BUSH FIRES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9037, 2 March 1908, Page 5

BUSH FIRES.

' """ RAGING AROUND KAITUNA,

Masterton's day was turned almost into night, yesterday afternoon, in co"sequence of a fresh breeze from the Tararua slopes bringing in its course the blinding and suffocating smoke of a big bush fire which raged in the Maungatarcra Valley. The lower hills looked very pretty on Saturday evening, fiery beacons stretching along for miles south of Matahiwi. The fire burnt fiercely in the Kaituna district, especially in the immediate vicinity of the schoolhouse, and a large tract of grass country was devastated. Sonie of the settlers have already passed two nights without going to bed in order to guard their property, and as the worst is not yet over all hands expect a very anxious time until the fire burns itself out or the Jong-looked-for rain comes to their relief. The smoke all through the district was almost blinding, and to those who had to bear the brunt of the fire fighting it made their task little short of torture. Other losses are reported, the most serious being the destruction of two small bridges which were built by the settlers over the tslack Creek.