DOMINION NEWS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 40, 15 February 1913, Page 6

DOMINION NEWS.

FARMER' FIRES NEIGHBOUR’S HAYSTACK. (Per Press Association.) ' Dannevirke, February 15. Last evening, when the bush fires were raging, a haystack belonging to a-farmer named Hans Bai was destroyed. Suspicion fell on one,- Thomas C. Kershaw, the occupier of the acljoining farm, of having set the stack alight as revenge for the destruction of his stack through the alleged spreading of the fire from Bai’s farm. Kershaw was drunk at the time, and kept guard in the vicinity of the -stack with a loaded gun until the stack , was consumed. Before Mr S. E. McCarthy, S.M., this morning he was charged with arson and attempting to discharge a loaded gun at Charles Bai. Accused admitted setting fire to the stack, and having taken the gun to return the fire of Bais’ if they shot at him. Accused pleaded guilty to the arson, the charges of attempting to shoot being dismissed, there being no evidence supporting it, and was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. " THE BUSH FIRES. Gisborne, February 14. Matawai reports that the fires burned steadily throughout the night. The situation is yet dangerous, The countryside is devastated. A good fight \i'as put up by settlers day and night, and many are exhausted. 'William and John Clark’s homestead ’ was Surrounded by fire, and sheep were roasted in heaps within sight of the helpless owners. Abbottsfprd 'Smith lost 1200 and John Clark 1100. Other settlers’ losses cannot he ascertained till the fire clears. At the timber mills the hands have been fighting the fires with bucket brigades and hose from the boilers for twenty-four hours, and so far have kept the fire at bay. Large stacks ot building timber have been lost.