TREES WORTH £15,000

Hokitika Guardian, 9 January 1931, Page 1

TREES WORTH £15,000

FIRE AT BOTTLE LAKE RESERVE. CHRISTCHURCH, January 8. The plantation lire at Bottle Lake on Tuesday has resulted in the North Canterbury Hospital Board suffering a heavy financial loss. All- W. S. Wharton, secretary of the board, stated yesterday, after be had made a thorough inspection of the hoard’s reserves, that fully 175 acres of plantations had been destroyed. Tlie plantations contained trees oi‘ varying ages, from three years up to twenty years. With the exception of a few trees on the western side close to where the fire started none escaped the flames. Along Reeves Road all the trees seemed to have been destroyed.

Asked the value ol the trees damaged and destroyed hy the fire, Mr Wharton said that it would amount to between £15.000 and £20,000, It was estimated that a plantation about 35 years old was worth £SOO an acre. On that basis the loss suffered hv the hoard was a very substantial one. Air Wharton said that the hoard’s reserves at Bottle Lake aggregated between 190 and 200 acres, and with the exception of the area occupied hy the Infectious Diseases Hospital, all were planted in trees. The hoard employed a caretaker to look after the plantations, hut he was absent on holiday when the * fire occurred yesterday. There were, however, several othc. men working there.