THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 1908. DROUGHT AND FIRE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9030, 17 January 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 1908. DROUGHT AND FIRE.

Few pel-sons could read the accounts which have been published during tiie past five or six days of the disastrous bush and grass fires which have been ravishing: the Wairarapa Valley and Bush Districts without a feeling of deep commiseration for the many settlers who have suffered heavy loss, and those'who are still threatened with the destruction of property. An unusual period of drought j and excessive heat had transformed I the verdant fields of two months I ago into parched and withered hold--1 ings of a highly inflammable character, and during the latter part of last week and the whole of the present week innumerable fires have broken out, devastating enormous areas of country, destroying many thousands of acres of grass, and scores of miles of fencing, besides depriving the stock —the mainstay of the outlying settler—of its niaans of sustenance. A dun pall of pungent smoke now covers many hundreds of square miles of territory, vividly suggesting to those whose homes are out of the reach of danger, the anxieties, sufferings and privations of the settlers within the fire areas. It is reported 'that the lire front in the Wairarapa dis-

tricts extends for over 100 miles, and all along its course families and farm bands are heroically struggling to save homesteads and property, or to check the progress of the flames. The accounts of the forest and grass conflagrations which we have published show the courage and fortitude under terribly trying circumstances of the men and women who are battling with the flames. Fortunately no dwellings have been burnt owing to the heroic efforts of the settlers to save their homes, but some milling property and many outbuildings have been demolished. Happily, also, there is, so far, no record of loss of life in this district. What the pecuniary loss is no one can say; but it must be very severe. To all those who have suffered or whose properties are I threatened the warmest sympathy will be extended. We can'only hope that out of the present nettle danger will spring the futare flower safety —that "some scul of goodness" may ultimately be found in the "things evil" of to-day.