CAREFUL PREPARATIONS

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 24, 27 July 1929, Page 11

CAREFUL PREPARATIONS

(By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evening Post.")

CHBISTCHUBCH, This Day. The thieves made careful preparations to set the place on fire. In the dining-room a big pile of paper was placed against the sideboard and set alight, and another fire was started alongside the piano, where a number of oil paintings had been placed. The third fire was started in the breakfastroom, where a large heap of papers was piled against the wall. On the other side of tho house another fire was lighted on top of a bed, but an attempt to start a blaze in Mr. Archer's study at the front of the house failed, as the paper did not. catch alight properly. When Mr. and Mrs. Archer reached their home they gazed upon a distressing picture. In the dining-room the sideboard had been destroyed, and on the floor lay a pile of broken eroekery, silver, and smouldering wood. The piano had been damaged beyond repair, and much of the other content of tho room had been destroyed. The walls were charred in places, and the water had completed the ruin. The breakfastroom escaped serious damage, though one wall was considerably charred. The damage to tho bedroom fortunately was 'very slight.

The Mayor seemed to accept his loss philosophically, for after spending about half an hour at his house he returned to tho Winter Garden to carry ou,t his part of the ceremony, which was tho proposing of the toast of 'Canterbury's Early Settlors." Tho incendiarists left behind a torch and a glove. ' Mr. Archer estimates the damago at between £200 and £300.