INCENDIARISM SUSPECTED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19809, 2 December 1927, Page 10

INCENDIARISM SUSPECTED

PARLIAMENT BUILBINGS. THREE INCIPIENT FIRES. . A TIMELY DISCOVERY. MATTER REGARDED AS SERIOUS!, [bv telegraph.—special REPORTER.] WELLINGTON, Thursday. Plain-clothes policemen and detectives are on duty in Parliament Buildings, on the look-out for an incendiary, who is considered to be at work. During the height of the gale, about nine o'clock on Monday evening, a fire was discovered in a room in the old part of Parliament Buildings, formerly Government House. But for the advent of a telegraph messenger with a telegram for Mr. W, D. Lysnar. the old building might have gone up in smoke. In this part of the building there are several Ministerial offices, cooms occupied by Sir Joseph Ward and other members of the House, and the dining room, kitchen and cellars of Bellamy's. The building is a very old one, built of wood, and has been the residence of successive Govar nors from the early days of the settlement. When the messenger went into Mr. Lysnar's room, on the top floor of the building, he found the papers on the table ablaze. He quickly gave the alarm, and a waiter, who happened to be passing through the corridor, at once rushed in with a lead of hose and, having turned on the waterj, soon put*"the fire out Mr. Lysnar states that he had not been in the room for two hours. All the correspondence on his table was destroyed and the table was charred. Late last night two further attempts were made to burn down the building. One fire was discovered in the tower and another in a room in which a mop that had been soaked in kerosene was blazing. This room is one, the door of which is usually left open, but when a smell of smob in the passage led to investigation, the door was found to have been closed. The matter is regarded as serious, and detectives are now on the watch. The old building is joined to the modern stone structure by a wooden passage, but beyond this passage the main building, which contains the Upper aad Lower House Chambers and suites of Ministerial and other offices, in almost fireproof.