SET FIRE TO HIS HOUSE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16265, 26 June 1916, Page 7

SET FIRE TO HIS HOUSE

CONTRACTOR'S GUILT.

A DABGAVILLE CASE.

As the result of a fire which occurred at nis residence on Saturday, June 17, a wellknown resident of Dargaville, named James Charles Wiggins, engaged as a building contractor, appeared in the local Court before two justices of the peace on a charge of wilfully setting fire to his house. Detective-Sergeant Hollis, who conducted the prosecution, left Auckland for Dargaville, and after making investigations arrested the accused, who pleaded guilty. It appears from a statement made by him to the detective that on the night of June 17, after liis_ brother-in-law had left the house, he threw some clothing behind a door and set fire to it with a candle. Wiggins s brother-in-law gave evidence that he returned and found the house full of smoke and a fire blazing in one of the rooms, the flames from jvhich were attacking the partition. " He suppressed the fire with the assistance of a neighbour. ■ °

The accused admitted that he had set fire to the house with the object of obthe insurance, policies totalling »650 covering the house and furniture. It transpired that he had a farm in the vicinity, and, before the fire, had taken two boxes of goods from the house to the farm. Wiggins was convicted, and remanded to the Supreme Court at Auckland for sentence, bail being allowed.