SUPPOSED INCENDIARISM.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CIII, Issue 12158, 23 March 1900, Page 6

SUPPOSED INCENDIARISM.

[Pee Peess Association.] AUCKLAND, March 22.

A supposed case of incendiarism, took place at 9.30 to-night at a private hospital in Liverpool Street, conducted by Mrs Andrews. It is a two-storied building of fourteen rooms, and contained twenty inmates, some being bad cases. She had a load of kindling wood stacked in the yard near the house. A quantity of packing shavings had been placed near the wood, saturated with kerosene, and covered with a piece of old dress and old blanket, and fired. An inmate noticed a glare, the fire having caught the kindling wood and fencing, but the fire was suppressed by residents with a few buckets of water. Mrs Andrews at once telephoned for the police and detectives, who promptly arrived and inspected the premises, as did Captain Field, of the Salvage Corps. No clue has been obtained to the perpetrators, Mrs Andrews not being aware of any reason why such a dastardly outrage should be attempted. There is little doubt that had the fire occurred at a later hour there would have been loss of life. The police consider the affair the act of a lunatic, or a person having a mania for fire-raising.