The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1906-05-19
BUSH FIRES IN AUSTRALIA.
THEY HAVE CAUSED GREATLOSS
OF LIFE AND PROPERTY.
Many Disasters This Year-Rapidity
With Which the Flames Spread
Fires often Started by Poison Used
to Kill Rnbbits-SOme Narrow Es-
capes and HerOism.

| hAres OIten started by Poison Used
to Kill Rabbits-sOme Narrow Es-
capes and HerOism.
Drought and bush fires are the twin
| dreaded enemies of Australia PASTORAL
lists and agriculturlsts, and of these
they are always standing in bitter fear.
Heavy floods may occasion serious
disasters, but the areas devasted by
these are Of comparatively limited ex-
tent, whereas the ravages of either Of
| the two other evils may extend over
the greater portion Of a state, as in the
| case of the tremendous fiery outbreak
| which some few years ago enVeloped
the Victorian rural district with a
| raging mass of smoke and flame, reH-
dering Black Thursday a date to be
! ever remembered with sorrow by hun
dreds of Industrious families who found
! themselves suddenly confronted with
suffering and ruin, necessitating their
beginning the battle of life afresh.
There have been not few similar
disasters since then, writes a Sidney
correspondent of the London Globe,
and the earlier weeks of 1906 have
| found the sister states of New South
Wales and Victoria waglng desperate
battle with the fire fiend, who has eve
rywhere been threatening the farmer s
| ohmestead and the selectors hut alike
with destruction.
In Europe such widely spread out
breaks are practically impossible, the
country being too largely interested by
| roads, canals and railways; besides he
ing divided into comparatively small
areas by lofty hedgerows, eInbank-
ments, bitches and streamlets. In Aus
tralia it is otherwise. If fire breaks
| out in a patch of dry grass there is
nothing to prevent its spreading with
lightning-like speed for very many
miles. Fences, as known in England,
are not to be met with in the common
wealth. neither are the stone wallis so
common in many parts of Great Brit
ain, fences Of barbed wire or wire net
ting being in universal use,
Although designated bush fires" the
outbreaks are by no means confined to
the bush, which is the Australian term
for forest. 1t is rather the other way.
After period of drought the grass
springs up with marvellous rapidity, Of
ten to the height Of three or four feet,
and even more, furnishing a secure re-
fuge for rabbits and all kinds of animal
pests. It is the same with the cereal
crops. But directly the hot summer
sun commences scorching everything in
the field the moment Of danger has ar
rived. A single spark may kinde a
confiagration beyond human power to
extinguish. 1t is estimated that within
the last few weeks between two and
three million acres Of pasture and agri-
cultural land in New South Wales and
Victoria have been swept by the mer-
CHESS flames.
The two leading causes of bush fires
are the employment of phosphorus for
rabbit poisoning, and the careless use
of 'vestas," or wax matches. The
phosphorus, no matter in what form 1t
may be applied, Is readily ignited by
the suns heat, and 1t has frequently
been suggested that some kind of SUBJ
stitute should be utilized during the
warmer months of the year.
AS regards the use of wax matches,
attempts have been made, but unsuc-
cessfully to secure the prohibition of
their sale, save during the Australian
winter months. A lighted match
thrown carelessly down the other day
by a tramp after lighting his pipe
started fire which consumed more
than thirty square miles of pasturage
and growing crops. Recently man
was sent to prison for month. He
was sitting on the roadside on his
swag when he lighted his pipe. Imme-
diately afterward he found his swag on
fire. He endeavored to beat off the
flames with his hat and shirt, but in
vain. Had he not been badly burned in
the effort to undo the mischief he had
caused, he would have received a
heavier sentence.
In another case drunken man set
fire to patch of dried grass In TWEEN
ty-seven different places. Fortunately
his attempts were witnessed by cou-
pie of laborers, who trampled out the
ignited masses before the flames could
spread Scores Of such cases have
been reported, and there is good reason
for fearing that several of the most de-
structive CONGREGATIONS have been will
fully occasioned, especitlly by disap-
pointed swagsmen.
AS illustrating the rapidity with
which the flames sometimes travel, it is
stated that when the mail train left the
Victorian border recently for Sydney
the fire on either side of the line kept
pace with it for several miles.
On another part of the railway the
flames spread at the rate of twenty
miles an hour. In the neighborhood of
Apollo Bay, Victoria, storm of wind
sent the fire onward at the speed OF a
mile per minute.
The losses of live stock have been
enormous, and millions of rabbits have
been destroyed In one place the
flames showed an unbroken frontage of
nearly thirty miles. Where not en-
gagged in the struggle for life, men, wo-
men and even little children were found
engaged as fire fighters. Near Gunda-
gal in New South Wales, the live stock
on one of the stations was saved by the
women folk attired in mems clothes,
the father and brothers being absent.
A thousand acres of grass and miles of
fencing were, however, destroyed.
There has been a sad loss of life, &C.
casioned chiefly by inability to escape
the embrace Of the all devouring ele-
ment. Near Toora, in Victoria, six