Waikato Peat Firs Causes Much Damage

Northern Advocate, 19 January 1944, Page 4

Waikato Peat Firs Causes Much Damage

(Special) AUCKLAND. This Day. The peat fire in Rukuhia swamp in the Waikato has assumed serious proportions and extensive damage has been done to telegraph and telephone poles, to many chains of fencing and hedges - and to stock. The fii’e has its seat in a 500-*acre block owned by Oregan Brothers and has spread south and east. It ran within a few yards of the Rukuhia station and railway workers’ cottages were in danger. Heavy calls on the station Avater tanks saved the situation. Along the railway line south of Rukuhia telegraph poles Avere set alight and workmen from the Post and Telegraph Department have been busy for several days replacing poles nearly burned through. Thousands of Rabbits Killed Settlers at Rukuhia and Ngahinapouri Avere up all night Avatching the fire to protect stock, haystacks and plantations of gums. At one point on the road a fire was lighted as a backburn. The outbreak has not been an unmixed evil. It has burned off hundreds of acres of useless tea-tree and thousands of rabbits have been killed. Volumes of heavy smoke Avhich poured from the fire'yesterday and last night, presented an impressive spectacle against the setting sun. Motorists were completely hidden by smoke as they passed along the road Avhile northbound trains emerged through the pall south of Rukuhia station as through heavy fog. Peat fires are still burning- fiercely in the Rukaura and Monhvale swamps and the whole of the Waikato is enveloped in smoke and fog.