SUSPECTED INCENDIARISM IN THE WAIKATO

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXXII, Issue 5769, 24 March 1876, Page 3

SUSPECTED INCENDIARISM IN THE WAIKATO

We exceedingly lt^ictto h.ucto notice one ot those dastauilv outiagcs to which the settlci is peiuliuh i \posed — the attempted distinction of liis lioiibc and sleadmg by hio — though, in this instance, the damage was foi tuu.itily confined to a single stack On Tuesday night Mi Reid, the piopnctoi of Woodside Faun, (in the Hamilton and ( ' uiibndge I toad, letued to ic-.t with his family at the custom. uy horn, <. vu \ thing about the place being s.ife, and m piopei older as usual. About 1 o'clock on Wednesday inoiinng Mi Uud'b son, who was slot p 11114 with the window of his lied room open, .uid being unwell was fortunately awake at th.it houi, heaul a uaekling as of the burning of stiaw, and hastily getting up tound th.it an oaten haystack, containing some 1 1 tons ot lui} — the outei of boveiul stacks and the neatest to the toad, and to wind waul of tkcotlieis-was on lue, the Mimes hi\ni<£ liold oi the stick about the l.ulh ami commencing to run lapidly u\ci the loot. He at once al.iimed his fathei, who called out all hands, and the -whole ot the funily and a hoi Ling man living 111 the hoii->< tinned out to save the prupeity. It w.is sc.( n at once that with th« means and appliance-, at hand the stack then on tin could not, heaved, and the evertions ot the family wcie tinned to saving the remamdei fiOiii distinction. One hand was posted at the well, and the otheis were employed 111 passing the water in buckets from the well to the adjoining stack, the roof and face of which, and the roofs of the others had been covered with wet blankets. The little band woikcd biavely at keeping these coverings well satuiated with water till the well at last gave out. Foitunately, however, watu was again procurable at a little further distance, and .ittcr great e\ei lions the fne burned itselt out without communicating to the adjoining stacks, which contained amongst other produce a remarkably fine crop ol some seventeen aero of wheat. The \.iluo of the stack destroyed was about WO, and it w\s not insured. It was only in July last, it will be remembei'ed, that Mr Koul was the victim of an incendiary lire, his mills at Taiuaherc being burned, and by which lire, though insured to the cKtent of some £300, he was a loser of nearly double that amount. Theie could be no doubt the lire on that occasion was the act of an incendiary as apuwoin attempt had been made and discoveicd. and fiom what we learn, but which, for obwous reasons, it is not desirable should be pub hshed, the lire of Wednesday morning is not only tlie act of an incendiary, but of the same incendiary as on the former occasion — W'aiLi(ti) 7 inn s