THE NEWMARKET FIRE.

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 179, 31 July 1888, Page 2

THE NEWMARKET FIRE.

INQUEST,

Che inquiry into the fire at C. Goodwill's 'hop, Newmarket, continued after we went 10 press yesterday, when evidence was given as follows:—

Examination of Mr Goodwill, continued : We have bought from other than those firms 1 have mentioned over £10. I purchased about £10 worth from T. and H. Cooke.

Some argument ensued on this point, and Mr Baddeley said to witness that heavy claims were made against, tho insurance companies and he wanted evidence on the subject. It was not a matter to bo treated flippantly. Examination continued : I will swearthat the cash book produced and other books were on a shelf previous to the .ire. The invoice files produced (partly burnt) were just above them. Mr Cotter: And yet you say the cash books were totally destroyed '. Witness : Some of the books wero destroyed. I never do anything about, the books.

Mr Cotter : Well, first of all you do everything and now you do nothing. Mr Baddeley : How were books totally destroyed when the shelves on which you say they stood are only partially burnt ? 'Witness : They seemed as if they had fallen on the floor. Mr Cotter : Who was first in after tho fire? "Witness : I don't know. Mr Cotter : And I mppose you don't caro. In whose name, by the way, was the bank account kept? Witness: One account, C. Good will, was kept in the Union, and C. H. Goodwill was kept in the Bank of New Zealand, tho business account was kept at the Union. Mr Cotter : And yet you said tho last £50 was paid into the Bank of New Zealand ? Witness : I never gave it a thought. Mr Baddeley : You as a business man did not give ib a thought, i? that it? Witness : I did hod give it a thought, I paid cash for what I ordered and what I paid for aba longer time I also paid for myself. Mr Cotter: Then what did your father pay ? Witness : I do not think ho paid for anything. Mr Cotter: Did yon pay your father money ? Witness : No ; he came arid got it. .'Mr Cotter : Do you know how much your fat-idr hag drawn out of the business ? 'Witness : I cannot, say. Mr Cotter : And you kept no account of these tilings, so thab even if the books had nob been burnt, we would have been no wiser? , "Witness: No. Mr Stevens kept the books. I sometimes took cash from tl«o business, but 1 never toll Mr Stevens what amount I took. lam a married man. Mr Cobber: Do I understand seriously that you can give us no account of you' own or your father's drawings? .Witness : None. Examination continued: I have not taken stock since August, and cannot say how much has been purchased or sold since then. I have kept an account in the Bank oi. New Zealand since I started business. I never checked my bank balance, and never asked for a bank passbook. I paid cheques to names. I now say thab my loss by the fire would be £1.000 if I calculated the loss of business. A lot of goods bhab wei ■« burnt aro nob put down in tb_J valuer's book, Mr Cotter : Bub your assistant's estimate was taken. Witness: He has forgotbon a lot of things. Mr Cotter : You say that he has practically forgotten one-third of the articles in your shop ? Witness : Well, have ib one-third. Mr Cotter here drew attention to the fact that the claim for insurance was £1,031 9s, and asked for an explanation. Witness : They have taken the stock of thab book (bhe valuer's). Mr Baddeley : Then your father has acquiesced in a value much lower than that Btated by you, the managing man. 'Witness: I don't know how that was done. It is a mistake.

In answer to further questions Mr Goodwill said he could not say how many tea and coffee services he had sold. The silver tea and coifee service that was on the premises when tho stock wa* taken was the same as was on the premises at the time of the fire. I did not buy it. It was a present given to me by Mr King, a friend, in Sydney. Mr Cotter: Had you givon it to your father? Witness : Yes, it was no good to mo. It would not have been any good to you either.

Mr Baddeley : I'll have no impertinent answers. Mr Cotter is entitled to civil replies to his questions, and I must see that be gets them. Mr Cotter : Did you tell Mr Stevens its value. Witness : Yes. About £55.

Mr Cotter : There ought to be a decent silver mine thero. Mr Baddeley : You said you had no idea of its value before. In answer to further questions, Mr Good-, will said that he never had a tea and coffee service valued at £22 on the stock-sheets, it must be an electro-plated one. He bought an electro-plated service from T. and S. Morrin and Co., it may have been over three years ago. Mr Cotter: Then the only electro-plated tea and colTce service On the premises at the time of the tire and claimed for, is valued at £6. , , Witness: Then I have lost by that.

