The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1867. ADJOURNED INQUEST.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 271, 15 November 1867, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1867. ADJOURNED INQUEST.

The jury assembled again at 4 o'clock. A large number of persons were present in the Court, including the agents of the various Insurance Companies. The cook at the Masonic Hotel, Auguste Hardi. was then re-examined by Mr Pitt, and said: I may, at the time I was excited have said I thought the house was wilfully set on fire. I said so because I saw no one who had to go upstairs and could not understand how a fire could occur without some cause. Ido not know whether or not I said so to Maguire, but I think 1 did. I had no suspicion of any person. I was upstairs when I heard the alarm of fire and Baw the bed and ceiling on fire. I tried to put it out. Did not notice any peculiarity in the flame. It was not on account of the flame that made me think the house had been set on fire. When I saw Mrs Wilson after the alarm of fire, I saw her cdraing from the passage. I have never, in conversation, given any reason for my thinking the house was wilfully set on fire. The burning mattress was blazing, 1 1 kink, to the roof • because the blaze was actually going through the roof. . . Lenton Ward being sworn, said: lam a butcher, - living at the Masonic Hotel at the time of the fire. I had been at the Mokihinui. I went out after tea on the evening of the fire alone. I was near, the Government school when I heard the alarm bell. I ran back, but was too late to save rny things. I assisted in moving the stock, etc. I had not been upstairs at the Masonic since the morning. I came through the bar into the street, and sac outside the house for some little time. Examined by Mr Pitt: I staved in my tent when at the Mokihinui, and came here in the Murray a fqrtnight ago. I did not see Mrs Wilson after \ tea. I don't think any one slept upstairs but an 1 Maguire. - \Henry Maguire. being sworn, said: I am a laborer in the employ of Mr Curtis. I was at Westport four months ago; when there I received • two letters from the Postmaster, directed to Patrick Maguire, which he read, and he said they wyre from Mr Trimble of Nelson. I told him *«hey were not for me. These letters were directed foaihe Police Camp. Ttobert Barnes, being sworn, said: I live in iHardy-street. 1 heard an alarm of fire on Thursday evening last. I had just come down the lane . opposite the Masonic. There was no sign of fire . i then. Not two minutes afterwards one of my - children came and told me that the Masonic was ■on fire. I went over there, entered the passage, ' and seeing a staircase on the left, went up and saw a cloud of smoke, but no flame; a man was harrying out with a bundle in his arms. I said 'can't you get some water?' He said 'who's going into that fire? look at that!' The fire then burst •out. I think 1 should know him again. [Maguire •was here brought into Court, and the witness expressed his belief that he was the man alluded to.] The man was not in No. 6, but seemed to be coining from No. 2, and appeared to be dressed altogether like the man shown to me. He ridiculed the notion of putting out the fire. There was another man, apparently a digger, who followed me upstairs, and who was busy trying to secure bis clothes. George Gate, being sworn, said: I am in the employ of Mr Disher. I Avas passing the Masonic about ten minutes before the alarm was given, and had got as far as the Institute when I heard the alarm. I saw Mrs Wilson come outside the Masonic as I passed, on the tramway, and look up at the roof. A young man, who is a carpenter in town, was with me, and we returned together to the fire. Mrs Wilson had no bonnet or shawl .on when I-saw her. I did not sf-e her again There was no sign of smoke rising from the roof when we passed. Isaac Fowler, being sworn, said: I was billiardmarker at? the Wakatu on the evening of the fire. I saw Maguire yesterday and he asked me if I Bhould be up at the Court to hear him give evidence. 1 replied 'No.' He faid 'I mean to pitch into Steve,' and added 'You remember my playing a game at billiards the night of the fire?' I said 'yes.' He then "asked me if I remembered,how long he had been in the room. He said it was about a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes, and I agreed with him. He was there about dusk, and stopped about twenty minutes. Two or three boys came in before the game was ended. * Two or three minutes after Maguire left I heard the cry of 'fire.' I knew Maguire four or five years ago in Otago.. I was managing a store there. He was in the police. I have played with him several tiroes within the last month or so, I saw him

about twelve month* ago on the Buller, where he was a policeman. His reasoa for. asking me to come to the Court was because he had a 'down' on Steve, who, I thought, he meant to connect with setting fire to the house when he said, in a conversation with him and Sergeant Nash, that it would be a matter of four years to the party who did it, if it was found out. Herbert Evelyn Curtis, being sworn, stated that his firm were the agents for the New Zealand Insurance Company, and that the Masonic Hotel was insured for the sum of £900 on the bulling in the joint names of Messrs Morrison and Scland'-rs and Thomas Field. The furniture was insured for £550, and the stock- in- trade for £250, in the name of Joseph Trimble. The insurance was an old one, and transferred to Trimble. We were aware that some of the furniture, including the billiard table, had been sent to the Bulier. I had given instructions that a reduction of the insurance should be made next quarter day. John Nash, Sergeant of Police, being sworn said."sl remember, Friday afternoon last, hearing Taylor asking Maguire what he meant by saying that he 'would get four years' if it was found out who set fire to the premises, lie replied that there was no harm in saying so, as it was merely a joke. Taylor then said it would be no joke if the parties were found out, and that he had no right to pass such jokes. After Taylor left, I asked Maguire where he was at the time of the fire, and he said that he was at the Wakatu billiard-room, and did not leave it till the alarm had been given. On Saturday he told me" a totally different story, and that he was one of the first to enter the house when the alarm was given, that he had got up to the landing on the staircase, but could not get into his room, as the roof was on fire. This concluded the evidence at present available, and the Court having been cleared, the jury, after half an hour's consideration, unanimously agreed to the following verdict: — * That the fire, the subject of this inquest, originated in an upper room of the Masonic Hotel, in Hardy-street, on Thursday, the 7th instant, af about 7.45 in the evening, and that the premises were wilfully set fire to; and further, that very grave suspicions attach to Mary Wilson, in charge of the house at the time, as the incendiary. Shorty afterwards Mary Wilson was apprehended and committed for trial on the Coroner's warrant.