FIREWARDEN'S REPORT. 23 



INCREASING PROPORTION OF SMAIJ, 



There is no one feature of the work done by the Forest Fire 

 Service more indicative of the improved forest fire conditions 

 in the State than the fact that during the year 45 per cent, of 

 the total number of fires reported can be properly recorded as 

 not forest fires. Figures show that of the 528 fires reported, 

 239 were put out before they had burned so much as five acres. 

 It thus appears that nearly half of the fires of which the fire- 

 wardens knew were reached in time, and handled in such a way 

 that they had no opportunity to do appreciable damage. This 

 emphasizes the increasing activity and efficiency of the local 

 men. It indicates further an interest on the part of the people 

 in general through which the wardens are enabled to learn of 

 fires promptly and to obtain assistance in the numbers necessary 

 to check them while in the smaller stages. The significance of 

 this feature of the record is self-evident; not alone in the reduced 

 loss of property which it assures, but in the consequent lowered 

 expanse entailed in fighting small fires, even if numerous, as 

 compared with the bills for extinguishing conflagrations that 

 are allowed to gain headway. The fact that the number of 

 embryo fires is still maintained though large fires grow steadily 

 fewer is but a natural outcome of the restriction of the fires to 

 smaller areas. Where heretofore a fire has burned a large area 

 and rendered that specific location immune from fire for the 

 season, and perhaps for the next season as well, the same areas 

 now present a catchment for numerous small fires, requiring 

 greater vigilance perhaps, but of far less consequence as con- 

 sumers of time and money. 