Mr Baddeley : What is the good of writing if it is to be explained away in that way ? , In answer to other questions Mr Goodwill said he had on the premises a pair of hand-painted vases valued at £50, He got them from Sydney. Mr Cotter: Were these a present, too ?

Witness: Yes. Mr Cotter : I thought you said you had only one present. Did you give these to your father too? Witness : Yes ; they were no good to me. Examination continued : I had no vases between £5 and £30. Ido not know what the pair put clown at £9 9s were. If they were the £30 pair they roust have beeii put down by mistake I had been offered £25 for these vases and would not take it. Mr Stevens knew this. I think I was askhw £60 for the bilver tea and coflee sorvice and Mr Stevens knew that. I could not say what was the next valuable pair of vases on the premises at the .time of the tire ; nor what the pair of vases put down at £13s 13s refer to. Mr Cotter : Now, what else did you give your father ? Witness : Nothing. Mr Cotter: And did ho give you nothing for them? Witness : Nothing. I never gave it a thought. The things were a great attraction "to the window. I suppose that if I had sold them my father wowld have allowed me for them. My household expenses are about 50s a week. 1 did not toll Mr Skinner tin. t I was doing £10 Q0 a month: more likely laail £1000 a quarkr. The shock of the fire nearly sent me oft my head Two-thirds of the sales, were c»«h. I had no foods for sale on commissien. The busineaa wits carried on under the style ot C. Goodwill and Co. Mr Cotter : Who was the Co. ? Witness: Had no Co. I had authority to sign .'.rid signed C. Goodwill and Co., as though i was a partner. At the time of the fiie I owed nothing in connection with

the -MB.nes.. Ido nofc know how touch my father owes. When Mi' Skinner spoke about the book* after the fire I understood that he wanted to take thorn away. I did refuse to open tho safe when he asked me to do so. ' ■ ii • • Sergeant Pratt here produced a polioy in the Norwich Union signed by witness for C. H. Goodwill and Co, Ib was dated July 18th of this year, and tho premium had not boon paid. In answer to Sergeant Pratb witness said bhab at tho time of stock-taking he had £1,500 worth of stock. Sinco that ha bought £2,000 worth, and his sales were about £300 a month.

Sergeant Pratt: That absorbs £3,000 monthly and leaves £500. How do you account forbhab?

Witness: The sbock goes out to-day and we buy ibm to-morrow. Mr Baddeley : But how do you account for the discrepancy of £1,000? Witness : I don't know. I cannot account for it.

In answer to Mr Whitaker, witness said : I wenb into the shop on the night of the fire with Mr Webb at 7.45, and left at 8.30. Wo were engaged going into bhe question of a further insurance. From the time I lefb wibh Mr Webb bo tho bime I was called I had not been in the shop.

Charles Goodwill, in answer to Mr Whitaker, said : There was no fire about the premises when I left on the night previous to the fire. I reached my house in Brighton Road, Parnell, at 8.45. The fire is a loss to me through lobs of employment. The business was on the increa. c.

