CH.CH. FIRE ENQUIRY

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 November 1934, Page 2

CH.CH. FIRE ENQUIRY

W. DAVIDSON’S DENIALS. [PER press association.] CHRISTCHURCH, November 16. Further evidence was given, to-day, by William Davidson, manager of Davidson and Co., Ltd., at the Coroner’s inquiry into the fire at the Company’s warehouse in Lichfield Street, on June 8. This is the eleventh day of the hearing. Witness was questioned by Chief Detective Dunlop. Witness said that on the night of the fire he went hurriedly to the warehouse. Ilis married daughter accompanied him. The Chief Detective referred to the evidence previously given, that witness’s car was seen outside the warehouse about 12.30 a.m. on the night of the fire. “I think they are mistaken,” said witness, who agreed with the Chief Detective that the two witnesses concerned should know his car when they saw it. “I was at home with my car before midnight,” witness declared. The Chief Detective: Then both these men were wrong, when they say they saw the car after midnight? “That is so.” Later, witness said that one other witness, Wilson, the storeman, was wrong in his estimate of the stock that had been in the warehouse at the time. Wilson, he declared, had been strongly influenced to give evidence in favour of the insurance companies. The hearing is proceeding.