TOTAL LOSS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 246, 18 October 1933, Page 10

TOTAL LOSS.

CHURCH AT HUNTLY. FIRE EARLY LAST EVENING. WHOLE OF FURNITURE SAVED. (By Telegraph.—Special to " S-tar.") HUNTLY, this day. Parishioners, a clergyman and police worked feverishly in a praiseworthy effort to save St. Paul's Anglican Church, Himtly, from ■ fire early last evening. They failed, and to-day the church is a smouldering mass of debris. Sparks from a passing engine are thought to have caused the fire, which broke out near the ridge of the roof at the back of the church. The fire was noticed early, and a ladder and a bucket of water would have saved the church, but no ladder could be found. Quickly the flames spread, and soon the building was blazing from end to end. At the risk of injury, the vicar, the Rev. E. R. Wright, and his parishioners, made many trips into the heat of the interior and saved every piece of furniture. Effects on the altar were first brought out, then the altar itself, then i the organ and scats. After three-quarters of an hour the church was a mass of flames, and with a crash and a shower of sparks, the tower and bell fell into the blazing ruius. Police officers, returning from a hard day's searching in tiie Ruawaro district, hurried to help, and they did excellent work. With 110 fire brigade in the town, which has a population of 1200, the task was hopeless. A small cottage occupied by Mr. P. Sweeney, next door to the church, was threatened at one stage, but a bucket brigade saved, it from catching alight. Built of wood, with an iron roof, the church was 38 years old. Services will bo conducted in the Parish Hall, just across the road, until a new church has been built. The old one was insured by the Church of England Diocesan Pension Board for £750 in the South British Ofiicc.