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PREVENTION AND CONTROL OF FIRE. 
PREVENTION AND CONTROL OF FIRE. 
THE INTEREST AND DUTY OF ALL. 
Every up-to-date forest service provides systematically against the risk of 
loss by fire. Forests are intersected by roads or by wide open fire-breaks. Open 
spaces, other than public roads, are either ploughed or closely grazed. Outlook 
stations are established and maintained upon bill-tops commanding far-reaching 
views. Telephones connect these stations with each other, and with the central 
administrative office. Depots for housing tools and other fire-fighting appliances 
are placed at convenient intervals through the forest. At a few suitable places 
beside the public roads there are constructed safety areas where small fires may be 
lighted for boiling water. Visitors are put upon their honour to see every spark 
extinguished before they leave. Forest officers have power to expel or arrest 
irresponsible and careless trespassers. The public are encouraged to regard the 
forest as their own property, and freely to lend their aid in protecting it. 
In the State Forests of the Rotorua-Waiotapu region, organization is now so 
complete that the whole forest and nursery staff could be mobilized against an 
incipient fire within half an hour from the first alarm. 
Syndicates entrusted with the capital of investors should emulate the State in 
keeping fire risks down to the lowest possible level. Private planters can mini¬ 
mize risks by placing their plantations where they will be surrounded by cultivated 
or closely-grazed paddocks. 
Efficiency in fire prevention is never fully reached until we forecast the driest 
summer and the most violent wind. Provision for showery seasons, or for average 
seasons, is not enough. We must make it impossible for fire to destroy our trees 
when the sky has long been swept of clouds and the grass beneath our feet is like 
tinder. 
A fallacy too generally creeping in amongst tree planters is the assumption 
that thick-barked trees will not be injured by fire. What we know from experi¬ 
ence is that thick-barked trees can endure fire better than thin-barked trees. We 
do not know, and have no warrant to affirm, that trees of any species will remain 
uninjured if their external bark is destroyed by fire or other alien agency. It 
will be nearer to the truth and much safer, to assume that trees of all kinds will be 
injured and weakened in value by having fire about their stems and beneath their 
branches, even though their crowns may escape. Many trees will succumb to one 
burning; the most resistant will he ruined by repeated burnings. 
An even worse fallacy is the assertion sometimes made that devastating fires 
are inevitable. It has not been proved to be an incurable necessity that railway 
engines and traction engines shall sow the wayside with sparks. It has not been 
shown that the man who uses fire to clear his land cannot confine the flames within 
lus own boundaiies. It has not been suggested that travellers and picnickers are 
to be excused when they throw down still burning matches into dry grass. No one 
pleads tolei ance foi the miscreant who wilfully lays fire to his neighbour s pro¬ 
perty. Risks from all these causes could be promptly reduced if the mass of the 
people had the will to reduce them. The need is for an annual campaign of instruc¬ 
tion and appeal from parents to children, from teachers to scholars, from the Press 
to its readers, and from the Government to all the people. 