Frederick Stevens deposed : I have been in Mr Goodwill's employ for about 18 months, and up to tha time of the lire. I kept tho books under Mr Goodwill's direction. I locked up on th.. evening of the 18th July, and turned off Die gas at, the meter. The shop d 00.3 were fastened, and I lefb by tho back door. I locked the door after me and kept the key. Mr Goodwill had a duplicate key. 1 wont to visit some friends at Mount Eden, and heard of the fire after my return to my residence at Ponsonby at 7 a.m. on the 19th. I had orders from the boy to see Mr Goodwill at his house, and after seeing Mr Goodwill I arrived at the ahop about 10 am. Mr Goodwill said, "Thim is a pretty tine go; what shall we do now ?" and I replied, " I think so boo." When leaving the premises on the 18th I put the book, in use in tho safe, including three ledgers, order book, cash book, and suspense book. The cash book in safe dated back about a monbh. The previous cush books were kept in the offico, over the fireplace. When 1 went into tho building after the lire the books that were on the shelves had disappeared. All the money that went out was not, enteral in the cash book. Mr Goodwill often effected ... les and pub the money in the till. 1 also put money iv tho rill without putting itdown, b-.-ing pressed by customers. I did not see what use the oa-li book was at the time. Mr v. H. Goodwill purchased goods for the shop. lam unable to say what the father had to do with the bus >no« s. I looked on Mr C. H. Goodwill as my master and as tho principal. M. wages wero 45s per week. I assisted to take stock last September with Mr Sloane, and Mr Goodwill helped at times. We made the stock out to be £1,002 at cost prices. Our takings sinco would be from £200 to £250 per monbh. Tho five seemed to me to have started somewhere about the counter, which consisted of drawers, except in one place where » little wast* paper was kept. The turps and kerosene were kopt at the other end of the counter which was not destroyed by fire. I helped to take sb.ck after tho fire with Mr Mulavey and Mr Stokos. We went through the remainder of the stock. Soma of the stock was completely burnt, and I cave such information .5 I could, havint; oeen told to do no by Mr Lusher, manager for the Royal Insurance Company. Mr Mulavey made out the stock in a book (produced). Sbock was taken in Sopbomber, Because Mr Goodwill, soni., wished to know how his .on stood. On that occasion I made out the sheet* and entered the values of the different, articles at the same time, except in one or two cases where the price was not on the parcels. Thore was *n interval of about 10 days in the stocktaking. Ab the end of the iirab period there was £1,002, and after 10 days we completed the stocktaking. In the letter sheets we wrote the articles, but did not put down th*. totals, so that we could not tell wha. the total stock valuo was. Wo did not finish, because we were towards the end of the month, and did not get the bills out.

Detective Hughes here put in ledger, eius penso book, etc., used by Goodwill and Co,

In answer to Mr Cotter, witness said : The stock sheetwas taken about September. I considered it was not ray business to know why Mr Sloano assisted in the stocktaking. I know then that our business was indebted to Morrin and Co. to a considerable extont. Up to that time poods were purchased from Morrin's on orodi., but afterwards they were purchased for cash. At least three-fourths of our goods were purchased from Morrin's. I was not informed of the reason of tho change from credit to cash purchases, 1 judged that the father had an interest in tho business because he was there every week. I Stopped at the £1,002 in stock taking because my orders were to get on with the bills. The work was completed to within over £100. After the bills were got out Mr Goodwill said, "You may as well finish." The amounts in the concluding list wero not oxtonded. Tho fresh stock we got in was added to the stock-sheets that are not produced. The stock on the remaining sheets might have amounted to £200. I belleTe Mr Goodwill took the other stoefc«heets away to extend them previous to the fire, and 1 did not see them again. My wages ranged from 25s to 45s ; the latter was largest I havo had. I do not know why MrGoodwili should have saidlgot 50s. The cash books produced are not correctly kept. £ did not keep them properly because Mr Goodwill would not let mo do so. He said lie kept thcrnin that style from the first, and that it won id do to go on with. Money taken by rhe was put }h the till and taken out by Mr Goodwill, and 1 knew nothing further about it. Mr Goodwill never asked me to make up any slip or tell him how the business was going on. No balance was ever made up. During the last 8 months the business has shown a decrease. I kept no record to show that the stock was kept up. The average profit in our business would be 20 per cent, int 9 >o on invoice cost. There was a silver tea mid coffee sot when I went there, and when I left .on the night of the fire. It was not on the premises for sale, but was show stock. I would have given a customer a price, £47, and would have got one like it. When we took stock in September we put that set in the list at £22 10s. That, I understood, was the value, and £47 the retail price. Mr Cotter: What? More than cent, per cent, profit ? Witness : £47 was the price I was told to quote retail. There were afternoon sets in tho shop, one of which was for exhibition and. riot for sale. I understood it was a wedding present. The afternoon set was on the premises when I left before the fire. That set is valued at £6 on the list made up by the valuers. There was also a pair of vases valued at £18 ISs, which were not for sale. I think they were put down at IS or 15 guineas in the September stocktaking. I cannot explain why they should b* pat down at nine guineas in September- 1 valued them tne other day it. 13 guineas b<.ca-tse I was under the inun-ossion that was their value all along. Evidence was ab»o given by A. M. Webb, Jas. Impey, F. T. Stoke.*, H. Morris, E. Hughes, J. Hobbins, and Detective Hughes, and tho jury, after brief deliberation, returned a verdict, "That there was nut sufficient evidence to show how the fire originated." The inquiry concluded at 8.30 p.m.