FLAX SWAMP BORNEO

Northern Advocate, 8 April 1931, Page 4

FLAX SWAMP BORNEO

FIFE-FIGHTERS’ BATTLE. ALONG MILE FRONT. HEAVY LOSS OCCASIONED. (Special to •‘Northern Advocate.*’) AUCKLAND, This Day. One fire which swept the whole of the flax area in the Torehape Swamp on the Hauraki Plains on Friday destroyed 660 acres of standing flax, comprising about 9000 or 10,000 tons of jnillable leaf,' which will take about five years to replace. The lire is still burning. Mr C. Ingram, who owns a flaxmill in the vicinity, stated that although the lire was discovered early there was ho chance of stopping it, as the flames spread with alarming rapidity, owing to the high northerly wind prevailing. The 25 men employed at the mill were called out to cut flre-breaks in the swamp, but the flames travelffed through the dry peat and flax faster than the men could work. The men were forced to retreat and make a further attempt, but before £hey could cut another break the lire had reached them. Gradually they were forced back until the flames had swept through the whole property. The fire travelled along a front over a mile long and the men could not check it. A house belonging to a settler 30 i chains from the swamp was menaced ' while the lire was at its height, the outbreak sjjreading right up to the ; building. Fortunately the direction of - the wind changed before! the house s was reached, and the flames spread "in • a different direction across the adjoini ing property. The mill and machinery 1 were never in danger, being 60 chains from the swamp. I After burning off all the flax and j the dry peat and old timber in the j swamp, the lire continued to smoulder 3 and had not burned itself out yester--3 day. It is thought that the outbreak . will not ba finally suppressed until i heavy rain extinguishes the peat. Mr Ingram said the cause of the i lire was unknown. On several occas sious in the past two months burns dS . adjoining lands had endangered the i swamp, but had been prevented from y spreading into the flats. On this bceaf sion none of the neighbouring settlers 15 were earryng out burning operations. The area was considered one of the most valuable in New Zealand, having produced in one season as much as 380 tons of hemp, valued at £II,OOO. It would now be necessary to close the mill for at least four years, while 24 men would be rendered unemployed; A previous mill on the same property ' was burned in 1908.