BUSH FIRES.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XX, Issue V, 29 January 1898, Page 122

BUSH FIRES.

Heartrending are the reports which come to hand of the terrible bush tires which have raged during the jxist week or so in every part of the colony. In Hawke’s Bay, in Pahiatua. in Nelson, in Taranaki, in Canterbury, in Manawatu, the damage done cannot yet be even roughly estimated, for not only is the immediate loss enormous, but the loss of feed and fodder means that, quantities of stock—sheep, cattle, and horses—will have to be sacrificed, since there is. and will be. nothing to feed them on. As for the story of individual loss and suffering, it will not l>ear thinking of. The tale from every part of the colony is the same, but the press reports cannot give even the smallest idea of

the suffering and privation which must lie endured for many months and even years by the unhappy settlers whose homesteads and property have been utterly destroyed.

But for the rain which fell at the end of the week, it is hard to say where the devastation would have ceased. Our artist. Mr Watkins, has endeavoured to give those who live in safety, and to whom such experiences are happily unknown, some idea of what a bush fire looks like in its earlier stages. To attempt to pourtray the scene when the devouring element has assumed full sway would be to court, failure, but our illustration gives a very fair impression of the scene when the fire fiend has begun to reach the edge of the bush and to lick up the outstanding trees with its everhungry tongues of flame. As will be noticed, many of our correspondents make reference to the fires in their letters.