DESTRUCTION OF VALUABLE TIMBER.

Otago Witness, Issue 1834, 14 January 1887, Page 15

DESTRUCTION OF VALUABLE TIMBER.

A SCENE OF GRANDEUR.

(Feom Otjb Own Cokbespondbnt.;

Glenobchy (Head of Lake Wakatipu), January 10.

Extensive bash fires, one df which has proved the most disastrous calamity which ever befell this district, happened here last week, when the extensive bush at the Head of Lake Wakatipu, on the Kinloch side of the lake, caught fire, and which has been raging , ever since in all its fury. The bush is composed of noble birch and totara trees of very considerable girth, * rom which the timber supply of , the district has for many years been exclusively obtained, both for mining and building .purposes ; so far down country as Clyde and Alexandra was the timber sent, both places as well as Cromwell depending upon the bush at the Head of the Lake for all timber except firewood. . The timber trade, which by the destruction of the bush is almost completely ruined, employed between 80- and 100 men, and furnished the chief cargo for steamers trading between the Head of the Lake and Queenstown. The bush destroyed covered all the country lying at the foot of Mount Bon Plane, extending from the Dart to the Greenstone river, and measuring it along the undulations of the ground it cannot be le6s than 10 miles in distance. Allowing the width of the timber from the lake to its upper boundary to be 2500£t, it may be accepted that, roughly speaking, not less than 4000 acres of valuable timber has been destroyed. The loss cannot be computed at a money value, as it has almost completely ruined an established industry upon which both the farmers aud the miners depend for one of their chief supplies in the prosecution of their respective callings ; besides which the splendid forest with its orchids, lichens, and ferns, and which was the chief attraction of tourists to this quarter of the district, and the trees also formed a conspicuous and pleasing feature in the landscape', which will be, positively disfigured. The black and bleak appearance of the charred giant skeletons of what only yesterday were stately trees, swayed by the breeze in graceful movement, sheltering countless native and acclimatised birds, and in the umbrageous shades of which lovely and rare ferns and other botanical specimens of interest and value grow in profusion — all this has given place to a scene of desolation and ruin, as hopeless and heartrending as only the fire fiend can make it.

The fire originated on Wednesday last about 7 o'clock, and has been raging with unabated fury ever since. There is now, however, some hope tbatthe Greenstone river, which, wifchits beaches and sandy bed, is nearly a mile in width, will interpose a barrier sufficient to stop the further progress of the conflagration ,'WI that thus the bush of Mount Nicholas to the south of the Greenstone will be spared. Little is known of the origin of the fire, which commenced at Birrell'a in the Dart Valley, and driven by a strong northwesterly ' breeze down the lake swept everything before it. The scene of the fire during the previous night is described as appalling in the extreme. It must be borne in mind that. the forest covered the 6teep, almost precipitous, slopes of Mount Bon Plane, one tree standing above another, and that for the past three weeks the weather here has been the hottest and driest, and consequently the most parched upon record. Under these circumstances it ' was impossible to stop the conflagration, and all efforts to limit it proved in vain, strenuous though the efforts and numerous as' the willing hands were. The smoke from the green timber was most suffocating, and many narrow escapes from the overpowering effects of the heat and smoke are recorded. A, number of woodcutters' huts have been destroyed. The exact number is not known, but two families have been rendered homeless. Many of the woodcutters lost large quantities of firewood already cut, representing months of labour. It was only .with the greatest difficulty that the 6awmills a.nd Bryant's Hotel at Ktnloch were saved, the fire reaching to the very garden fence of the hotel. The furniture was removed in all haste, but a change of wind saved the buildings. The tourists staying at the hotel were taken by boat to Glenorchy as a point of safety.

The grandeur of the scene on the successive nights is described as both magnificent and appalling. Hundreds of acres at the same time were a roaring, seething mass of flame, lighting up the glaciers with a spectral light before which that of the moon -paled. Through the hungry sough of the flames and the crackling of the burning timber was heard every now and again the crash of the falling giaut trunks, and whole flusters of' trees sending up through the lurid smoke showers of brilliantly glowing sparks, which in their descent resembled a train of fire. A gentleman returning from Glenorchy by steamer, who had seen some of the most gorgeous pyrotechnic displays in London s assured' me that, making every allowance for the magnitude of the local fire, he had never seen a sight so truly dazzling. On Saturday night the fire steadily crept along the ground under thesfielter of the trees, suddenly to burst forth through the f oliage,and with the roar of the increased draught consumed in almost less time than it takes to relate the incident everything within its reach,- the flames shooting up in a solid column of fire hundreds of feet in height.

Such a scene reflected in the lake, which lay like a mirror at bhe foot of the awe-inspiring spectacle,canbe betterimagined than described. In the day the aspect of affairs is a very different one; a smoky mist envelopes as in a pall the whole mountain, over the Bide of which at short intervals columns 6f smoke are curling up like so many f umeroles. ' At Kinloch the beach is still strewn with furniture saved from the destroyed buildings and taken from the hotel. Fortunately the wind is not blowing in very constant gales, but is rather fitful, so that although the lire is> still far from.being exhausted there is some hope that it will soon cease. At present it has reached a very critical pomt — namely, the month of the Greenstone Valley, — and it simply depends npon the direction the wind may take during the next few hours, whether or not the whole of the Greenstone and Caples valleys will be swept clean of every vestige of timber by the fire fiend. >

Bash fires of considerable extent have also been raging at Stony creek and Moke creek, and have not yet burned themselves out. The smoke from these fires has at times been almost suffocating in every remote part of the district, and the heat frequently was oppressive. Skeleton leaves have been picked up at Arrowtown, about 40 mile's from the site of the fire, and a lady at the same place was almost frightened into hysterics by the sudden darkening of the gun, which looked like a ball of lurid fire fen times its natural size.

Mr Ranger Adair is on the gui vivc as to the cause of all these fires, anil will make a strong effort to detect the culprits v.'hen culpability c?n bepro-vad.