DESTRUCTIVE FIRES IN THE GISBORNE DISTRICT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15233, 21 February 1913, Page 4

DESTRUCTIVE FIRES IN THE GISBORNE DISTRICT.

. Sir,, — have all been shocked and grieved to read of the awful loss of property, the fearful sufferings of tho poor dumb animals which were roasted alive in heaps, and the toil, weariness, and discomfort of the burnt-out residents of tho fireswept areas. Many look upon it as a dire visitation, and somo even whisper the phrase: "Mysterious Providence," but let us look squarely at the matter, and we will see it is simply a case of "cause and effect," and a designed cause to produce a designed ■effect. From Moteu to Rakauroa there are, or at least were, half-a-dozen' sawmills, all working the dense native forest at high pressure and thus producing an immense amount of litter for the next bush fire to clear off. An army of splitters were also at work producing additional fuel for the expected spark, which never fails to come in due time. But tho greatest agency by far is the pastoral settler, who felled tho under bush by tons of thousands of acres, and ran a first fire through the forest primeval, thus killing the forest giants of a century's, giowth. These first fires b«a'nrr limited and local, are rarely _ dangerous, but they aire designedly preparing the materials for tho second _ fire, which will certainly arrive any time in from four to ten years, and which would do more clearing in a day than 100 men would do in six months, and this is tho fire wo have had now. These destructive second fires are thus neither accidental nor unavoidable, but are simply the grand result for which settlers have teen designedly preparing for a decade. The clearing work has now been done, and .jand. iho laud in two yearn or so

will bo "worth an additional £2 per acre or more. >Of course, a largo ' number suffer for a time who are not directly interested in land values, but the country becomes moro productive and prosperous on the whole, and the cptters and the swagmen will get their share by and by. and a, good sluj.ro, too, and 110 worry or responsibility. It is a necessity, of tho trade that the litter of the sawyer and the splitter must be cleared off, and there is no other known way. These second fires are thus not altogether a misfortune; they are oftener_ a designed success, and I speak as one who has been through the mill, both as a sufferer and as a settler, who also profited thereby. Old Bushman.