THE LATE FIRE.

The hasty account given by us on Tuesday morning of the fire, which was only partially extinguished when our account of it wat published, leaves little to be said in the way of additional particulars, as these are furnished in our report of the public meeting, held on Tuesday evening, and in our report of the inquest, held yesterday. Tear after year we have endeavoured to impress upon the citizens of Nelson the ruin which impended over them, if they persisted in neglecting those means which are adopted in all civilized communities to suppress fires ; and although warned again and again of the hollowneas of their security — that because no fire had ever occurred in Nelson beyond the destruction of a small isolated building, no wide-spreading conflagration was to be apprehended — no combined action to form a fire brigade here has ever yet succeeded. Two years ago, when a detached cottage was burnt down, the agents of the Insurance Offices and a few others were stimulated into an amount of activity sufficient to discuss a measure for organizing a fire-brigade, which was laid before them, but the subject was not pursued, and in a little time all interest in it was lost, and the scheme abandoned. The burning of a dwelling house or two, at intervals of two or three years, has evidently not proved sufficient to stimulate the people of Nelson to engage actively in organizing a fire police. Will the destruction of eighteen houses and other property, altogether of the value of upwards of £15,000, operate more powerfully ? We trust it will, and that it will not need a still more severe lesson to induce those measures to be taken, which, had they been in force a week ago, would have saved many thousand pounds worth of property, and averted the ruin of some of the victims of the fire on Tuesday morning. Had the fire broken out in a corresponding position in Trafalgar-street, to M'Gee's house in Collingwood street, the destruction of property that must have ensued is frightful to contemplate. As an order has gone to England for all the requisites for giving the city a direct water service, we hope the people of Nelson will do their part, and enlist a force which shall be capable, with the means at our command, of rendering such another scene as our city now presents, an impossibility. The best supply of water possible, unless properly made use of, is no .security againßt the spread of fire ; but an efficient body of men, properly directed, may do much to lessen danger which they cannot avert. Thiß fire affords a notable example of the old story, of " that which was everbody's business, being nobody's business." Although both our fire-engines were kept in the street in which the fire occurred, at distances from the scene not greater than from 300 to 500 yards, it took half an hour to get either of them on the spot, and when there, still further time was lost before the necessary hands were found ready to work them.

On inquiry, we learn that the only insurances which had been effected on the houses destroyed, are as follows: — In the Liverpool and London, and Globe Insurance Office : Mr. M'Gee, £1,200 ; the Temperance Hall, £400 ; Hooper and Company, on Eoyal Hotel, £500 ; J. Pratt, £125 ; E. Burn, on Mr. Beattie's residence, £150; total £2.375. In the New Zealand Insurance Office : Mr. Field, on Mitre Hotel, £600 ; Mr. M'Artney, £150 ; Mr. M'Gee, on Nelson Hotel, £500 ; Mr. Laney, dwelling house and shop, £250 ; total, £1,500. In the Victorian Insurance Company : Mr. Laney, house and shop, £200 ; Mr. Barnes, crockery shop, £200 ; total £400. In the Northern Insurance Office: Mr. Condell, £1,300; Mr. M'Artney, £400; Messrs. Hooper and Company, on Koyal Hotel, £300 ; total, £2,000.

Mr. Tatton's chemist shop, which fortunately escaped, was insured for £200. At one time it was thought that it would be impossible to save this latter building from destruction ; nor could it have escaped but for the coolness and pluck displayed by several persons, who, climbing up to the roof of the house, kept.it drenched with water, which was handed up to them in buckets from below. Whenever an ignited particle fell on the shingles, it was at once extinguished, and not until the studs of the adjacent house, occupied by Mrs. M'Artney, had been cut through, and the burning mass had been made to fall away from Mr. Tatton's premises, did they leave their post. Mr. Wigzell, Mr. Josephs, and several others, were engaged at this work; while on the roof of Mr. Touet's premises, adjacent to the Temperance Hall, similar useful measures were being adopted. Two or three times the roof of Mr. Touet's house caught fire, but was extinguished by Mr. Conway, assisted by Mr. Phillips and Mr. Priend. The heat and smoke in their position must have been more trying than in other parts ; the building which they were working to save was in the direction of the wind, and the fragments of burning wood, sparks, and volumes of smoke, which the gale hurried in masses round them, rendered their position a most dangerous one. The result was, however, that, whilst the Temperance Hall was soon a mass of ashes, Mr. Touet's house, with only a small space of intervening unoccupied ground between the two, escaped. The force of the wind, and the distance to which it carried the blazing pieces of wood, may be imagined, when we say that the inmates of houses situated on the other side of the Maitai, in the Wood, were obliged to keep their roofs flooded in order to prevent them from taking fire. In the short and hurried account we gave of the catastrophe, we did not mention the positions which the fire-enginestook up on the occasion. At least hall' an hour must have elapsed after the first discovery of the fire before one engine (the smaller of the two) was at the scene ; and, when on the spot, the only water to be obtained was from the tank at the back of Mr. Gore's house, in Bridge-street (through which the hoses were brought), and from the wells at the back of the neighbouring houses. The feeble jet thus supplied was not sufficient to be of any great service; and it was not

until authority was given to demolish the necessary houses in Bridge-street, that it was possible to say where tbe fire would stop. "When the G-overninent engine arrived, its hose was placed in the main sewer in Trafalgar-street, and it was used to feed the smaller one, which was on the spot. A. strong and continuous • supply of water was thus obtained, which, if it was powerless to save those houses which had alreadj caught fire, kept the roofs of the adjoining houses wet, and lessened the danger of itt further spreading. The origin of this disastrous fire will probably never be ascertained. At the inquiry yesterday, the evidence was of rather a conflicting nature, but we are glad the jury were able to come to the conclusion, that its origin was accidental. The following is a correct list of the houses burnt, but others were more or less injured by being. pulled down : — Mr. M'&ee, Nelson Hotel, newly erected, corner

of Bridge and Collingwood-streets, south Bide ; Mr. Porthouse, Koyal Hotel, Bridge-street, south

side; Mr. Laney, baker, Bridge-street, south side ; Mr. M'Artney, tinsmith, Bridge-street, south side ; Mrs. M'Artney, dwelling-house, Bridge-street,

south side ; Mr. Condell, storekeeper, corner of Bridge and

Collingwood-streets, south side ; Mrs. Townsend, . boarding-house, Bridge-street,

south side ; Mr. Barnes, china shop, Bridge-street, south side ; Temperance Hall, corner of Bridge and Colling-wood-streets, north Bide ; Young Men's Christian Association meeting house,

Bridge-street, north side ; Mr. Beattie, dwelling house, Bridge-street, north

side; Mr. Barraclough, dwelling house, Bridge-street,

north side ; Mr. Fish, draper's establishment, Collingwood-

etreet ; Mr. Avery, boot shop, Collingwood-street ; Mr. Owens, Mitre Hotel, corner of Bridge and

Collingwood-streets, north side ; Mr. M'Artney, dwelling house, Bridge-street, north

side; Mr. Pratt, butcher's shop, Bridge-street, north

side; Mr. Leach, •wheelwright, Bridge-street, north side.