KAURI GUM SWAMPS.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17115, 9 April 1921, Page 8

KAURI GUM SWAMPS.

, — 9 — —, — . • . THE FIRE QUESTION. fSL'ECIAL TO ''THE JPItESS.") AUCKLAND, April 8. Vast damage -has been done in various years to State assets in tho way of the. swamps of tho .North" by tho. ravages of fires, sometimes caused by Occident, but moro.'frequently, starling from burning necessarily done, by gumdiggers, in order to clear away scrub to facilitate, their operations.' The Torotaniwlu swamp, near iiouhora, has been on tup tor tne last four or five months, anil, writer a traveller now in the North, is still burning, and thero are also tires in other swamps. When once a fire breaks out it usually con- j tinues right through the summer I months, and some have been known to extend far into the .winter. Apart from tho burning of gum, which.- usually* abounds in the northern swampy, there i.i still greater loss to the Donjinjon in the destruction of humus rendering the land practically useless for. agricultural purposes, for the usual experience is that the ivood which .permeates the soil of the swamp is destroyed down to tho water level. It is, of course, only the drained, or partly-drained, swamp.i that take fire, hence the necessity for assur-ing-that drainage works shall bo enrried out under a properly regulated system. When tho Kauri (}um Commission inspected one swamp iu the North on .Crown property last week they found that, a drain about a ijiile in 'length had been cut by gumdiggers, and was still being extended for the purpose of getting at the gum in the swamp without any consultation with the Lands Department authorities. One of the problems which has been committed' to the Commission for enquiry is, how the system of fiumdiggers' fires should bo regulated. The general trend of the evidence so far is that burning should be permitted oidy in the months from April to September or October; some witnesses also consider that it should be done under the supervision of officers to be appointed by tho Department, who should have charge of the • swamp in well-defined districts.