MEN IN PERIL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 21 September 1938, Page 6

MEN IN PERIL.

BLAZE IN OFFICE.

ALLEGATIONS BY POLICE.

ARRESTED MAN GRANTED BAIL. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, September 15. After having been refused bail by a police magnate a man was allowed bail of £500 by a j.uL-e in chambers on condition that he reported daily to the police. The case was the result of a lire in the township of Blayney, in winch it is iille-ed an :ittempt wax made to burn a building j tl vhMl two were sleeping. The men. Robert .Tames Martin and Keith Patrick Schmidt, occupy an oltiee and rooms in the main street of the town. Schmidt wae awakened about « a.m. by choking f,,, nPS ail(1 sllK)k ,, t aml found the door abla/e and flames coming in the windows. He awakened Martin, who was still asleep and would otherwise probably have been burned to death, and the two men jrot water trom a tap in the room and extinguished the flames. Dashing outside they found that a pile of wood near the "windowhad been set ali-ht. On chaired i.ieci* of the door they smelt petrol. Detectives who were hurried up from Sydney to investigate the matter arrested John Thomas Reed. a«ed .T , and charged him with having maliciously .set fire to the piace while it wae occupied by the two men. Aceordiii" to their story Reed, Martin and Schmidt had all been to a dance. Afterward* they went to a hotel for a drink and there a fight began between Schmidt and Reed. Martin separated then! and Keed, who is eaid to have been drunk is alleged to have threatened to shoot Martin. Reed refused to drive the other two men back to Blayney from the dance, but the police stated that the two men had got home about 20 nrfnuteA. before Reed arrived. Both Martin and Smith, the police said, might easily have been burnt to death.

Reed was remanded to a later sitting of the Court. c