RESIDENCE BURNED AT BULLS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1077, 16 March 1911, Page 5

RESIDENCE BURNED AT BULLS.

OLD DOCUMENTS DESTROYED. (By, TelegrapK-PreSs Association.). • Palmerston North, March 15. About i p.m. ,to-day, while Mr. John Stevens, late M.P. for Rangitikei, was enjoying "d .cigar upon the yerahdah of his resilience, Somerset House, at Bulls, and his daughters, Miss Ethel Stevens and .Nurse Hilda Stevens' (recently arrived from England) were within, Mr. Stevens noticed a smell of burning,, and it was discovered that one of the upstairs rooms was on fire. All that could be saved. was the piano and couch from the draw-ing-room,'"which opsned on the verandah, and some books and papers. It is feared that'Mr.'Stevens's valuable collections of old documents and papers, Native ana district, history, have been wholly destroyed. --All . personal effects wow destroyed.. v The building -Was a fine one, originally" erected forty years ago by •Mγ. John Heaton, and was for years 'the finest residence in the district. Mr. Stevens 'acquired, the property some' thirty years ago, and recently added to it. There is an insurance of JCCOO-on the building and £300 on the • furniture.