Says Diggers Lit Puhi-Puhi Fire Deliberately

Northern Advocate, 20 December 1945, Page 8

Says Diggers Lit PuhiPuhi Fire Deliberately

A timber contractor in the Whakapara district when the great Puhipuhi fire of 1887 occurred, Mr. W. Johnson, of Whangarei, has contradicted some statements which appeared in an article on the subject published recently. The theory that the great conflagration was due to carelessness on the part of a gumdigger was not correct, he declared. The diggers deliberately lit the fire following an order from the Government to leave the forest district. i Neither was the statement correct that the 4,000,000 feet* of timber on the skids burned, he said. The skids were never endangered, but 21,000 acres of bush were completely gutted. In his opinion creek water would never have been sufficient to quell the outbreak, even if it had been in big supply. The flames passed from kauri top to kauri top, travelling 200 or 300 yards at a time. Mr. Johnson also challenged the estimated cost of the timber burned. In those days it was worth about lOd per 100 super feet, and even at pres-ent-day prices he did not think it would be worth the £4,000,000 as stated.