MILL GUTTED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 17, 21 January 1939, Page 7

MILL GUTTED.

TOWN IN DANGER. MODERN PLANT BURNT FRENZIED RESCUE EFFORTS. hundred men out of work. (f»y Telngrnph.—Otvn Correspondent.) WII ANT. ABE I, this day. ' T.nst night Harbour was redly lit. an LaneV* «a\vinill, established lor .">0 years, was burnt to the ground. From midnight to 2 a.m. the little Ic.wn of Totara North, built round the mill, was the scene of frenzied activity. I lie tide as out and the creek almost «liv. In scorching heat men and women la 1 loured with buckets, but were helpless against the fire, which gutted the building and reduced the expensive modern plant to a mass of twisted metal. Burst* of (Tame TYom exploding oil drum* and showeis of spark* made plain the danger to the town. Steam howled out of the boiler. Stark after stack of timber collapsed like matches. Desperately working at the sluggish pumps, the men managed to divert the lire from part of the yard, saving thousands of pounds' worth of kauri and seasoned totara. This morning h column of resinous smoke was Mtill rising from the black ruins. A hundred men are out of work. The machinery only was insured. The whole of Totara North is at a standstill, as it is not sure whether the mill will be rebuilt. At. one time in hie career Schiller was fiercely jealous of Goethe. Yet lie encouraged others to praise his contemporary, while he listened—and suffered in silence. Smith and Caughey's Great Halfyearly Clearance Fair commences on Monday morning next. Be early.—(Ad.)