THE SITUATION IN RUSSIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2707, 31 January 1906, Page 25

THE SITUATION IN RUSSIA.

ST. PETERSBURG, January 24. Voters in all parts of Russia are profoundly disinclined to register for the Duma elections owing to the Government preventing the electoral campaign and to , the prevalence of repressive measures. The indifference is specially marked at Moscow and Odessa. High bureaucratic circles are freely discussing tke definite postponement of the Duma. The Times' St. Petersburg correspondent says that the Czar intends to grant a political amnesty to all except persons found in possession of explosives. January 26. The Russian Government is considering the initiation of vast public- works to relieve tke starving peasants. An American firm offers to construct the Baltic- Black Sea caiial from Riga to Kherstan at a cost of 40 million sterling. The police arrested several members of the Terrorist organisation in St. Petersburg, and seized documents showing that they intended to kill Couat Witte with a bomb. The large sugar refiners at Kief have dismissed thousands ef werkmen for holding advanced opinions. January 27. A number of sailors and some artillerymen at Vladivostock mutinied. They used quick-firers' and rifles, and wounded General Solivanofli (the commander of j the fortress) in the neck and ch«et as he finished parleying with them. Considerable disturbances and fighting took place In connection with the release of two prisoners. Ten mutineers were killed and 42 wounded. The revolutionaries at Penza informed M. Prosorouski, chief of the gendarmerie, that General Lisovsky had been assassinated by mistake, and that the error would shortly "be rectified by the assassination of 'M. Prosorouski. January 28. The rural police at Smolensk killed eight peasants for felling their landlord's timber, i Bands of Polish revolutionaries in the Stopnika district are disarming the foi esters end hanging the rural policemen. j The St. Petersburg newspapers allege that i the- military has interned 700 sane peop^ j in the St. Nichola Lunatic Asylum owing to the revolutionaries' tendency to brutally jmaltreat them. January 29. A quantity of dynamite and a number jpi electric batteries were discovered in % ■,

subterranean passage leading to the stream under the Kremlin, in Moscow. Two nuns, found in possession of bombs, were arrested at Tsarekoe Selo. The Matin's St. Petersburg correspondent reports that a plot against the Czar's life has been discovered. LONDON, January 26. Reuter's St. Petersburg correspondent states that the revolutionary movement iii the Caucasus is declining. A congress of Polish re\olutioni6ts, held at Finland, resclved to discountenance levolutionsry actiorf until April 14, when the. struggle will be resumed. i A VICTORIAN HEAT WAVE DISASTROUS BUSH FIRES. i TERRIBLE BUSH FIRES IN AUSTRALIA. HUNDREDS OF PERSONS HOMELESS. HEROISM OF AN ITALIAN. THE FIRE STILL BURNING. AN AWFUL SCENE OF DESOLATION. NEW ZEALAND SYMPATHISES. MELBOURNE. January 24. The hottest day in the city since 1862 i was experienced, yesterday, when the thermometer registered llOgdeg in the shade. There is a heat wave over the State, | accompanied by disastrous bush fires in every direction. The town of Daylesford narrowly escaped being swept away. The fire is now raging along the outskirts, with a frontage of 10 miles. It is feared the whole country between Daylesford and Castlemaine is doomed unless the wind abates. Many thousand acres of grass, and in some cases crops, have been destroyed. Shops and houses on the outskirts of Daylesford were burnt, and one man lost his life in saving his effects. Six children perished in the bush fires at Mount Fatigue, Gippsland. Others are missing. No further particulars are available. [A bush "tank" in New South Wales is a deep excavation into which surface water is drained. Many of them are as large a3 medium-sized reservoirs, and water is thus available for stock over prolonged dry spells.] January 25. • Hundreds of people are homeless between Foster and Welshpool. Owing to the de etruction of the telegraph lines it is difficult to get particulars. The fire swept the country with appalling rapidity, annihilating farm houses, outbuildings, stock, and crops, and cutting off in many cases the avenues of escape for the settlers at Woorara West. The* corpse of an invalid* was found in the centre of the road. Two settlers had been attempting to carry him to a place of safety, when the fire came roaring down on them. They struggled on, their difficulties being added to by the struggles of the sick man, but they made a desperate fight to save hie life. The time came when they had to abandon him, and to fight for their own lives. They managed to reach safety. No living thing could stand the heat. The unprotected animals dropped dead, and withered before the fiei'y blast. Twenty men, women, and childreH crowded a fourroomed house at Berry. All were more or less scorched by the heat. The deatk roll at present ie 14. The fire started at Toora, Gippsland, on Tuesday night to the west of the township. It swept round the Hoddle Range, devastated a stretch of timbered country, destroyed- many homesteads, and burned the new Methodist Church and State school. The flames, str-eeping up the rood, overtook six children named Lonsdale, whose ages ranged from three to 13 years, and suffocated them before their mother's eyes. Some children on the road from school became bewildered by the blazing country and the smoke, and rushed towards the fire and fell. One mother managed to save her baby y while her eldest daughter (17) was saved through getting into a creek during the fire. Great courage and resource were shown by a State school teacher, who placed 18 children under wet Blankets, and saved them all. "Whilst standing amid the suffocating smoke and flames, he kept throwing water or«r his charges. A bridge over the Agnes River caught fire, and is still burning. The flames leapt through the carriage windows of the midday train to Melbourne. Two more bodies have been found. They are those of two married men named Swan and Crisp. Several families are missing. Old residents of South Gippsland who have had many experiences of bush fires describe the present outbreak as the most terrible ever witnessed. I While not as widespread as the great fire of 1898, or as destructive of property, it transcends all others in the appalling loss of life and the awful swiftness with which it swept over the country. It rushed over farms and clearings in an avalanche of fire, the flames shooting I 150 ft high. It licked up forests of giant trees and dense scrub like magic. It was only a providential change of wind that i saved the tswrashia of Clemsoa.

