CAUGHT IN TIME

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 29 November 1927, Page 5

CAUGHT IN TIME

EXPENSIVE BLAZE AVERTED IN PARLIAMENTARY BUILDINGS. A RESOURCEFUL YOUTH. (BY TELEGRAPH—SPECIAL TO “THE STAR.'*) WELLINGTON, Nov. 28. A sixteen-year-old telegraph messenrer saved the New Zealand Government over £IOO.OOO to-night. During the suTiner adjournment of the House of Representatives lie knocked at the Moot of n private writing-room in the old wooden wing of Parliament Buildngs with the intention of delivering a telegram to the member for Gisborne, Mr W. D- Lysnar. On entering he ound that papers on the table were ablaze. Rushing out he gave the alarm and one of Bellamy’s waiters appeared, ’be pair quickly uncoiled a .length of hose, the waiter running down the passage with it and in a few moments a stream of water was being played on dm fire. Fortunatelv the damage was confined to papers on the table and the table itself. A’l the .paper© were either destroyed or partially burnt, and a- nilo if unorened letters which Mr Lysnar had received by the evening mail were educed to ashes. The table was deeply charred. A cigarette had been left on the ash tray, and had smouldered away till the burn hr’’ bpd fell on some notepaprr, which, it ignited. Had it not been for the timely arrival of the messenger, ijie, probabilities are that the whole of the wooden wing, which had been parG’.l’v renovated, during the last recess, would have been destroyed, sirme there vns a hi’di wind blowing at the time. When the alarm was given, (someone ’woke a. glass fire alarm connecting with the fire station, but it failed to operate. and the .brigade' did not arrive. The estimated cost of a new stoffa wirvz is Gpproxiinat-ely £150.000.