FIRES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21280, 10 March 1931, Page 10

FIRES.

RESIDENCE DESTROYED. (Pee United Press Association.) .GISBORNE, March 9. Fire destroyed the residence of Mrs Violet Walworth, at Kaiti, the family having to escape in their night clothes. The insurance was £IOOO on the building and £425 on the furniture, with the State office. OUTBREAK IN CATHEDRAL. INCENDIARISM SUSPECTED. (Per United Press Association.) NELSON, March 9. Soon after midnight the outside wall of Nelson Cathedral, an old wooden building, which is still being used while the new cathedral is in course of erection, was discovered to be one fire. The brigade was soon on the scene, and had the flames under control before they had gained a hold. Had the fire gone a few feet further the organ would have been burnt. Incendiarism is suspected.

OUTBREAK IN KAURI FOREST.

FIRE STILL SMOULDERING,

(Special to Daily Times.) AUCKLAND, March 9. The fires which broke out on the north-eastern boundary of Troufison Kauri Park on Sunday, February 22, are still smouldering in the forest floor in the affected areas, but there is no danger to the rest of the forest unless very, strong wind springs up. The forest floor is composed of resin and decayed vegetation which make the fires as difficult to extinguish completely as if they were burning in a sawdust heap. Mr O. N. Campbell, Commissioner of Crown Lands in North Auckland, said the only thing to do was to keep a constant watch and suppress any open outbreaks. An investigation of the forest shows that while practically no timber was actually destroyed by the fire the trees in an area of seven or eight acres have been so badly scorched that they are certain to die in time, and will have to be cut out and milled. Approximately 100,000 superficial feet of timber will be affected. The forest is estimated to contain about 15,000,000 superficial feet of timber.