DESTROYED BY FIRE

Northern Advocate, 17 August 1933, Page 6

DESTROYED BY FIRE

BOATSHED AT IE KOPURU CORONER HOLDS INQUIRY UNUSUAL EVENT EXPLAINED BLAME NOT SHEETED HOME (Special to “Northern Advocate.’’) DARGAVILLE, This Day. The coroner’s inquiry, the first of the kind held in the district, was conducted by the District Coroner, Mr. J. A. McLean, in Dargaville on Tuesday, into the circumstances of a fire which destroyed a large boat building shed at the waterfront at Te Kopuru on March ]1 last. The building was owned by Mr. William Robert |Rope, and was leased to Edwin George Warmington, boatbuilder. The building was valued at £9OO, and was insured, with the contents, for £6OO. It was leased at £75 per year. Lengthy evidence was heard by the lessee; the owner; George Andrew Martin, who discovered the fire; Vernon Wordsworth, who was early on the scene; Basil Vernon Rope, forhierly a partner with his two brothers in the building; Charles Edward Hankins, insurance adjuster; and Sergeant Dunford. None of the witnesses was able to throw any light on the direct cause of the lire. At the conclusion of evidence, Mr. Webb, who represented the owner, thanked Sergeant Dunford for the fain and impartial manner in which he had presented the case. It was clear, counsel said, that the inquiry had not revealed any suspicious circumstances relating to the parties who had appeared at the hearing. In cases of death, inquiries were a usual procedure, and, as such, were not regarded by the public with more than the usual degree of interest. However, inquests into the cause of fires were comparatively rare, and consequently the public might be' prone to attach to them false significance. Several coronial inquiries into fires had been held recently, and it was probable that such inquiries would be more usual in future.

Mr. Astley, a-mortgagee, commented that as until recently coronial inquiries into fires had been rare, it should be known generally that the underwriters and the Justice Department now had agreed that such inquests should be held in cases where the cause of fire was unexplained. In his written verdict, delivered later, the coroner said there was nothing in the evidence to indicate that any of the witnesses were implicated in any way. The coroner added that there had been evidence to show that strangers had access to the building, and it was possible that the fire had been due to carelessness on their part.