FORESTS OR ASHES?
THE FIRE FIEND IS ABROAD The oft-repeated appeals to the public to help in safeguarding forests from fire are well supported by a poem ■which the Forest and Bird Protection Society lias received from Miss Geraldine Baylis:— ' ,
Smoke, thick and Cast, From dry grass, Someone has dropped a match — Still lit— It is not seen, the flame Spreads a little, checks a little, Dancing on. Pretlv thing, wicked thing, creeping through the leaves, Running here anil there, gay little sorties, Crackle, crackle —a stick to burn. Soon devoured—loo soon. What more ? Crass and leaves, a fern frond, Dancing, darting: tongues of (lame. Quicker, quicker, flicker, flicker, The first tree, lick its hark, Climb its trunk, find the branches. On to more. Then the roar of a fearful menace Comes with il:e billowing smoke. And all the forest trees and all the forest birds Are helpless in its path. Fire, fire, terror of the ages. Sweeping to destroy. Puny man who started it Is powerless to retard. And all the years of Nature's work Are murdered in an hour. The match, When quenched at last by rain, displays A blackened land laid bare.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BPB19391108.2.11
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Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 85, 8 November 1939, Page 3
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195FORESTS OR ASHES? Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 85, 8 November 1939, Page 3
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