UNOCCUPIED HOUSE BURNED

Northern Advocate, 11 June 1929, Page 6

UNOCCUPIED HOUSE BURNED

WHO LIGHTED THE FUSE? AUCKLAND FIRE RECALLED. A COLON ER PUZZLED. (■Special to “Northern Advocate.“) AUCKLAND, This Day. Allegations of incendiarism were made by the police at an inquiry yesterday into a fire in an old twostoreyed wooden house of II rooms at 3 Arthur Street, Ponsonby, owned by Mrs Catherine Gavogan. It was partly destroyed at .'1.15 a.m. on April 30. Mr P. K. Hunt was on the bench.

Chief Detective Hammond said the house was unoccupied since last August. It was fully furnished. It was insured for £IOOO and the furniture for £Gd(). After the tire the police found a lino of fuse, such as i« used by miners, laid from the front door along the hall to under the switch board, a distance of 21 feet. There was a strong smell of herosense. There was proof positive that the house was wilfully burned. The tiro went right through the place, and the 'house was extensively damaged. Detective Allsopp said he made an examination of the. house. Tiro lire apparently started under the stairwayon the gouml floor. There was a hole burned through the floor. “I found a length of burned ordinary fuse stretching from the front door down the hallway. At the seat of the lire there was a (good deal of debris, and on examining it carefully I noticed a strong smell of kerosene. portion of tic debris was submitted to the Government Analyst. There was no evidence that the house had been entered by burglars. The front and back doors were locked. Witness carried out experiments with the typo of fuse found. It burned at the rate of Ift. in 30 seconds. The passage along which the fuse was laid was 21 foot in length. “A man would have ton minutes to get away, then?” asked the magistrate. Witness agreed, stating that the fuse could bo ignited and a man could get away. The fuse was undoubtedly the cause of the fire. He had received expert reports from electrical inspectors, which showed that the cause of the lire was not due to the electrical equipment. Cross-examined, the detective said he knew Mrs Gayegan had been in hospital for several days, while hbr husband had been in Wellington for a. similar time. Evidence regarding the nature of the debris taken from the fire was given by Mr Kenneth Massey Griffin, Government Analyst. Charred wood and other material showed traces of kerosene.

1 Mrs Gavegan said that the house j was 'bequeathed to her in August, with the furniture, and had not since been occupied. It was subject to a. mortgage to the Public Trust Office of £l2fio, which she arranged herself. The husband, in evidence, stated, however, that it was he who arranged the mortgage. The last time Mrs Gavogan was in the house before the tire was April 20. The piano and billiard table, both of which "were insured, wore removed from the house in August, soon after she obtained possession of it, and nver? sold.

John Taylor, taxi driver, Newmarket, the purchaser of the billiard table and piano, said ho drove Mrs Ga vega a to the house on her last visit on April 20. The day before he had been in the house to nail up a window. On April 20 he had undergone an operation to his eyes. Since last August ho had driven Mrs Gavogan to the house every second day ou an average, but he was very rarely in the house. Thewindow" which, ho nailed up was in the dining room on the ground floor. "There is no difficulty about reaching a verdict, ’ ’ mid the magistrate. "The evidence shows that the lire was •wilfully caused by someone, but who. that person was there is no evidence to show." He returned a verdict to that effect.