WELLINGTON POST OFFICE TOTALLY DESTROYED.

Evening Star, Issue 7198, 28 April 1887, Page 2

WELLINGTON POST OFFICE TOTALLY DESTROYED.

LOSS, L 40.000.

WELLINGTON, April 28.

A destructive fire commenced at 4.45 a.m., it is supposed, in the press-room of the Telegraph Office. The telegraphic room, the telephone exchange, the accountants', and the Postmaster-General's branch, the* Customs office, and the Post and Mail offices are completely destroyed, and there is now (six o'clock) little chance of saving the remainder of the building. The damage is estimated at between L 30.000 and L 40.000. Very little has been saved except the mails and a few telephones. All the telegraphic instruments are destroyed. The accounts as to the origin of the fire are very conflicting. The fire was discovered by a woman who came down to clean out the offices. She asserts that it appeared to be in the centre of the building where the new electric light apparatus is being erected. The fire spread with great rapidity, and. although the building was,of brick, the two top stories were one mass of flame|wkhin an hour and a-half of the outbreak. This message has been sent out by a special messenger to the nearest telegraph station. Communication will be temporarily restored dnring the day, but it wiH be difficult to get much work through. • Lateh.

The building is completely gutted. Nine branches were playing on it at one time. There were heavy losses in the records, but the telegraph documents were mostly in a safe. About L 2,000 worth of telephones were saved. Everything was cleared out of the Post Qffice, and the employes began sorting the mails at once in the street. There was no insurance whatever. The contents of J. E. Nathan and Co.'a store adjoining were damaged by water. The Telegraph Office is now located in another building, and it is expected that the officers will be ready for work this afternoon. Luckily'a complete set of tables and instruments designed for Napier were in store, and will be sent up at once. The Post Office is temporarily located in a shed on the wharf. The building burned down was only finish d in 1884. The lower storey walls are intact, but the upper ones will probably have to be pulled down. > [This message was telephoned by the courtesy of the Wellington-Manawatu Railway Company, along their private line t° Palmerston North, whence ic is distributed by telegram. J ' ' j The building is completely gutted. The total damage is estimated at about 1*30,000.