BURNT LETTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 307, 24 December 1912, Page 7

BURNT LETTERS.

DOMINION ROAD BOX AFIRE. DELIBERATE ATTEMPT SUSPECTED. About a quarter of an hour before the letter-box clearens reached the box at the corner of Dominion Road and View Road last night—they usually get there at midnight—6rame passers-by noticed smoke issuing, from the opening through which letters and papers are inserted. There was also a strong odour of burning paper, and a closer inspection showed that the wood was also afire. The Dominion Road Fire Brigade w.is called from its station close by, and after the lock had been forced, the fire was extinguished.

As is the case with many suburban letter-boxes, this one is built into the wall of a store (Smeeton'sl, and the fact that it was the sole quarter of the fire, points to a deliberate attempt at incendiarism. There were over 300 letters and packages inside, and some of them were destroyed. They doubtless included Xmas messages, and much confusion is likely to result.

Tbe police have been making inquiries this morning, but so far they are unable to attribute a reason for the fire, unless it is that someone deliberately dropped a. ligtht.ed match inside. They point out that a letter-box is hardly a receptacle into which a match would accidentally fall.