Mill workers also condemn the Commission for neglecting to ensure that adequate dug-outs were provided, a neglect which undeniably censed a number of the fatalities.
After a tour of the ravaged areas, the State Premier, Mr. Dunstan, has acceded to the request of the Labour Party, and a Royal Commission has Leen appointed to investigate the cause of the fires, and possible means of preventing similar disasters in the future.
Meanwhile, the light rains which finally put out the fires have passed, and there is still no sign of the breaking of the drought.
Incaleulable Loss An incalculable loss has been the destruction of some of the most beautiful scenic roads and tourist resorts in the State, on which man; people engaged in the tourist ani transport industries depend for a livelihood. Equally serious has been is the destruction of vegetation on catchment areas which supply the reservoirs serving Melbourne and other large centres of. population with water, and it is ferred that indirect losses from soil erosion will in the long run prove greater than the direct damage caused by the fires.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.