THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, MARCH 3, 1908. BUSH AND GRASS FIRES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9038, 3 March 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, MARCH 3, 1908. BUSH AND GRASS FIRES.

Four months' drought, and the bush and grass fires that have spread so much devastation and loss far and wide among settlers in so many parts of the dominion, require the earnest consideration of the State in order if possible to devise some means to minimise the disastrous results of future like occurrences. Even under normal conditions great damage is sometimes done and litigation often ensues as between neighbours who may suffer by fire. The burning oft' of bush and scrub when felled is absolutely necessary to the breaking in, grassing, and cultivation of large areas o? land in New Zealand, but it is quite a debatable matter as to whether sufficient care is exercised in performing the work, ancl due regard had to the proper time of year to do it. The ordinary custom is to fire bush and scrub during the month* of January, February and March, some settlers advocating one month some another, the weather conditions obviously having to be taken into account. Many settlers affirm that it is a mistake to bum off so early as January, as the land cannot be sown in grass for some time, and that valuable munurial matter in the ashes are blown off the soil and lost. Perhaps as a general rule, from the

middle of February to March may be accepted as the most suitable time. In new bush districts the first fire through the fallen timber is not the most dangerous, net being so likely to spread to adjoining properties. After the bush has received its first baptism of fire and the grass seed sown, a period of a few years elapses before another burn takes place. The softer woods, such as white pine, tawa, and many others have then become decayed, and with the grass dry and abundant, all circumstances tend to produce a great conflagration. By accident or design the fire starts, the least wind carrying flakes of rotten timber and sparks in all directions, causing ignition on neighbouring lands and spreading over wide areas of country. Thus the second fire is 4 generally conceded to be the most dangerous of all by practical settlers, but in the long run beneficial as clearing off a large amount of logs, stumps and other debris. Some of the greatest fires experienced have been occasioned under such circumstances. When bush lands have undergone this second ordeal of fire it may be considered fairly immune from further risk, but still it is not entirely so. Some settler see 3 fit to light a rotten stump or logs early in the season perhaps, the embers of which smoulder for weeks until the hsrbage, as in the"present season,, gets parched and as dry as tinder, a wind arises,, and then a fire is spread with alarming rapidity, causing, the demolition of buildings, fencing,, and everything inflammable. The first two burnings, of busli lands must be almost looked upon as essential to the ultimate welfare of the settler, but how far the third is so, when only a few stumps, and logs remain, is a most moot point, and one worthy of a good deal of thought. A settler has only a few logs, etc., to clear, and the pastures; are in an inflammable condition —is he justified in causing a fire whichi may do incalculable injury to not only his immediate neighbour, but to a whole country side? We think; that under such circumstances the individual who is the prime causs of such a catastrophe should be in some manner made responsible for his action. Fires are caused in various other ways, such as sparks from railway and traction engines, and the careless use of matcher, or wilfully by malicious individual". We have mentioned that the subject is so importantjthat it should receive attention at the hands of the Government, and the law should be amended so that the conditions under which "burns" are conducted should provide for reasonable security to neighbouring ho'dings. If it can be found practicable, regulations should be made fixing the time when country may be fired. Individual settlers can do much to minimise the risk to property by fire, by clearing along fenco lines, removing all logs and inflammable material from and about buildings, ploughing furrows across fields, and around stacks. It has been suggested that settlers in bush areas would do well in the first instance to erect all buildings in iron, letting the sheets into the ground so as to avoid flakes of fire getting under the floors. During periods of drought it might be well to provide that no tire should be lighted for bushclearing purposes without a permit issued by some responsible officer ' after due investigation. The whole question, however, demands careful consideration on the part of the .Minister of Lands with a view to legislative enactment.