Landmark Destroyed

Hutt News, Volume 19, Issue 21, 24 October 1945, Page 5

Landmark Destroyed

PERCY'S MII/L

Police inquiries have been instituted following the fire which on Saturday evening completely destroy ed the historic Percy Brothers' flour mill, a 100-year-old landmark on the Western Hutt Road at Petone. By the time the Petone Fire Brigade had been called to the scene the building was so fiercely ablaze that they decided to concentrate on saving the adjacent native busjh which is part of Percy's Reserve, a scenic area being developed .by the Petone Borough Council.

The Mayor of Petone, Mr. H. Green, attributed the fire to "pure vandalism." The council's ranger had visited the mill at 6 p.m—shortly before the fire started —he said, and there was no possibility that the mill could have been burned other than maliciously.

"Percy's flour mill was one of the first buildings in the Wellington district," the Mayor i continued. "It was built about 100 years ago from timber —totara, I believe—from the Hutt Valley and the Percy brothers used their own home-made nails. Originally there" was an oalc tree alongside the mill and it was considered to be ihe oldest oak, but one, in New Zealand. It was cut down a few years ago when the railway branch line was put to Woburn. The mill stood at the entrance to Percy's gardens. The land was taken over by the Government and handed to the council as a public reserve about four years ago.

"I cannot understand why some people delight in damaging public property," said Mr. Green who said that the council was deeply grieved about the destruction of the mill. "The ranger tells me that there have been two other attempts in the past to fire Percy's mill."