Fire at Government Buildings, Tauranga.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4383, 5 December 1902, Page 2

Fire at Government Buildings, Tauranga.

MAGISTERIAL ENQUIRY,

The enquiry into the above was commenced in the Foresters' Hall on Monday, the 24th ult., before Lieut. Col. Roberta, S.M., Coroner. . The following gentlemen formed the jury, Messrs Commons, (fore man), J. Maxwell, P. Munro, J. Dale, R. Badger and S. R. Stewart. Sergt. Phair conducted the proceedings on behalf of the police.

The first witness called was Miss Sarah White, who said she resided at the house occupied by Mr Ward, and was Bleeping there thenight the fire took place, the window of her room faced the Government buildings and she was awakened by a light ; on looking out saw a blaze in the back part of the building?, she immediate I} 7 awoke Mr and Mrs Ward and they all went out on to th 3 verandah and called out fire ; she asked Mr Ward what time it was and he told her it was twenty minutes past eleven, and then he got his bugle and sounded it several times. Witness also stated that she saw only one flame which appeared to be coming from about the third window upstairs, she did not #;e anyone come out of the building nor* saw any considerable amount of smoke and there was no smell of kerosene coming from the building. She did not know whether the building could have been saved or not when B he saw the fire. Mr Charles F. Potter, Acting Postmaster, sworn, said he remain-

bered bunday night; lGsh November, was Acting Postmaster then and for about one month previously, was chief clerk of Post Offi.ee. He had charge of the buildings, nominally only, on behalf of Public Works Department, but had no control over the offices occupied by auy other department ; he believed that the night watchman had been approved" of by the Public Works Department, but was not uader the control of the Postmaster ; the night watchman was paid 8/4 a mouth by the Public Works Department, through the Postmaster. The night watchman's duties were to put out the light in the passage of the P«>st Office, and after examining the building, to lock the doors ; the Telegraph Office was opened on Sunday .evening from 5 to 5.30, there was also a mail closing for the Thames at 9 p.m. ; M>sers Shearman aud Mann were on duty at 5 o'clock, witness also wae present. He was present wheD the office door leading, into the passage was closed at 5.45, and afterwards left by tho front door of the building ; he Could not saj whether tho back door was onec

office has no key for it. the officials frequently had to gain admission by the back door. The mails for the Thames were prepared on Saturday night ready for closing on Sunday night ; it was Mr Mathias's duly to clos^ the mails on Sunday night, but he 1 had thejyrivilege cf doing them on Monday morning at 4.45, the ! mails were not closed on Saturday uight. It was 830 when he wont to the post office on the Sunday night, he gained admission by the front door, and struck a match in the passage near the private boxes, oponed the office door and lit the lamp which was on a table inside the door, which he afterwards shifted into the mail room where he prepared some correspondence for the Thames mail, it was not later thf>n 9.15 when he left the office. He blew the light out and placed the lamp on the table just inside the door, and afterwards closed the door, which has 4 keys, used by the different offrials. AH document?, cash, registered letters and books were locked up in the eafes on the Siturday night,- which hps been always the custom ; be was at the safes on Sunday afternoon entering up hU week's accounts, the contents of the eafes have since been checked by the Postmaster in the presence of Sergt, Phair and every thing was correct. After closing the office door he never struck any matches, whVe he was iv the office he never heard any footsteps about the building, nor hoard a horse pass the office. They never procuro more than two ca^es of kerosene at a time, which is kept in a shed at the back, the key of which is in the hands of W. West and E. Asher who fill the lamps. The kerosene used to be kept in a cupboard under the staircase, which became saturated with kerosene and for that reason it wayS afterwards removed to the shod at th* back ; he could always *m°ll kerosene noraing from tho cupboard, and knew that a portion of the floor out Me the cupboard door wag saturated, He had noticed soveral timds smil] heaps of dust and paper outside the cupboard which when noticed ha had removed. Ho would noc like to havo dropped a I'ghtrf} ma'ch on the patch of k'r seno outside the cupboard becau-e it might have caught firp. The mails were not mnrla up on t?e Sunday night. He heard Mr Ward's bugle w> ich awoke him and he immediately went to the front door of his house and saw a blaze towards the back of tho buildings, he ran over and found that the fire was. at the back door of-the^buildinjrs, the smoke coming from the firo was of a black colour, similar to the smoke of burning coal. He remembered some years ago ihe door of the Borough Council waa found charred. If any person were to tell him that ihere had been three cases of fire since the Borough Council door wjw charred he would

think it very peculiar that he had never heard about it.

By the jury. — The night watchman was supposed to lock the front door of the building and put the light out in the passage at 10 o'clock whether anyoue was there or not. There had been no discrepancies iv the accounts for the last 15 years.

David Hall, Poundkeeper, B worn, said that he was employed to clean out the Boroagh Council Chambers. He remembered Sunday, 16 th November, was at the Post Office posting a letter at 9.30 p.m., looked through the window above the letter boxes, and saw Mr Potter sitting on the edge of a table with folded arms, his head bent and a pipe in one hand ; also heard some other footsteps in the Post Office. It was not exactly his duty to sweep the passage leading to the back door, but he did do it about once a week, and i swept everything outside. The cupboard under the stairs was in a disgraceful state, a stream of kerosene was coming through on to the floor of the passage ; he told the boys, Asher and West, to be more careful, what he meant by a stream of kerosene was that the floor was very damp, had seen the rags which they used in cleaning the lamps lying about inside and outside the cupboard, if a man had lit his pipe and thrown down the match the building would soon have become ignited. The papers that were

taken outside the building were fired up against the bank about 10 to 15 yards' f rota the back 4poi of the building and close to the ! out offices ; have seen the papers alight a considerable time, but have not seen anything else, on fire at the back. "While he was there on the Sunday evening he saw no one about outside the building. v. By the jury. — It was about 3 weeks ago when he saw. the kerosene trickling out of the cupboard, he did not tell anyoue else about it excepc the boys, as it would have been of no use, they would only have laughed. There had been several kerosene tins full of rubbish for a long time behind the back door.

