MUCH FLAX BURNED

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 257, 20 January 1928, Page 14

MUCH FLAX BURNED

LARGE AREAS SWEPT HAURAKI PLAINS LOSSES (From Our Own Correspondent) PAEROA, Thursday. Swamp fires on the Hauraki Plains since Christmas have destroyed over 6,000 tons of millable flax and an equal amount of immature leaf and rendered over 1,600 acres of flax land unproductive for the next three or four years, with the consequent lack of employment of from 50 to 60 flax-workers. Tuesday’s fire, which at the time was thought to be doing no damage but rather good in removing scrub, was found on Wednesday when a closer investigation was possible to have destroyed a block of 200 acres of Stateowned flax, on the eastern bank of the Piako River, opposite the Patetonga landing, and many smaller areas in the tract extending between the Piako River and the Awaiti Stream. The fire had spread rapidly, leaving many gaps which may be burned if a change in the wind causes the fire to spring up again.

Another fire is raging on the block now being drained immediately south of Kerepeehi, but there is still too much smoke to see its extent. There is much flax on this block, though some 600 acres, containing about a thousand tons of millable flax, were burnt recently. Much of the flax burned since Christmas belonged to the Awaiti and Tahuna millers, and the demand for the lease or the cutting rights over the Crown areas was apparent by the numbers of enquiries received.