RIVER BLAZE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 202, 28 August 1933, Page 9

RIVER BLAZE.

OLD HOUSEBOAT DESTROYED.! TWO MEN JUST GET CLEAR. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) WANGANUI, Sunday. When the old houseboat near Whakahora, on the Wanganui River, was burned at midnight on Friday, two men who were sleeping on board, Messrs. J. Jackson and P. Ropiha, just managed to get ashore before their way of escape was cut off. Their sleeping quarters lay between the hull and the dining room, the social room and kitchen, and they had to face the ordeal of coming up to the top of the blazing superstructure to find a way to safety. The 30-year-old wooden vessel, which it is thought took fire in the kitchen, made a great blaze, and the flames were vividly reflected in the waters of the river. Settlers were powerless to check the flames, and by 5 o'clock in the morning the last of the burning hull bad disappeared in the dark waters of the river. The houseboat, which was well known to those who had done the famous Wanganui River trip, was of picturesque design, with sleeping quarters, social rooms, dining room and kitchen mounted on a barge-like hull. It was designed by Mr. A. Laird, of Wanganui, and waa built at Taumarunui. Captain Marshal was entrusted with the difficult task of bringing her downstream to her first permanent resting-place below the Ohura River. To cope with the altered trend of transport, the houseboat was moved about seven years ago in order to be linked by road with Tongariro National Park. . _ -..