FIRE AT DUNEDIN

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 2, 3 July 1933, Page 10

FIRE AT DUNEDIN

DAMAGE TO STOCK EXCHANGE

HISTORIC BUILDING ,

(By. Telegraph.—l'ress Association.)

DUNEDIN, this Day.

Damage estimated to amount to between £3000 and £4000 was done when firo broke out in tjie Stock Exchange building early yesterday morning. The outbreak commenced in a corner of tho building, and the flames travelled through tho roof and along two sides, being arrested before leaching the clock tower. , The roof was considerably damaged at tho rear of the building, and the caretaker's rooms wore gutted, but the only damage to the ground floor-offices and shops was by water. The building is owned by the Stock Exchange proprietors. Only the fact that there was no wind enabled the brigade to save the building. The place was so strongly ablaze when the alarm was given that a northerly wind would have caused the complete demolition of Dunedin's most historic building, erected in Oamaru stone in 1871 for a post office and subsequently used for the first university. Later it was occupied by the ill-fated Colonial Bank, and it was then remodelled to house tho stockbrokers' call room and officesj 4 restaurant, etc. Most of the offices escaped with minor water damage. Three of six billiard tables in Mr. Griffiths's saloou were ruined, and the Toe II club room was also gutted. The insurances, amounting to £20,000, are distributed among six companies. Mr. Griffiths's billiard tables were insured for £500 in Lloyd's office.