THE LATE FIRE AT NELSON.

Press, Volume XII, Issue 1586, 6 December 1867, Page 2

THE LATE FIRE AT NELSON.

An inquiry has been held at NeilOQ as to the origin of the disastrous ifiie by which a great amount of property was recently destroyed and many of the finesit buildings in the city, including the premises of the tJaion Bank, swept away. In consequence of the verdict of the coroner's jury, H. W. Macguire and Mary Wilson were brought up at the Police Court, but ultimately discharged by the Magistrate, as he did not think sufficient evidence had been Drought forward to warrant his committing the accused for trial. The " Colonist" has the following remarks on the suspicious circumstances attending this fire:—

The failure of the authorities to produce evidence.., sufficient to warrant.., the committal of any persos or persons in the late case of fireraising is very much to be deplored. We say " fire-raising " advisedly. Tho whole scope of the evidence goes to prove incendiarism; and the verdict; of the coroner's jury was literally one of arson. The evidence of the-witness Mr Eobert Barnes is exceedingly strong and telling. Before the Besi» dent Magistrate he deponed to having witnessed in theunodcupiedropm, rising suddenly from the floor, a blaze which hao , all the' appearance of being pro* duced by the ignition of an inflammable oil, with which the flooring had apparently been.saturated. This flame* accompanied by black curling smoke which wreathed up to the ceijfing,'fol" lowed the fallinff from the bed in &Q

-rtom of something which was blazing, wETclf seemed as if placed there purpose." The next important point ?fo e fact -that at the-time this witness 18 Q up stairs the fire could have beeD Stintfuisbed by a bucket of water. And then comes this > other fact—and a tery suspicious one it is—that Henry Maguire was met by Mr Barnes carrying a bundle, a digger's "swag," and coming from the immediate vicinity of the fire which had •not vet reached the floor when he was first spoken to by Mr Barnes. Compare this with the denial of Maguire before the coroner of entering an upifcairs room, and his statement that the door was on fire when he made the landing, and that he was unable to reach hie room, all of which must be false ; and add also his attempt to account for a fictitious absence, his endeavour to instruct the billiard-marker how to swear as to the time he was in the Wakatu billiardroom, and his ill-timed remark to the barman, that."Some of you would get four years for this," which reminds one of what might be said by a shallow rogue who was desirous of diverting suspicions from himself. Then, if we take into consideration the conduct of Mrs Mary Wilson, we shall find more exceedingly suspicious and ugly facts, not the least noteworthy of which was the singular pertinacity which she refused to answer the simplest questions before the jury— questions which an honest and guiltless witness would not have hesitated to answer. There were, in the woman's evidence before the coroner, the most palpable and direct contradictions, and also what has been proved to be equally direct falsehoods. And the dishonest nature of her evidence is only in keeping with her conduct. Hie frequent removal of goods in bundles and baskets from the hotel premises under her care in the direction of her own home is entirely unexplained; and in the absence of such explanation it seems a very unfavourable fact. It is absurd to cay these frequent bundles were clothes for the wash, the fact being that the mother of the servant girl periodically called for the household linens, &c, and carried them away with her. Then the careful removal by Mrs Wilson of the little servant girl, who was sent away a short time before the fire broke out, and about whom she told untruths in the witness box, alleging that the girl asked leave to go, a statement the girl herself flatly arid repeatedly denied, and steadily declaring that she was told to go by Mrs Wilson, of whom she had not asked for leave to go. It was also & very singular and very suspicious position for Mrs Wilson —rendered more suspicious by the denial of it— to be seen standing on the footpath eoine ten minutes before the alarm was given, gazing.up to the roof and attracting , the attention of passers By to the roof on the idea that the chimney waa on fire. Such a position, in such circumstance as the case evolved, and which induced the coroner's jury to find a verdict. of wilful fire-raising, would lead to the conclusion that the person so employed was watching for an expected effect, the. cause of which was then being in operation by Pnpifl% one inside, or had very recentlyjjfJß with, at least, the knowledge oflKe watcher. In plain English, it looks remarkably like the conduct of a person who was watching for the smoke or fire; and when this is coupled with the prevarications and the untruths of which Mrs Wilson was guilty, it all goes to make up one of the most suspicious cases which we have lately read or heard. - There 7 was the fact, too, of Mrs "Wilson, by what seemed studied rudeness to the lqdgers, driving four of tlieni;awa|y _from the house a day or two before the fire, leaving only Maguire and another man in the upstaira apartments; and the still more strange fact that Maguire, who appears to be a "loafer," without visible means of Bupport, at least without working for it, who himeeTf had paid do board for weeks, yet assumed an air of authority in the house by interfering with neighbours' privileges. Such is a. brief resume of the leading facts in connection with the origin of the late fire according to the evidence adduced before the coroner and a jury, and before the Resident Magistrate. There ;;are other circumstances not yet brought to light, but which may shortly be divulged ; and although in the meanlame (and , it is much to be regretted) the Resident Magistrate did not feel himself, by the evidence before him, warranted to commit the two prisoners >lio were discharged from custody last Tuesday, still we hope we have not Heard the last of the case. It behoves every honest n)an to do what in Mm lies for the discovery of the perpetrators of such a doubly heinous ■ Crime as that of wilful fire-raising in the nibst populous part of a wooden city ; a crime, second only'we think to that of murder, as being so far teaching in its consequences, and in- • earring not only certain enormous -loss of property, but also a great risk, to -life and limb. Toomuch cannot be ,'. said expresaive of the detestatiott of ;; the crime and the criminals, and for the sake of society it is deeply to be regretted that as yet justice has failed to. bringing home conviction and pun- .', lehmeht to the proper parties.