ORIGIN UNKNOWN.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 169, 17 July 1916, Page 8

ORIGIN UNKNOWN.

GOVERNMENT HOUSE FIRE. EXTENSIVE DAMAGE. ,;, WESTERLY WING DESTROYED. REPAIRING MAY COST £7,000. ARSON THEORY DISCREDITED. ■"-■».. •Fire, the origin of which 13-unknown, destroyed the north-westerly wing and extensively damaged the whole of the rooms in the upper storey of the,northeasterly front of Government House, Auckland, on Saturday night. It is ■believed that to properly restore the building an outlay of probably '£6,000 or £7,000 will be Teqprined. ' \ Fanned by a fierce easterly \*;ale, the flames rapidly ate up the north-westerly corner, which, was chiefly affected, and at the height of the- conflagration a magnificent -spectacle was afforded'the onlookers. But '"violent fires soon burn out themselves," and within an, hour end a-half of the Fire Brigade being summoned, nothing but a .little.'smoke, tee pungent smell charred wood and the-spectacle of drenched firemen play.ing l on the dehris remained to interest - jthe-*ig..-cra\vd which-had collected. .:' THE DISCOVERY. The-flames were first observed., from , >tke--6ljght- eminence affarded'-by Princes from which point-ilr'T. F. /Tester. /of the City Traffic Inspector's office^ noticed a mddy glo-w in the upstairs window, of the westerly wing of the sshouee. wed-that the (premises were., afire, -and the alarm was 'telephoned by;<means»of»as«alWbox»by.>an •attendant of the Northern Club, ■whoee attention was. drawn to- the •foe by Mr Tester. >\V&en Superin--tendent TOoolley arrived with-4he brigade Ttr-was immediatelji.afyareiit that a big tasfa was. in hand* The tre«& surround_ing the house ftacfe conceakid the outbreak until tile-fire had-obtained agool grip, but they were on the wrong- side to screen the house from the-wind, and the easterly gale, sweeping.jin from the iia-rbour, had whipped the fire into a roaring furnace already. To-the-'casual observer it seemed thaiiwfche house-w-as doomed even -when the brigade first appeared, for with the knowledge that the premises -were-buHt of kauri, dried and seasoned by the exposure of over half a century, there seemed"to be-no hope for the brigade in battling against , the gale. . FORTUNATE CIRCUMSTANCES*!

There were, however, two important 'circumstances in their favour. The fire was burning against, and not with, the ■wind, while a quadrangle giving and air space to the inner roomsTof the bouse separated the rear and southeasterly blocks from the burning portions of the building by a sufficiently wide space to lend considerable protection. Against this, however, was the fact that at both ends of the house there was interior communication with the rear portion—where are located the fine ballroom at the south-easterly end, and numerous bedrooms on the second storey—through which the draught might carry the fire. The brigades taskwas to fight with the wind behind them to prevent an extension to the south and east and the south-west In other words, supposing that the at which Government House stands gives the premise.- the rough shape of a diamond, the brigade aimed at confining the fire aa closely as possible to the apex of the diamond. In workmanlike fashion the brigade set about their task. The doors of the house were forced, windows were broken, and seven leads of hose brought to play irom the front, right and rear of the building. The north-westerly corner of the building was doomed. The fire had

wiped out the rooms in the upper storey, ■where it had apparently started, arid had spread to the lower rooms—including the Governor's and the Governor's secretary's offices—and had reduced these to glowing embers. A hose was kept at this point, however, to prevent an extension to the rear. Fighting against the threatened spread along the, front of the building, the brigade ren-i dered splendid work. Shortly after haltpaet seven the flames licked through the ■main roof, and, caught up by the full force of the -wind, leaped 20 or 30 feet leavenwards like a beacon-pyre. > A STRANGE SPECTa'cle.

The firemen at work presented a ■weird appearance. The fire was all in the top of the building on the front, and they mounted the parapet. sitting astride the balustrade, and directed the hosoon to the roof. Silhouetted asainsi great banks of flame, they appeared to be almost working in the' midst of thn fire, and one formed the impression thnt only human salamanders— to ajrain make use of the hocus pneus myth about the striped reptile—could carr'v out tin-

task. Apparently the spot was found tpo warm, for the firemen only remained there for about half an hour, and then

had to retire to the lower level of the fire balcony, running beneath the bedrooms. They had made good use of the time they were allowed on their eerie perch, although the effects were not immediately apparent to the spectators, who iverfi still of the opinion that the entire structure was doomed. This belief was not unnatural, for at this period, despite the attack of the brigade, the fire had inexorably crept against the •wind along- nearly the whole of the front of the building, and to those watching from below it seemed as though the entire block was in flames and at the mercy of the wind. iIOVIXG THE FCRXITUBE. 1 At this stage, too, it was deemed advisable to remove the furnishings of the drawing and diningrooms, which occupy respectively the left and right of the main entrance hall, and this accentuated the belief that the fire was going to destroy everything. It was, however, a toss-up between damage by water streaming from the upper storey and a soaking b.7 the teeming rain outside, ant! those directing operations, having decided the latter to be the lesser of the two evile, Superintendent Kiely and Inspector Sheehan set police and civilians to work in rescuing the carpets and suites. The fire announced itself beaten in an almost dramatic fashion. Just after cieht o'clock the flames were raging their merriest, the balustrade, which had been the erstwhile footing of the firemen, -was a glow of burnt-out timbers, while the men directing the leads from the fire gallery were continuously in danger ot injury by showers of red hot embers. The flagstaff had fallen, and the fir.c .was

