'PECULIAR EVIDENCE’

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 166, 10 April 1926, Page 10

'PECULIAR EVIDENCE’

INQUIRY INTO A FIRE 'MAGISTRATE RESERVES DECISION 'Uy .Telegraph.—Press Association. Gisborne, April 9. The circumstances connected with the ’destruction by fire on March 16 of a four-roomed cottage at Ormond, owned and occupied by Frank Harry Doreen, a labourer, formed the subject of an inquiry before the Coroner (Mr. E. C. Lewey, S.M.) to-day. The house, which was insured for £275, was burnt to the ground, but the majority of the furniture and chattels, which were uninsured, were removed by the owner during the fire. Frank Henry Doreen, in evidence, said that he owned the cottage and the

section concerned in the fire. There ■ was a mortgage of £2OO on the cottage. The cottage was insured for £275 in the Mutual Insurance Company. He was home by himself on March 16. He had a fire burning in the kitchen range and retired at 10 o’clock, but was awakened at 1 a.m. by a crackling noise, and found the kitchen full of smoke. 'Tie shut the' door, hurriedly dressed, and set about removing the furniture. He took all the furniture out of the. two front - rooms, with .the exception of a washstand and dressing-table. At the back of the house was a lean-to or shed, and he went there and removed a gig, harness, saddle, bridle, and bicycle. _ The smoke was too extensive in the kitchen to discover where the fire was. He did not call the neighbours as he thought he would' lose time. It so happened that by the fire he released himself of a mortgage of £2OO and saved the most valuable of his goods, but he estimated his loss at about £6O to £7O. William Gomm, bus proprietor, said that he reached the scene of the fire at 2.30 a.m., and on going to the rear of the 'house saw Doreen watching the fire. Witness asked how long the place had been burping, and he said two hours. The building was then all down except a little portion at the back. Doreen .was quite cool and in no way upset. A lot .of the articles saved were twenty yards back from the burning house. The nearest neighbours would not be more than 50 or 100 yards away. After hearing the police evidence regarding the goods saved, etc., the Coroner said the evidence was so peculiar that he would have'to consider it before delivering his finding.