A HASTINGS SENSATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 199, 23 August 1926, Page 6

A HASTINGS SENSATION.

BURNING OF A HOMESTEAD. ASSAULT ON EMPLOYEE. INCENDIARISM SUSPECTED. (By Telegraph —Press Association.) HASTINGS, this day. A disastrous fire that bears strong evidence of incendiarism totally destroyed a 10-roomed. residence at Irongate, near Hastings, on Saturday night. The house, which was the property of Mr. C. E. Small, of Hastings, was occupied by Mr. William J. Jamieson. So far the cause of the outbreak is not definitely known, but the version given by the sole spectator ie of ths most sensational kind.

Mr. and Mrs. Jamieson left early in the- evening to go to the pictures in Napier, leaving , the place in charge of a farm employee and his wife.

The latter were about to set out from their cottage to spend the evening in Hastinge, but before the man left he went to the homestead to see whether everything was safe.

Upon entering , the back door he saw a light shining under one of the inside doors, and on opening it to investigate ho received a severe blow on the mouth, which rendered him eenseless. When he regained consciousness his wife, who had remained behind in the cottage, was bending over him and asking him what had happened, but he could give no very coherent account of the affair, nor any clue as to the identity of his assailant.

By this' time the house was beyond saving, as the nearest assistance was a quarter of a mile away, and it was totally destroyed before any of the contents could be salved from the burning building.

A constable was summoned from Hastings, but was unable to find any trace of the unknown intruder. It is surmised that incendiarism was the cause of the outbreak, and that a stranger, having seen the Jamieeons leaving, thoflght the place was deserted, and that he could carry out his scheme uninterrupted. The police have the matter in hand.