The President of the Shire Council had a thrilling experience, and it is typical of many others. He was working some distance from the honse when he saw a wall of fire bearing down on him. He rushed home, but the flames had hold of the homestead almost before the inmates could get out. Eight took refuge in a galvanised iron tank, and with the aid of wet blankets managed to survive the fiery ordeal, although stock were dropping dead with the intense heat. January 26. The saving of the Clemson's family w?s largely due to the heroism of Clavarino, an Italian, who, when the house contiguous to the tank took fire, repeatedly extinguished the flames, although at each effort his own clothes were ignitedThe heat, became so intense that tli'e women grew hysterical, and had to be forcibly restrained from lunning straight into the flames. The fire is still burning. In the valley of Little Franklin there was one instance where the -family were saved through taking refuge hi a Well. Thirty-two families are utterly homeless. These are authenticated, but there must be others, as it was difficult in the chaos th.it existed to get reliable news. " ' The body of a man named Butter w<as found. He wa6 overcome when trying to reach a relative's residence. Round D*ylesford the fanners are constructing fire breaks. It is feared that if the wind freshens the fire will come westward. A man named La Franconi was severely buiyied, and died. At Nargeon the eucalyptus distillery was completely destroyed. At Mortlake an army of 800 men were engaged all day fighting the fire. Along the loads heaps of dead stock are to be found. Tli© country from Hillend to Neerim was laid waste on Tuesday. Practically all the settlers are homeless. The heroism 'of the schoolmaster Vales, at Toora, 6aved 28 children. He collapsed again and again, but went through a veritable furnace to get water to pour on the blankets. Vales, when interviewed, said the children obeyed him, and lay ilat on the ground. Another man and he kept the blankets wet. He got water from the burning school till it collapsed. Then he went through the blazing scrub to the creek. The boys helped him when the fire was at its worst. They ran into large logs, and covered themselves with wet blankets, and as the iogs caught fire they shifted v to other logs. The school children stayed with him all night. Nine bodies were burned at Toora. Yesterday Mr Scales and a party of labourers, while scrub-cutting at Binganwarrie, were surrounded •by fire. The horses wero ridden fiercely, but were so injured by the fire that they had to be shot. The men found a refuge in a, waterhole, which was gradually filled with burning' branches. They were in the water four hours. On© man, who became temporarily insane, was prevented by force from committing suicide- All ultimately escaped, but were nearly blind, and terribly scalded. The Government are sending £1000 to relieve the immediate necessities of the sufferers in Gippsland. * January 27. Mr Deakin and Mr Bent have received messages of sympathy for the sufferers in the Gippsland fires from Mr Ssddou. The fires are now abating, though a fierce one is raging in the back country around Foster, which, if a hot wind springs up, will devastate a hitherto untouched part of the country. The fire has left miles of blackened country, presenting an awful scene of desolation. SYDNEY, January 24. The heat continues. A terrific bush fire is raging in the Condobolin district, where great damage was done. Tullinga Station lost 20,000 acres of grass. A father and two sons, going to the assistance of neighbours, rode for their lives ahead of a wall of fire for seven miles. They found a tank and took refuge in the water for five hours. Two girls (the eldest 13) were arrested on a charge of starting this fire. The parents were also arrested for aiding and abetting. January 26. A Mrs Walsh, when returning from a visit to her mother, accompanied by her two children, got off tke track in th« Warren district, and wandered about In the dreadful heat. Both children perished of the heat and thirst. The demented mother was rescued. A HAZE IN SOUTH CANTERBURY. TIMARU, January 25. A thick brown haze in the atmosphere of South Canterbury to-day veiling the mountains has been attributed to smoke from the Australian bush fires.