To onlookers the blaze was pictures que to a large degree, not so much because of the billowing clouds of black smoke and the comparatively smaller flames, but rather from the staccato crackling, which at times resembled rifle and machine gun fire. The composition of most of the buildings was tinder-dry timber and old furniture, which once alight, burned with startling vigour.
After half an hour a truck from the Chapei Fire Brigade attended, but their efforts proved futile, the origin of the fire being too far from the creek for them to run the necessary lines, understood, will stay one week during which time they will inspect the front lines as well as the various feld and base hospitals where wound-jed soldiers are recovering,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.