AN AUSTRALIAN DISASTER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7703, 4 January 1905, Page 2

AN AUSTRALIAN DISASTER.

Ruin Wrougbt by the Fires. AH APPALLING TALE OF DESTRUCTION. SYDNEY, Jun. 2. The township of Delegate is circled by fires. The country has been swept for miles. Birds dropped dead in the heat, and over a thousand sheep perished on Ral>ert son's Mimosa station. One niuu was severely burned, and another is missing. The Cunningham I'luins station at Murrunrburrah lost forty thousand acres of grass. A sheet, 1 of lire 10 miles .wide is sweeping the Garnnguta Station, a nd many sheep and cattle have perished. The mountain rango along the south coast is ablaze for miles, giving a grand scenic effect as seen from passing vessels. The lire lighters arc having a terrible time. Whole townships huve l»cen engaged for days in the battle, and many persons ure completely exhausted. Several unconfirmed reports are current of persons imissing. Fires are still raging furiously for many miles around Gundugai, a wide area of grazing and agricultural lands being devastated. The damage is estimated at hundreds of thousands sterling. At Maeandcra thousands of acres of grass and miles of fencing were burned, and the Gronggrong, Dundidgarie, and Uuckingbotig stations und the Coobamundra and Muttamura estates swept. One farmer lost a hundred acres of wheat, and others sustained smaller losses. At Branxton the thermometer stood at lift degrees. Foi miles the country Is ablaze, and many fanners are ruined and homeless. Similar reports came from Carcoar and Billgrove, and in the district around Mossvale farms wcro swept for miles on both sides of the railway by a seething mass of flomes. A township in the Sutton Forest was surrounded. The Government astronomer predicts an early change, and the extension of the rain from the southern States-