames passed inexorably on Soon it became impossible to approach the house on account of a deep layer of burning peat. While he watched lus house being razed to the ground Mr Burr set about the more practical tas.i of saving other buildings on the farm. At the present time strenuous eitorts are being made to save the milking shed, which is in danger. After many rainless weeks the fires have reached alarming proportions in the districts surrounding Hamilton, hundreds of acres of pasture having been destroyed and other large tracts of farmland being threatened m ever* direction. , . Ihe smoke-shrouded countryside indicates the sternness of the light with which the settlers are faced to save their land from the fire menace. Homes are endangered and the work of years has been ruined by the widespread outbreaks. . The Newstead swamp fires continue with severity and thousands of acres have been made desolate. »-.n nianv properties the land lias been burned down to the subsoil and the el ay is showing in huge irregular craters-'. Road traffic to swamp area is is almost cut off and at one tlie fires have eaten away tally halt ot the narrow clay roadway. Farmers in the district are working from davlight to dark with spade and plough, digging a. huge drain which it is hoped may etop the) spread of the flames to then homes. . , Nearly all those in the stricken aiea have given up hope of saving much ot their land. On the Eureka side of the swamp road a handful of men are anxiously stamping out, any spread of. the flames bevend the shelter-belt fringing the road Pastures in a tnuler-dry condition need only a spark to make for an enormous conflagration through miles of feitile country.