A SETTLER'S EXPERIENCE

Otago Witness, Issue 2815, 26 February 1908, Page 31

A SETTLER'S EXPERIENCE

(From Our Own Correspondent ) WE7LLINGTON, February 20. Onco again, after the cool southerly, we are experiencing calm, warm weather. The sun rises and sets in a smoky ha/.e. Yesteiday there were gra-\e fears of the Ma-kerua Swamp flax lands bong swept by fiie, which would mean a loss of hundreds of thousands of pound*. One firm alone (Siefert's) haie an area* of 4400 acres, valued at fully £120.«00. Hundreds of mm are engaged fighting the incipient fires and keeping watch. Extraordinary precautions («ays a Post reporter who visited the scene) have been taken to avert damage. Huncrreds of men arc doing nothing else but watching and patrolling by night end resting in relajs during the day. All the buckets in Shannon were bought up days ago, and columns of the=e utensils, stuck one inside the other, aro arriving from the city by each tiain. Hundreds of buckets are filled with water and kept in , c , er^ e a t different points to drench the first =ign of fiie amonarst ihe flax. The fire-fighters al-so conceived the idea of making fla-K out of fork handles and thongs of stout Ira [her tackrd to the end. With Ihis primitive but handy weapon they attack the smouldering fires in the flax lands, and a \erv useful instrument the flail has proved to be. Asked if they thought there would be further trouble. both Herman and Webb (Seifert's foremen) stated they thought the fires had now been mastered. Fortunately water is not scarce ]ii the creeks and <lraine, and these -are now boing blocked up as an additional precaution. The buckets and flails in the hands of willing employee< are the best friends the millers have. There is absolutely no hope, however, of totally extinguishing the fires. Nothing but a heavy fall of rain will accomplish thi«. Further south a few miles inland from Waikanae, the settlers are having a bad time. One of the residents writes: — "We are ha'wng a fearful time here. The whole place is on fire, sweeping everything bpfore it. Mr G. A. Burling'a cottage, with its contents, was burnt 10 the ground There w;as no insurance. Carter brothers' two bridges over the Nga-tiwa are gone, as well as the cowshed and silo pit, containing about 20 tons of winter feed. Several other settlers have Jost sheds fend hay, besides chains of fencing. When I was over at Burling's, they were trying to save their new house, but I do not know whether they were successful or not. You cannot see a chain before you. The children from, Ngatiawn could

' not get liome from school, and had to bo put up by the settlers. Sheep and cattle are supposed to have perished, and a number of settlers have not milked their cows, i as there was no chance of finding them in the smoke, and tho fire was too close. I am staying up all night, and can scarcely ccc out of my eyes. It is now 1 a.m., Wednesday, and tho wind is djing down. The sight is magnificent. The whole place is lit up, and but for the havoc that i 3 being wrought, one would be glad of the chance of witnessing such a spectacle j News from Taihape states that hundreds i of sheep and cattle hate been roasted in the bush fires. February 21. The smoke from the bush fires in Welj lington to-day is worse than it has ever been before. At the moment of writting (5 p.m.) ono cannot see fiom Parliament Buildings beyond the tvhartee and the Town Hall tower. The air is so charged with smoke as to be decidcdlv unpkasait, and countrysettlers to the northward must sFill be having a most unpleasant time. Some are suffeung from temporary blindness. Many of the beauty <qiots across the harbour are being destroyed by the fires, and the pretty birch bu«h at Day's Bay — a | favourite holiday resort — has been, and indeed still is. in groat danger. I Shipping along the coast >•> being dolaved by the dense smoke, which obliterates well-known land-marks. a gentleman who has just come ovei from Nelson says tho inland country ther« is in a deplorable condition. Dr Bell (Director of the Geological Survey) and his party had a pretty rough time at tho head-waters of the Karamca, and had to go on short rations. j 'When the coach eamo through to Raej tihi last week tho passengers had an 1 exciting time, and they i oil a ■'ad story of I the plight of the s^ttlei-s. One woman, i nearly blinded h\ tho «mpke md suffering j greatly, had tr?-. cllcd lo the chemist's to get something for her ovp=. She had left her c'.ldren in a (rone h so'ue little distance uom the house for safety, only (o find, after making the 'journey to the chomiiL, that owing to the spread of the fires ahe could not get back to the children that night. ' February 22. I An insurance manager estimates that • cmite 500 settlers have been burnt out in the bush fires a heady. i For some veeks past Wellington has been enveloped in smoke, except when a souihorl- wind is blowing. The fire has now '-or into the last reninants of the bush left in tho hei'Lou". and for several davj I Ihe smoke has been so thick that na\ ignition le rendered difficult.