Re-examinM by Sergt. Phair. — He saw the front door open and beside? the lights in the post office he was positive there was a light in the passago near the private letter boxes. The whole of the Post Office seemed to be lit up. Ho had no occasion to use the cupboard, vi<ited it several mornings and never found it locked.

Mr Charles Christian Halladay, sworn, deposed he was Postmaster in charge of the Tauranga Post Office ; he had been absent from duty through sickness, for 5 weeks, and resumed duty this morning, during his absence Mr Potter was Acting Postmaster; believed the kerosene was kept out in the shed with the wood, he had never given

their had been no complaints made to him about the waste of kero sene under the staircase, Jbut he had observed that there was kerosene on the floor near the Cupboard, which gave him an impression that it was an old stain, never he^rd of anyone mentioning it to the messenger boy, nor had their been any complaints made to him about the back door being left open at night. He thought there were five keys to the door of the PostOffice and had never heard of them being used but for office wqrk. Witness corroborated Mr Potter statements — re office hours on Sunday, the making up of mails, and stated that no one outside of the" officials were allowed into the office without the expressed permission of the Postmaster. He remembered visiting the build ing, one night about ten o'clock, in pqmpauy with Sergeant Forbes, the back door was open, and he (wituess) m^do a remark ftbout it. The reason th,ey visited the building was because they smelt paper burning, and on making investigations, found that some paper was smouldering outside against the bank, where it had been the usual custom to burn paper since he had been in charge. This paper had beea burning eleven hours, and from the ap pearanee it belonged to the Post Office." He did not think it oould do any damage. It would be q uite unusual '&* the tins of rubbish and kerosene rags to be standing bohind"t&e back door, as it would be corHary to instructions. During his absence Mr Potter would have two safes under his control, but if he (witness) were .here he would only have one. He saw the safes oponed and chequed the contents and the cash was correct according to the booksthe contents of the safe which was used for Public Trust and Government Life Insurance moneys were destroyed. During the time he (witness) was in charge of the Post Offioe no unpleasantness existed between the officials

, John Vincent Hathias, fofter- | earner, sworn, deposed that he on , Sunday, 10th November, went down to tbe office ab ut 1 1 o'clock in the morning, for the purpose of j entering up stamped lott'-r-* for the outgoing mail, was there f,» about a quarter of an hour nnd then left-, returning again in *he evening about five o'clock, but remained only five iniouros; before leaving he left Messrs Potter an 1 Mann in the mail room. H> never retnrued at nin« iv the evening to close the mails as ho had the privilpge of clowns the mai's at 4. 30. in the morning. Si- c • witness hid raturned fr^m C<»ro ramdej ? the cuphoarc? has alw -.ys j been saturated with ker.'»sens"aii-l i the stain* was always visible abou' 1 a foot outside the wall of the cup board as if it had leaked from -he inside, ho had never hen Hi of any c-omplatu'g being made to tho P stmsßter, about the state of the cupboard. Witness had aothiag

whatever to do with the kerosene and had never known of the back door being locked, had been passing after ten o'clock, and had seen light burning in the passage; had never heard of anyone being in the buildißg, had only heard of one fire in the building, when the door of the Borough Council Chambers was charred.

By . the Jury. — It was the messenger's duty to Jock the cupboard.

Mary Humphreys, sworn, said she was residing in Willow street Tauranga, remembered Sunday night 16th, about ten past eleven was aroused by dogs barking and tin rattling, the noise continued and she went out to see what it was and saw a small light at the back of the buildings, which commenced to blaze and on arriving at the public door of the court house she heard an explosion. She did noi go any further, but she fancied there was someone standing near the outbuildings at j the time. Mr Ward was shouting fire. She did not know who the man was, nor could she give any description, she could not tell whether the person she saw was like Mr Tanner, she left the building and weut down to Mr Shearman, who was dressing when the bugle was blown, she thought there was no chance of saving the building. If she had been a man she could have saved some thing 9 out of the front of the buildings ; when she came back from Mr Shearman's the flames were coming out of the front door.

Jesse Tanner, labourer, sworn, remembered the Sunday night, was aroused from sleep by the sound of a bugle, on looking out of the window, he saw reflections of a fire at the Post Office, he immediately went out on to the verandah, and called out fire, two or three times, then he dressed himself and went down to the building on looking in through the front door, which was open, he could see flames at the end of the passage near the back door, which was open, and the draught was ! driving the flames thiough to the front door. He did not shut the door, but went for the Sergeant, whom he met opposite to witness's residence, and accompanied him to the building the Sergeant going around tothe back and he, witness, to the front, and afterwards went around to a door facing Mr Potter's, which he opened and closed, and then he proceeded to the back where the Sergeant wa?, the back door was then in flames, he then went and assisted to bring up the engine, and on arriving at end of building opposite Mr Wacd'e, was ordered back by Sergeant Phair who said they could not worrit. By this time the flames were bursting through the front door. He remembered someone jumping up and burst- { ing a window of the Post Office, ■ and being dragged back, on ac-

c:>tint of the smoke coming out. _jj_HjLJlifl_iliix£^r- JTo no one bis house ufter tho alarm. The court was adjourned till 9 a.m.' Wednesday. ( To he continued in Monday's issue).