DIOCESE OF CHRISTCHURCH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIV, Issue 38, 15 January 1897, Page 19

DIOCESE OF CHRISTCHURCH.

(From our own correspondent.) SERIOUR GRASS FIRES.

On Sunday last much excitement was caused by the fires on the Port Hills, which have been burning intermittently since Thursday last, and which on Sunday last assumed serious proportions. Th« fire appears to have started — how is yet unknown — in a clump of fir trees in the Cashmere Hills Domain, which comprises about 180 acres, and to have travelled about six miles. Mr. W. Moon, lessee of the property, did all in his power to prevent the fire from spreading, but in a very short time the whole of the grass and fencing were destroyed, as well as the belt of trees surrounding the domain, and the only thing left standing was the house. Fanned by a strong breeze the flames spread in various directions, and they have devastated a tract of country fully two miles broad. Both on the Cashmere and Messrs. Morton and White's property a large number of sheep have been burned to death, and one of the shepherds on the latter estate had a couple of dogs burned to death while endeavouring to save some sheep. The dry bush on Mount Pleasant has also been completely burnt down. Fully twenty miles of fencing have been destroyed, and the damage done to feed ia very serious as there is no prospect of the grass growing again until the spring. It is about nine years since the last big fire on the Port Hills, and then the damage done was not nearly so great as on the present occasion. Men were out watching all Sunday night last in case of a fresh outbreak. While the fire continued great efforts were made to keep the conflagration from spreading. Some property owners at the foot of the hills on the Christchurch side, with the object of saving their places, started fires. The result was that the Cashmere party, who were working hard to extinguish the flames at the top of the hill, were caught between two fires, and for about an hour they were in a very perilous position, one of the men almost succumbing to the effects of the thick smoke. On the Cashmere estate the fire was not got under control until some 1 „"»00 acres of land had been burned, and but for the great exertions made to check the spread of the flames at Opawa, the Heathcote Valley, on the hills near the Bridle Path and in other places much more damage would have been done. On the Lyttelton side the fire at one time threatened the township, but the local fire brigade, under Foreman Snowden, went to the spot, and, after a hard fight, got the flames under and averted any danger. The fire burned right down to several of the Governor's Bay homesteads, but did no damage beyond destroying feed and fences. During the fire a large number of hares and rabbits were often seen running down the «purs of the hills ahead of the flames. Indeed, so panic-stricken wito some of these cieatures by the fire that many of them wen 1 noticed early on Monday morning last wandering about the stroots in Kydenhani and in other suburbs near the hills.