STARTLING INCENDIARISM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11580, 19 February 1901, Page 3

STARTLING INCENDIARISM.

MAN TRIES TO BURN HIS OWN

HOUSE.

ESCAPE OF THE WIFE AND CHILDREN.

Maryborough (Victoria), February 11. Shortly after ten o'clock this evening -what might have been a. calamitous domestic tragedy was prevented only by the intervention of the neighbours of a man who deliberately set fire to the house in which were his wife and three children. The house is a four-roomed one, constructed of wood, with three more rooms under one roof a little at rear. The occupant was Daniel Cox, aged 37, who until some time ago was a labourer in the Railway Department, which position he lost owing to his indulgence in liquor. Cox was about the town drinking during the day, and returned to his home in Barklystreet, on the outskirts of the town, about three o'clock, when, his son states, he swore at. his wife. After dining Cox left the home, and returned to the hotels. Shortly after nine o'clock he reached home again, and half-an-hour later, Mrs. Merritt, who lives next door, saw Mrs. Cox rush into her house, and at the same time heard Cox call out loudly. Mrs. Merritt's brother, Mr. W. H. Taylor, was at his sister's at the time, and they rushed outside, to see the back portion of Cox's residence in ilames. They both returned to the house, making their way through the intervening picket fence, and got the three —Bertie, aged seven, who had not gone to bed; Eva, between two and three years, who was in her cot.; and the baby, Maggie, nine months a perambulator. This done, Taylor ran and gave the alarm of fire. Police-constables Walsh and McKinnon were soon on the scene, and looked for Cox, whom they found wandering about in his shirt sleeves. As soon as he saw Constable McKinnon he became abusive, and shouted out,

" I set it on fire, and I'm prepared to do a life sentence, or the rope round my neck." Cox was speedily apprehended, and removed liv' Constable Walsh to the lockup, while McKinnon looked for a gun which Cox had said was in a corner, and which he had fortunately failed to find. The arrested man was in a very excited condition, but offered no lesistanee.

Mrs. Cox lias evidently been in dread of injury, for on several occasions she has asked Mr, Morritt for protection. The boy Bertie says his father went to bed, but got lip after a while and called him. He was standing on the back step when he saw his father light a match and set the place on fire. The man is said to have been fond of his children, but of a quarrelsome disposition, and the neighbours have heard him frequently wrangling during the past nine months. Mrs. Cox found shelter with Mrs. Merritt. but fearing that her husband might discover her and set Air. Merritt'.s house a'ight, she, not then knowing of his arrest, left the place, and found protection at another neighbour's. A most peculiar incident in connection with the affair is that a lady living near by has on several occasions seen what she describes as the apparition of a man with a lighted candle in his hand, each time between ten and eleven o'clock. Last night she saw the appearance in her kitchen, when her mother and husband were present, but saw nothing. On Saturday last so vivid was the apparition that she called out, " What do you want? Why do you trouble me?" The fact of the house being set tire to at the same hour as that on which she saw the apparition appears a- remarkable coincidence.

The fire was smartly overcome by the firemen, who, aided by the wind blowing the flames away from the main house, prevented the latter taking fire. The interior of the house was in great disorder, indicating that Cox had been violent before starting the conflagration.