New Plymouth June 30th. 1851 Dear Sir, I am sorry to say that Government House at Mount Eliot was discovered on fire at about 2 o'clock yesterday morning, and shortly after, reduced to a heap of ashes. It appears that as Private Stewart was going his rounds, he perceived a strong light in the direcrion of Mount Eliot, and went there; when he saw the back premises, occupied by him, on fire. He immediately gave the alarm, roused Richard Cock, and his lodger, and returned to the fire, which had made such progress that all attempts to enter the kitchen, where the fire was first seen, were impossible. Cock then broke open the front door, and succeeded in saving a few papers, and a little furniture from the Post Office, before the back premises fell in and sent a suffocating volume of smoke, followed by a sheet of flame, into the front rooms,