travelling against the wind. Within' twenty minutes the strategy of the fire 1 brigade manifested iftelf." The rear of the building had been well watched, tne easterly corner had been thoroughly drenched, and almost simultaneously the fire in the gutted westerly end becamcj exhausted, and at the advancing end irj was bafilcil by the attack. Belching j clouds of smoke replaced the flames, and the glare which bad illuminated the grounds, throwing into relief the moving; figures on the la"wns and revealing ill' ghostly outline the trees bordering the' grounds, suddenly died away. liefore nine o'clock the lire was practically out. and a few men remained after that t > prevent the .smouldering emliers from! leaping into life again. j THE KI'JXED BHUMXCi. | A "Star" reporter visited the charred and blackened structure to-day. Merely the skeleton of the westerly corner remained. On the ground floor office desks and other furniture were reduced to charcoal, and only the shape revealed j what the articles "bad been. In the two j offices everytliing was as black as pitch. The rooms above, the apartments of the ! butler and the housekeeper had fared almost as badly, and from this point,; where the fire had burnt itself out, the spread had been along the corridor and the bedrooms on the front of the building. The room in which the fire occurred at Government House in 1914, when ,Sir lan Hamilton was the guest of their Excellencies, had been burnt for the second time, and this was very near what was believed to be the originating spot. Curiously enough, a mattress which had escaped the flames on that occasion had still refused to burn when practically everything else had been destroyed. It lay in thu room soaked and fiitiiy with the ashes, but almost intact. The two bedrooms of their Excellencies had botli been the scene of one of the warmest spots of th" lire. The roof had gone, and the broad light of day Jit up the mes« and wreckage of what ha.l been artistic furnishings. THE DL'KE'S BEDSTEAD. Curiously enough, the famous Duke of Edinburgh's bedstead, the fine piece of j carved kauri, the proposed removal of I which was the subject of a protest by Mr. A. E. Glover, had escaped. As the house was not likely to be tenanted for sojne time other furniture had 'been heaped-upon this, and the -jrholg cov-i

icred up. The upper furniture had beer, ''l.urned, but, playing through the winfjdow. the firemen had saved the bed- ' etead. It is looking the worse for singe iug, but it can be restored. The. tire had ' I gone still further cait, and had dam•laged other bedrooms, but here the work ! of the brigade was apparent, for the ; jextent of the charriug was (fiminigliingl I and at the easterly corner tho only dami age done was by water. ( Downstairs everything was soaked and , ; floppy, but it is fortunate that tho . furniture removed is not milch the worse for the rain. Had it remained in tbe , house it -would have been ruined. The ,lfire had blackened the ceiling of tlir I drawing room, but otherwise; this room land the twin apartment on tho other t-ide of the main hall, the dining room, were undamaged. From the upper storey, liowTpr. tlic lire lmd been carried by the draught dovn the main Ifttuirca'se, while from the gutted oflic?-* • it had travelled along the corridor on ! the ground floor to burn out a beautifully furnished lounge, and to threaten, I the" ball room and the rear buildings. ! These, as before narrated, were wived.| I but how"timely was the work of the j brigade was demonstrated s by the fact .'that the flames had reached the annexe jo! the room, and had been cheeked j there. ! FIRE-RAISER RATS OR WIRES? As before indicated, there is so far nothing to indicate the origin of the fire. At one time-there was a disposition to raise the theory of arson, in view of tlio fact that Mr. S. Bond, the caretaker, in- '! spected the building at midday, and was ■, outside the portion which was lirst I burned as late as 4.15. but did not notice anything unusual. Mr. Bond does not ■ smoke, and declared that no matches were struck in the house. The possibility of arson is eliminated by tho .police, however, for examination gave none of the external clues, which ordinarily would be expected. However. the view is held that the fire originated upsta-irs. and this coupled with the fact that an incendiarist would hardly ehoo?e ; the leeward side of the house for his ; work when such a gale was blowing, lias ■ led the police to eliminate the theory of fire-raising. That being so. there is - little choice but to fall back on those ' hoary culpfits, the electrical installai tions and the rats. Eats have been • numerous ! "in ,tlie-;5 7 'ice-B_egal residence

during their Excellencies' absence, and the caretaker has been waging war against thp-m with poison. As regards the possibility of the electrical wires bring responsible all that can be said is that it is but a theory. An expert examination of the wire is to be carried out by tlie Public Works Department.

mid a Departmental investigation will be held this afternoon. THE DAMAGE. The house is Government property. f<ml i L , not insured in the ordinary way with companies. The Public Works Department lias not yet completed its esti matr of the damage but it is believer! that to eft'ertivrly restore tbo house fur vii'c-rejral occupation practically thy whole of the front portion will have to be rr-hiiilt. This, at a very rousli estimate, would involve an expenditure of fcome EfiOOO or &7000. The view is lipid by those in a position to express an opinion that it might be patched up for <t2OOO or .C3OOO. but it would scarcely he a desirable residence for the King's representative, while the Tact that the limber that would have to be left in is already old. and probably rendered defective by the lire, would indicate that this ini~rlit in the long .run be the most expensive treatment. The house was completed in 1854. GOVERNOR COMMUNICATED WITH. As already intimated, the house was. unoccupied at the time of the fire, their

Excellencies being away in Wellington. Tlie Governor was communicated with by telephone, and he expressed a desire that if possible certain personal pictures might be saved, but it was impossible to do this.