STOPPING FOREST FIRES

Chronicle (Levin), 6 November 1947, Page 7

STOPPING FOREST FIRES

Press Assoeiation)

CIGARETTE SMGKER IS REAL MENACE

(Per .

WELLINGTON, Nov. 5. Mr. O. M. Bowilen (Karori) resuining tlie seeond readixig debate 011 tlie Forest and Kural Fires Bill in the House of Hepresentatives, stiid carelessuess on the part of the travelling publie was the ea use of most rural iires and a gooil many iires originated along roadsides. He said'it would be diffieult to enforce the provision in the Bill making it an oll'ence for people to leave .buriiing or smouldering substanees, lle thouglit there should be soxne responsilulity on the Main Itighways Board, eounty eouneils and other loeal bodies coneerned, to see that grass along roadsides should 1 >e kept i'u proper order and as scrub country was a fruitful souree of lires, he considered the Bill should mahe some provision for the eontrol of that tyjie of land. The Bill should also mahe elear if the Crou'u was Ijound, partieularly in regard to native land, eut-over areas, scrub land and raihvay locoaiotives. IM.r. Bowden saggested that the Fires Appeal Tribunal should be exteaded to include re[iresentatives of the Domiuion Forest Owners' Federation, Doininion Sawinillers ' Federation and the Counties' Assoeiation and that the Bill be referred to a seleet conimittee in order to obtaiu evidence froiu all alfected by it. Hou. W. F. Parry said the Bill was a comruonsense oue. it had cost X ew Zealand 11,000 dead and £000,000,000 to defeud the couutry from an outside euemy aiul expenditure should not be gradged to defeud the land from tlie uiside enemy — iire. Alr. Parry said he hoped to briug ia another Bill covering boroughs aad cities aad the co-ordiaatiou of the tvvo measures would give coinplete defeuce against Jlre in Xew Zealand. Mr. Parry said* the tiine had arrived when irresponsihle persons who threw cigarette hutts from cars, should he dealt with. "It is that type of person who is a menace to the country," said the Minister. "We should take every possible conceivable measure to defend our forests against attack hy Sre. The cigarette man is the greatest menace of all." Mr. G. TI. Maekley: Ihn with you u 1 1 Ihe way. Alr. J. A. AlcL. iioy (Fluthai said it was unfair that ouners of a property adjacent forest areas should be asked to bear Ihe cost of cutting lircbreaks rlthough it was riglit they should bear a proportion of tlie cost. .Mr. Puy stressed that many iires weri* started by raihvay engiues and said it should be possible to lit a scienlilie ilevi'-e wliich would call a lialt to tlie stream of lires started by locomoti ves. Alr. (t. F. Him (Waikatoi said eountry people were far more Iire conscious tliau townspeople. lli* ihought some of the lires in the Rotorua area last year were started by coais from gas producers on niotor cars. i uc 'iidiary bullets used by ileer stalkers were another possible souree of Iire aud the use of these bullets should be restiicted. Hou. ('. F. Skiuuer said the e had lieen prosecutions for the use of iucendiary bullets. Air. J. X. Massey (Frankliu) said the Bill created tlie impressiun t'mt the t'rown was asking the owuers of farm lands and also of private forests, to ]iav for the iire protection service for the Slate forests. The priliciples of the Bill had beeu dismissed for severn' years aud if tlie legislatiou could !)i imjiroved bv i'urther delay. it v. ould !ic wortli while to del'ty it. The, .Ministei of Internal AITairs had giveu some inilication that he had ideas for leghlation to eontrol lires in boroughs and Cowns and it" that were to in\'ol\i.' ttixing ju'operties to ]>ro\ide a lire-light-ing service. an imjiortant precedent would be created. .Mr. Massey urged more co-operat ion Oetweeu tlie State Forest Serv ice, the owuers oi' jirivati forest ry blooks and loeal bodies, whidi would liave to ndiuinister the new legis- , lat ion. Mr. ,1. .1. Maher (Otaki) said Iire had de-t royed more nnive tiinber in Xev. Zealand tinui ever iuul been milled foi building purjioses. Alr. W. II. (rillesjue (lliirunui) said he could not heJ]) feeling concern about Ihe Bill though he had to admit there was some reason, in ihe X"orth Island for the setting up of such a measure lle thouglit that the Bill would iay tin foundation of the building up of another huge State depart meiit. -Mr. ]*]. B. Corbett: As (lestructive as tlie fires. Mr. (Jillespie ([uestioned whether tin Bill would reduce the Iire ha/.ard aud said it was possible that all the oxcel lent w ork performed by forest ry oilicer.s would be takeu out of llieir lnuids. Position of Farmers. Arr. T. P. Slnuid ( Mariborougli > said , Ihe Bill was unsatisl'actorv so far as farming on particular classes of land was concerned. .Most of the buriiing-id'l could only be done in wliat the Bill de lined as a elosed seasou and burning was an essential part of farming o[»erations. .Mr. Skinner, replying to the debate, said it was obvious that every speaker was in symjiatiiy vvith the objeets oi the Bill but the iinjiression that tluwhole of Xew Zealand vvns to be deelared a iire district, was erroueous. There were hundreds of thousands oi acres wliich would never be ineluded in a iire district. The neeessily for farni ers to burn olf at chrtain times of the year was realised but if that farming land was situated within u Iire dis triet, then written permission would have to be obtained from a Iire oiiicer bei'ore the Iire could be lighted. Tlieia would be any amouut of counties not in iire districts. The Aliuister said the Crown was bound by tlie Bill as tlie ovvuer of land aiul the Iire autliorities had tlie right to prevenl certain operations. "But they could not stop the Alain Trunk, for instance, " added the Aliuister. He said there were only a fevv important points of dilferenee between tlie iuterested parlies and the (iovernment and he could not see any useful purpose being served by referriiig the Bill to a seleet comniittee to take I'urther evidence. The Aliuister said the original suggestion oi! a tribunal of three was adeipiate. Mon. ('. F. Skinner said the owuers of lirst cluss farm land should not have to pay for lirebreaks buf it was right that ihe occujiiers of seeond class land on which iires frequeutly broke out, could fnirly be etTf-cr A", .'itrib'.fe, t?

Alr. .Skinner said it had been hoped to j legislate siinultaueously for urban and ! rural iire eontrol because there was tlie I obvious need for coordination for tlu* i standardising of iireiightin'g et|uipnient. J etc. lle hoped the Minister of Internal j Aifairs would be able to bring down the 2 Urban Fires Bill next session. ] The seeond reading was agreed to. J