C.—3

With a view to ensuring as far as possible that an effective field organization is available to combat any outbreak of fire which might be beyond the capacity of a normal staff to control and which might threaten to develop into a major conflagration, arrangements were made with all Government Departments concerned for the assistance and co-operation of available field staffs, equipment, and transport and communication facilities. When such an emergency does arise it is, of course, vital that all necessary assistance should be forthcoming immediately, and most field officers have accordingly been instructed by their respective Departments to respond to the call of local forest officers. The New Zealand Railways, which is notable amongst the Departments in a position to render practical help, made the necessary internal arrangements for the Service to receive the support of the entire local Railway staff concerned, while special precautions were effected in the dumping of ashes and in burning off on Railway land. The co-operation extended by all Departments is gratefully acknowledged, and should the occasion arise it is confidently anticipated that the precautions taken will go far in averting what might otherwise develop into a national disaster. Important in the suppression of fires in their incipient stages is convenient communication, and authority of the owners of telephones in the vicinity of important State forests was secured either for the use of the telephones or for the relay of messages to the nearest forest officer. Necessary extensions of the firepatrol service were made during the year, and in the Tongariro district of the North Island a considerably strengthened fire prevention and control organization was established, including the erection of hut accommodation at suitable points for patrolmen and the erection of telephone communication facilities between all points in this hitherto practically isolated region, but which with improved access has become a popular tourist district. In the Kaingaroa State Forest of the RotoruaTaupo district good progress is being made with the installation of radio transmitting equipment to supplement the existing telephone communication system, and it is anticipated that this will be in operation during the next fire season. An additional forest lookout station was erected to deal with the Hurunui River-bed boundary of the Balmoral State Forest in Canterbury, and further lookouts in other State forests will be erected from time to time as deemed necessary. One trailer-type power-driven pump was added to the fire-fighting equipment. 41. The scheme envisaged for the prediction of hazardous conditions in the principal forest areas has advanced a step further. Eighteen fire-hazard-recording stations, representing an increase of seventeen, were in use throughout the spring, summer, and autumn months in several major indigenous-forest areas and in the principal exotic forests. In addition to the immediate application of the readings to determine relative hazard in the individual forest areas, they have a wider usefulness : upon reaching a point, regarded arbitarily as dangerous, the relevant readings are telegraphed to the central co-ordinating station in Wellington. Under the normal conditions in this country such a danger-point is reached only in the mid-afternoon ; in the event of very hazardous conditions being unrelieved by a dewy night, the 9 a.m. readings of the following morning are of particular interest. All related features, including wind force, are discussed in conjunction with the Weather Bureau's forecasting staff, and, when necessary, radio warnings are broadcast. The equipment described in the 1939 annual report has proved very satisfactory. A new instrument, an inexpensive cup-type anemometer to give instantaneous records of wind velocity, has been under trial and may find a place in future expansion of hazard-prediction facilities. The comparatively mild fire season had not been conducive to the development of a fire-hazard-rating chart for future guidance of forest officers. For new hazard-indicator sticks, Pinus strobus has been preferred to the timbers previously employed, as it conforms most nearly in moisture-content changes to the vegetative fuel type most prone to carry fire. 42. The comparatively small damage sustained by State forests and other forested areas included in fire districts is again a significant endorsement of the protection afforded by the authority of the relevant provisions of the Forests Act, 1921-22, and regulations.

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