THE OLD STORY.

Evening Star, Issue 9119, 27 April 1893, Page 1

THE OLD STORY.

It seems that only one man was burnt to death by the fire on the Papakura road, near Napier, on the morning of the 19th inst. The ‘Herald’ reports that the discovery of the fire was made shortly after six o’clock by MrW. Gilligan, who found the whole of the house destroyed, and what looked like the bodies of two men on the still glowing embers. More careful inspection proved that this was not the case; one of the’ charred heaps turned out to he the remains of a sack of grain. • The other was only too plainly the incinerated head and trunk of a man, the arms and legs burned off, and what was left quite beyond even an approach to identification. Indirect evidence, however, conclusively showed that the remains were those of Francis Milligan, a small fahner and express driver of about fifty-two years of age. The deceased, a widower, was well known in Napier and the surrounding districts, having been in Hawke’s Bay for many years. Latterly he had developed a fondness for liquor, and at the time of his death he had only been a few days out of gaol, whither he had to be sent to be treated for an attack of delirium tremens. A prohibition order was In force against him; but he always appeared’ to get as much drink as he wanted, judging hy the state he was frequently in. He no doubt obtained the liquor by means of others, who while professing to be his friends were really the greatest enemies he had, as they ministered to a vice that his true "friends were trying to rescue him from. It is therefore no wonder that as soon as the disaster was known the general opinion was that the shocking affair was another to be added to the long list of the horrors caused by intemperance. On the other hand, according to the evidence of the one who last saw deceased alive, he was quite sober at the time.