SUSPICIOUS FIRE NEAR DUNEDIN.

Evening Post, Volume XXI, Issue 68, 23 March 1881, Page 2

SUSPICIOUS FIRE NEAR DUNEDIN.

EXTRAORDINARY* STATEMENTS BY WITNESSES. | UNITED PRE6B ASSOCIATION. | DUNEDIN, THIB DAT. A coroner's inquest was held at Port ChalmerH touching the suspicious fire at Mansford Bay on the sth instant The next door neighbor of Peaice swore that on the evening of the fire he heard noises in his horue as cf people jumping off a form or table, and saw a light in the parlor where the fire broke out. Other witnesses swore that a boy earned Martin M'Mahon declared to them that Pearce, the owner of the honse, offered him £LO to fire the honse. M'Mahon was somewhat intoxicated at the time. George Moir, in his evidence, said — On 2let Febrnary, while '* on the beer," I was with M Mahon, who was drunk. M'Mahon wanted me to go with him, aa he had been offered .£lO to burn down a house, but he intended to try to get £15. I gathered that

the house was Pearce's, but thought it only talk on M'Mahon's part. I told the sergeant while in the hospital I would burn any house down in these hard times for .£lO, and bo I wonld. M'Mahon, in his evidence, said — I made the statement when drunk lam very sorry and know nothing of tho fire. Pearce never mooted to me to set fire to the house, but I mooted the matter to him — that's an honest confession. The Coroner— You have cither wilfully perjured yourself or endeavored to set up that which is very improbable, that you were so drunk as to be under an hallucination, and you quite fail to clear Pearoe. You are one of the worst and most discreditable witnesses that ever came into Court. Two witnesses swore that M'Mahon was not under the influence of drink when he made the statement. Pearce denied ever having a conversation with M'Mahon, and added that his family was away from the house on the night of the fire. The jury returned a verdiot that the house was wilfully fired by persons unknown. The evidence of M'Mahon and Moir, they added, was-exceedingly unsatisfactory.