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Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LVI, Issue 8635, 18 December 1906, Page 5

A thousand men participated in the Victorian building trade strike, and on November 24th they each received 20s strike pay, as against £12,000 lost by them in wages.

Yesterday, in the presence of nearly 4000 spectators, the trouple of Fijians from the Island of Bega, gave their first performance of fire-walking. The fire was lit early in the morning, and the logs covering the stones in the pit blazed all day. In the afternoon the logs, etc., were cleared away, leaving the stones clean and at an intense temperature. At a given signal the performers ran from their place of concealment to the pit, and walked confidently and swiftly over the mass of hot stones, staying in the pit for a little more than half a minute. The fire-walkers knelt for a time on the mamwes which were thrown on _ the stones for the subsequent feast. Operations of filling in the oven were delayed somewhat by the surging and curious crowd. The oven will be open again ofi Thursday, when the cooked masawe eaten by the fire-walkers prior to ". second performance. • ' ilf ■