THE DUNEDIN CATASTROPHE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 3561, 9 September 1879, Page 3

THE DUNEDIN CATASTROPHE.

FURTHER PARTICULAR 3.

DUNEDIN, Sept. 8. Before tho bell rang the fire got a firm hold, and spread to tho whole block, which was -densely peopled. Mr Waters was the first to escape, and he thinks there were 30 people in the building. Soon after, John Taylor jumped from the top of ft window, 30ft, and died twenty minutes after. J. Metz, j-sweller, next escaped by a door uninjured. A woman named, Annie M'Fadyen, then jumped from * second storey window into a blanket held her by persons below. Sho was injured, and conveyed to the Hospital. Deans, cook at the restaurant, crawled along the spouting till he was able to enter a room, where lie found a clothes line, by which he a let himself down to the street, ■calling^ on others to follow. Ladders were brought, the fire escape not being available, and some women were rescued from a window -of the burning building with great difficulty. The scenje was terrible, and tho cries of those inside could be heard plainly. When the fire waa got sunder by tho Brigade, tho work of clearing (the debris and recovering tho bodies of those who were known to have perished ■commenced. Soon tho bodies of Mr Itobort "Wilson, aged 59, editor of the Witness, hiß "wife, keej >er of a draper's shop and registry -office, am L three children (a boy and two girls) sren ditemvered huddled together near a bed, tat bun ed beyond recognition. Before this two of their daughters, Louisa and Lilian, ag >d 16 and 11, had escaped, one alightly, t he other severely injured, and sent to the I ospital. The noxt body found was that of a bootmaker, named Swan, and thon the searc hers came across the remains of a joung wo man, not identified. Tho body of a man, sop; loscd to be George A, Martin, was next disc overed in a bedroom occupied by him, and shortly after thrao o'clock another body wiui recovered. It waß that of an ■elderly/man, but sj charred that it could not be y^cognised. Tho body of ono of the massing Wilson children cannot be accounted for. It is actually known that ten persons have perished, but it is believed that tho loss of life is greater. There is no clue yet to the origin of the fire. The insurances, so far as they nro known, are a.i follows — Union £1000, Standard .£IOOO, National £1400, Norwich Union J8L450, Victoria £200, lfanseatio £100, United £500, Haw»burgandMadgob';rg £700 ; total £6800. Waters estimated his loss at dß3oOover his insurance (£iOO). All those who were lodging on the premise? lose everything. Mr Litollf, music teacher, was the ■only ono so situated who was insured. 4Vr<m the Ota a. Correspondent oftho L<jl' ' an Time*.) The following is an nccou;-' ■■: ren to a Daily Timrs reportd*, by t«i> young men, named Grant and Jo !dnson, who occupied a room belonging to ilv Wilsor, and fronting the street off tho third store.', being that at the corner next to the Athei oam : — Next to their room was ono ocoupic I by Fred and Wilson, then coino v. room occupied oy Lil/, ond Sarah Wibon, and the aervan; Maggie M'Carthy ; and noxt to this room, directly opposite the stairway, was Mr and .Jura Wilson's bedroom, in which thoir son Ctipbanfc also slept. On the opposito side a tlie passage was a long room looking to fch« tac£, in which four servant girls, -waiting fov^pbeea at Mrs Wilson's Registry office, slept. Grunt was awoko by a cry of "Fire" and roused Jenkinson. They lit a candle, and found the room full of smeke. Looking out of tho front window they easy- tho flames coming out of the cafo windows on the ground floor. At tbe eama moment, two man, evidently boarders at the cafe came to their door attracted by the li^ht and crying, " For God's sake show us an outlet." Grant opened the door, and ■ the room filling with smoke and teat, he and Jenkinson made for the passage. Neither thought of their watches underneath their pillows, nor did Jenkinson remember ■a purse with about £6 in it on the table. Orant was fortunate ouough to pink up a pair of troupers in which £2 were. He also as he was going out of the door picked up another pair of trousers and his volunteer carbine and ■cutlass. Both tried to explain to the two men to "follow them and they would show them the stairs. Ono of tho men caught hold of'Jfnkinson and held on till nearly at the top of the etuira but then let go. As they • reached tho top of the stair a tongna of llamo was roaring along tho passage. How they reached the bottom floor neither knows, but •after getting outside aud having a breath of f-fresh air, the subject of wh it had become of the two men and of tho childron was broached. The two agreed to go up stairs again, and i they described the heat as something fearful especially on the centre floor, they did get up, Grant leading. Just on the ■landing Grant found Louisa Wilson whom he took in hia arms. It was impossible -•to go >any further, and another scramble <down Btaiva succeeded. Buth stato that when they turned to go back they despaired of reaching the bottom again. How- • over, they did so, both getting burned on the hands, and also on the face slightly, with tbe addition of a good deal of singeing about the '■hair. On the way down they met three policemen attempting to make their way up. t-gtairs, but fcho9e wero unable to get beyond -the first landing, where they snng out to attract the attention of those above. Grant "took Louisa Wilson to the Ootngon Hotel. In -the meantime, Lily Wihon had got out of her bedroom window and had laid down at full upon the parapet below the window sill to escape a tongue of flame coming out. •.Jenkinson saw her, and a blanket having been ; sot, he called out to her to throw herself • down. Sho did this, but striking an archway over the street door, Bhe gave a rebound outside the blanket and fell on the jpavement. Jenkinson picked her up, and carried har to the Octagon hotel. She was ■quite sensible, and complained of her back. While Lily was at th 3 window some ono camo -out of Fred Wilson's windo»v. Jenkinson 'believes this vro3 JVod Wilaon. Ha clambered along the parapet till he reached tho corner, and when Jenkinson went away with Lily he was hanging on to it by the hands. Neither •Jenkinson nor Grant, who was also one of tho four holding the blanket for Lily, saw any--thing of the other Wilson childreo, nor of Mr and Mrs Wilson, nor of Maggio M'Carthy. They did not Bee anything •either of the four servant girls, who slept in the long bedroom opposite to theirs, so that possibly ono of the adult •women lying at the Hospital may be one of these servant girls. The young men them--selves escaped with nothing but coat and trousers. The late Mr B. Wilson was nearly 60 jears of ago. In Mb youth he waa connected with American newspapers. 1 believe he •started the Advertise)' in liiglewood, Victoria, -and oonduoted it with spirit and profit till the fire ia 1862 left him a ruined man. Shortly afterwards he was induced by Sir Julias (then Mr) Vogcl to come to Dunedin, aud on arrival here ho found employment in, the Daily Times office, tbon partly owned by Sir Julias. Mr Wilson was for a great many years publisher of that paper, and vacated tho position about four years ago to conduct tho Witness, the -editorial chair of which ho filled up to tho time of his death. Mrs Wilson was nearly 40 years of age. Tho ages of the children who perished- with them were — Frederick, 19 ; Robert, -10; Sarah, 8; and Lawrence Oliphant, 4. As to the origin of tho fire, there seems to be little doubt that it broke out) in a sittingroom at the back of the dining-room, on the eecond floor. Mr Waters states that immediately before retiring to bed he visited this room, and although there was a firo then in the grate, it had almost expired. Great «xoitemant prevailed all day while the search for the hocho3 continued, and the " extras " iisued periodically by the papora were largely nought for.