SUPPOSED INCENDIARISM IN CHRISTCHURCH.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 11231, 24 March 1902, Page 5

SUPPOSED INCENDIARISM IN CHRISTCHURCH.

THE PUBLIC (LIBRARY FIRE.

The inexplicable origin of the fire that destroyed Tankard's Gymnasium and Girton College, and the equally inexplicable cause of the incipient outbreak that ca-mre "within an ace of reducing to aahes tho new Public Library, have created a feeling of uneasiness that an incendiary may be at work in Christdhurch. Thß fire at the Public Library was a meet mysterious affair. The workmen engaged on the building left at 5 o'dlock, and at that time everything was safe 'and secure. At 8 o'clock a passer-by observed -through t_e windows facing Hereford street a light, apparently coming from the room where the fire occurred. The light was stationary, and burnt clear and steady. Had it been moving about the presence of some individual would have been explained. Shortly after nine o'clock the flaanes broke out, and the alarm was given. Mr H. Strong, the librarian, inrfwrmed a "-Press" representative on Saturday that, although he was near the building the whole evening, he had no idea the pEace was on fire until the engines arrived. All the doors of the library were shut and locked, and he cannot think that anybody could have entered the building. If the place were set alight at 8 o'clock, when the light was seen through the window, the whole building woutklhave been in ashes an hour later. Mr Strong does not know what to make of the fire; he ia inclined to the opinion, however, thait it was not an accident.

Mr Harman, of Messrs Collins and Harman, can explain the tire in no other way than that it was the work of an incendiary. The door at the building might have been locked, but the window, certainly were not, for the catches have not yet been put on, and it would have been quite easy for anybody to enter. Everything pointed to incendiarism. The.fire occurred at a spot where there were no gas jets, no fireplace, and nothing that could reasonably be supposed to have caused a conflagration. It ocenrred in an inner room near the floor, close to a wall, and just where a quantity of oil pots and paints werrv stowed.