WOODEND FIRE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXIII, Issue 15921, 6 May 1912, Page 5

WOODEND FIRE.

INQUIRY CONCLUDED. Tho adjourned inquiry into the origin of the'fire at Woodend on March '25, when the Oddfellows' Hall and buildings occupied by J. H. Lloyd, G. H. Felton and E. Whitlow were destroyed, was concluded at the Magistrate's Court on Saturday before Mr T. A. B. Bailey, S.M. I James Henry Lloyd, recalled, gave evidence as to the rental accruing from the premises. Dene 'f wynham, commercial traveller, said that he had made an examination of Lloyd's stock at his Christchurch shop about a week before he had sold out. He had valued the stock, at. between £175 aud £2OO. After Carter, the buyer, had taken possession of. the shop, witness again valued the stock, and estimated it at £149. According tb Carter's list and witness's valuation, the stock had decreased to the extent of about £SO. To Detective Bishop: He considered that the business was a cheap one at £175, though Lloyd had sold! it. for £IOO. Harry D. Bates, grocer, of Addmgton, said that lie was a brother-in-law of Lloyd's. He had taken stock of the business at Woodend, and had valued it at £145. The Magistrate, in< delivering his verdict, said that the buildings at Woodend. consisting of the Oddfellows' Hall, a store occupied by James Henry Lloyd and a building occupied by George Henry Felton as a bootmaker's shop and by Esau Whitlow as a hairdressing saloon, had been de- . stroyed by lire at about midnight on March 25; that tliisTure had originated in the store occupied by James Henry Lloyd, but that there was no evidence! as to how the lire originated. I