NEW SOUTH WALES.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume 4, Issue 59, 27 March 1851, Page 2

NEW SOUTH WALES.

(From the Geelong Advertiser, February 8.) The calamity which has fallen upon the farmers of the Barrabool Hills and the valley of the Moorabool, is so awful in ils aspect, so sinlr.tn in ils accomplishment, so lamentable in its consequences, that it can only be equalled in tltnu.pages of history where invading armies ate desrrilcd us laying countries waste with lire ami swoul. In the course ol a few hours the Inliour of many years has been reduced to nougtit, ami the stout hearts which have borne up hopefully against many reiorses, arc again cast down in de-pair. The highly ultivateil district which on Tim-stla* morning was teeming with the fruiis of har> est, is uoiv a b'ackenod smoking waste ; the stacks <•!'wiicai are reduced to litt'e heaps of cindeis; i|h> fences are only traceable liy the red line- of a-l.es; the sites .1 houses are here ami there only icognizable by ln'A| s of smou'deiing ashes, ov a lew solitivy s one or Ini. k chimneys. Where a hut has been saved, it is crowded by those who have no longer roo s of their own lu shelter them ; add although a manly fortitude sustains many ot the elder inm itcs, yet the poor children, wandering through the blackened fields, more truly give expression to the woe which possesses every breast. The calamity was one whii h defied precaution. The hot I.last and devouring Hume seemed endowed with Satanic life. Sow, the Hume coursed along the. dry herbage with the speed of a race hor.-e ; anon, it leaped into the branches of some tall tree, and the wind tore olflhe Naming limbs and cat tied them over roads and creeks; here, it s-opped a moment at the fence, and the posts and rails fell crumbled into charcoal; there the flame rati a'ong in tongues. Hiking up the stubble, carrying along the cars left by the glean, r. and throwing them into the stacks and thatuh; the cottllagration actually .streamed from hill top to hill-top, ami where ■ he stacks ha I been drenched with water, leaped over them, and hurried on it 3 course on the other side. Where man facd-the devouring element, he wits diiven back, and in more titan one install- e was laid pr. stride, and burned to a cinder in the open It 1 :s. It wuiildbf anohUdi'cd, in those whom the ruin lias not tea he I, by an inure hue ellott ot benevolence, to place the suf-

ferers as nearly ns possible in the position ' which they occupied previous to the cnhi--11 itv, by an adequate subscription t> reali're huts anil fences, nnd t > pine? n sufficient sum in the hands of tlie pour people to cnnlile them to carry on funning operations Tor the rcxt srason. The process hy wlii'-h this can he is holding a put'lit nieeti' g, organizing a suffii icoi system of rollrction, .-ippoiniinir a rnmiiiit'ee to inquire into the extent of losses, and to apportion the fund* subs ribed according to tlie exigency of particular cases. All this can and will lie done promptly. ii not that we kim« th.tt better men v»ilI take the tnnt'ur earn stly in hand, we won'tl, ourselves, nton-e, regardless of the usual firms, appoint an hou ami plare Tor the people to assemble. But the movemen' will not he the less iffm-timl for lieing more deliherate.