INCENDIARISM.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume III, Issue 293, 28 August 1882, Page 2

INCENDIARISM.

(UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.) CMBISTCHUBCH, This Day. The own correspondent of the Star telegraphs from Akaroa this morning, as follows :«— " Wackerlie's hotel was burnt to the ground last night, and the Criteion hotel and Brace's .hotel were also set fire to. All three fires are clear cases .of incendiarism, and it is presumed that each act was perpetrated by the same persons. The two hotels last mentioned started burning a second time. But theffrceh outbreaks were fortunately discovered at an early stage, and promptly extinguished. Garwood and Company'spremises had a narrow escape. The mdi-, cations afforded by a subsequent careful examination, show that a most deliberate attempt was made to ' burn the : town down down, a quantity of gorse was found to have been placed under the Criterion, and Brace's Hotels. The incendiary had so arranged matters, that the three fires broke out almost simultaneoasly at each end of tbe Borough, and in ita centre, the time of alarm being shortly after 2 a.m. It is a remarkable coincidence, that in eaoh case, the fire was discovered through the restlessness of nn invalid. A feeling of intense excitement and indiguation prevails.