Grove Banger in Canterbury Forests

Northern Advocate, 7 January 1948, Page 2

Grove Banger in Canterbury Forests

CHRISTCHURCH, Wed. (P.A.)—Humidity in the Balmoral State Forest in North Canterbury yesterday dropped to 19 per cent, 1(1 per cent below the fire danger level of 35. With the prolonged drought conditions and much growth as dry as tinder, the State Forest Service is maintaining a constant lookout for fires which might destroy thousands of acres of valuable plantations and surrounding farm crops. In the Eyrewell State Forest the danger is so great that the acting Conservator of Forests (Mr W. H. JollifTo’ has invoked for the first time the powers of the Forests and Rural Fires AH. 1947, to prohibit the use of roads through the forest by all except owners of property on the south side of the forest. The Eyrewell forest is about 19,000 acres in area and is continually surveyed by a lookout from a 100 ft tower.

With telescopes the officers can scan 20 miles in every direction and can give map references of fires to the headquarters of the service in the forest, where fire tenders are maintained. At Balmoral the country is more hilly, and from a vantage point on the hills a lookout is maintained over an area of about 25.000 acres.