THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, JANUARY 27, 1908. RAILWAY LOCOMOTIVES AND GRASS FIRES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9041, 27 January 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, JANUARY 27, 1908. RAILWAY LOCOMOTIVES AND GRASS FIRES.

A railway engine spark-arrester has yet to be invented that, will provide an absolute safeguard against the danger of setting fire to dried-up herbage as the train rushes over drought-stricken territory. There have been innumerable designs in spark-arresters, and the best forms of them are used by the railway departments in Australia and New Zealand, yet grass-fires of a more or less destructive character are still traceable to sparks which emerged from engine funnels so protected. The trouble is to prove that a fire has so originated, and lawsuits by the victims generally end in adding to the J loss the litigant has already sustained. The Railway Department never views the matter in a fair light. It is always more*concerned in demonstrating the impossibility of fault on its side than in taking a reasonable view of probabilities, and is ever ready to raise some technical defence when all others fail. There is practically no hope of redress for the devastated settler whose ruin has resulted from sparks from a railway locomotive. In January of

last year a passing locomotive emitted sparks which destroyed several miles of grass and fencing, and burned down the house of Robert Washington, of Rangitata. Canterbury. A settler saw the flames break out in the grass of his own holding just as the engine passed, and the flames spread so rrpidly that nothing could stop them, and they completely destroyed Washington's homestead. Washington, a small settler, was ruined by the fire. His sworn declaration was that he was a widower with five children, and that he. and his family , only had left the clothes they ! escaped in, everything else being destroyed. The matter was brought before Parliament by petition last session, but the petitioner was too impecunious to visit Wellington in support of his application for compensation, and the committee to whom the petition was referred did not, as it might have done, authorise the payment of his expenses in order to procure his presence. The Railway Department put forward evidence which under the. circumstances could not be rebutted, and the committee reported that, it had "no recommendation to make." Members appealed from the floor of the House to the Government to take the matter into its favourable consideration, but the Minister for Railways (the Premier) "sat tight," and there the matter ended. The documentary evidence produced was of the clearest, and there is no doubt that the petitioner was the victim of a defective spark-arrester, and that the- State should have reimbursed him. The committee acted 'upon the fatit that a model of a spark-catcher similar to those in general use wfs produced and appeared to be effective. The spark-catcher used on the engine at the time of the fire was not put in evidence. On the 14th instant a somewhat similar case occurred in ,this district. It was reported in cur columns at the time, under the heading "Engine sparks and disaster." Mrs Alexander Buick was standing at the door of her resi dence,, Upper Opaki road, wat:hing the express go by. Immediately after it passed she noticed flames spring up in the grass paddock adjoining the line. Men were summoned to check the spread of tho fire, but their efforts were fruitless, and the best grass paddocks of Mr Buick and Mr P. W. Gaskin were ' swept by the flames, whir.b destroyed several hundred acres of grass and oats, consumed some miles of fencing, and charred the lower timbers of Mr Gas- . kin's residence. Several other settlers suffered in lesser degree by tl e outbreak. The fire was not unnoticed by the officials of the train, as on arrival at Opaki a telegraph message was sent from the station to Masterton, and a gang cf railway hands was immediately despatched to assist in extinguishing the flames. Are these settlers to have no redress? Will they be met with a model of a spark-catcher that will put them out of court? The evidence is clear enough to satisfy any ordinary person, and should satisfy the authorities. It is to be hoped when application's made for compensation, as doubtless it will be, that there will be a generous recognition of the fact, and a generous compensation for the evil. Brand new spark-catchers out of the Stores Department, and spark-arresters that may have been worn-out by long service, are two very different things, «nd the former should not be recognised as evidence. It appears probable tha 4 ; inspection of arresters is not as frequent and complete as it might be, and confirmation of this probability is to be found in the sparks which may often be seen issuing fx'om engine funnels during a dark night.