A MAN BURNED' TO DEATH AT WELLINGTON.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXVII, Issue 4355, 31 July 1871, Page 3

A MAN BURNED' TO DEATH AT WELLINGTON.

On July 12, about nine o'clock, the stables of the New Zealander Hotel, Wellington, were discovered to be on fire. There < were four horses in the stable, which were , removed' in safety, but unfortunately it was not known till afterwards/ by the discovery of his body, that a man named Andrews, better know,n by his soubriquet of " Dirty Dick," who had been seen in a state of intoxication a short time previously, had been sleeping off the fumes of his liquor in the loft, and wai burnt to death. It is more ' than probable he had been smoking, and a spark from his pipe must have ignited - the hay. In all likelihood he was suffocated by the smoke. The damage done to the stable is principally in. the roof, some portions of the building being almost intact. At one time it was feared' that the house would catch fire, and a crowd of people, possessing considerably more zeal than discretion, rushed into it, and tossed and carried out almost everything portable. One gang invaded the billiardroom, taking the table to pieces in a rough and hasty manner, damaging it considerably; while an active zealot of the gas-fitting persuasion pulled down the chandelier, breaking the gas pipe by his exertions, and causing an escape of gas, which might have proved dangerous had it not been promptly , stopped ,by Mr. George. Mr. Mclntosh has suffered much more from the raid thus made upon his furniture and belongings by his indiscreet friends than from the ravages of the fire. . The hotel was insured, but neither the furniture nor the stables, and consequently the loss will fail upon Mr. Mclntosh, The amount is estimated at £300. — At the inquest, Thomas Howell said : I knew Richard Andrews. I saw him in the bar last night before the fire. I went out, and when I returned I asked the barman where Dick was : he replied that he had got him to bed. He did not say how long he had been gone. He was very drunk when 1 last saw him. The reason I asked about him was because he was quarrelling with the barman when last I saw,, him. 1 sleep in. the harness room. .When! the alarm of fire was given the barman and T rushed to the stable door, and shouted out to Dick as loud as we could, but he did not answer. If he had been sensible he could hare escaped. I called so loud that several people said I was mad. I could not possibly have got into the loft. While I was cutting the horses adrift, I still kept crying out to Dick, and several times exclaimed that he must be dead. — The jury returned a verdict to the effect that Andrews had been accidentally burnt to death."