HEAVY LOSS BY FIRE

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25216, 31 May 1945, Page 4

HEAVY LOSS BY FIRE

BUILDING AND CONTENTS LARGE WHAKATANE OFFICE (0.C.) WHAKATAXE. Wednesday The head office for the Bay of Plenty of the Loan and Mercantile Company, at Whakatane, was gutted by fire tonight.

Almost the whole of the top floor and the back portion of the ground floor of the two-storied .building, which is situated in the Strand and is one of the largest in Whakatane, together with the contents, which included grain, farm implements, records and • office furniture, were destroyed. A new motorlorry, the property of the company, which was stored at the back of the building, was also destroyed. When the alarm was given at 9.15 o'clock the fire had a good hold, and it took an hour to get it under control. At 11.30 the building was still smouldering and the firemen were still in attendance.

The Regent Theatre, which adjoins the destroyed building, was hurriedly evacuated, but the fire was confined to the one building. Insurance, figures are not available.

LOCAL ANT) GENERAL Oil Lamps at Meeting .Two oil lamps which occupied a prominent place on the chairman's table at the annual meeting last night of tfee Auckland Institute and Museum showed the institute's foresight in the event of electricity cuts. However, the occasion to use this emergency lighting did not arise. . Tension In Trieste "In due course we reached Trieste, where we found considerable tension owing to the presence of many partisans of various breeds," writes a New Zealand artilleryman in a letter received in Auckland yesterday. "Bullets spattered about and we all slept armed. It was all rather an anti-climax, for. while the war in Jtaly had officially finished, we had to remain in action just in case p ( unrest." Handling Heavy Weights "I have lifted a 2401b sack of wheat on my shoulders, but I would not expect everybody to do that," said Mr Justice O'Regan when presiding over the Compensation Court yesterday. The subject of weights that have to be handled on the wharves was under discussion. and a medical witness had said that he would consider weights of 50ib or 601b heavy. Asked what he wou'c say to weights of 150. he replied thrt they would be 1001b heavier. Liquor and Peace Day

Declaring that the main responsibility rested with the Government for allowing licensed hotels to remain open, the Auckland Christian Business Mens Association, in a resolution carried at a meeting, deplored the great amount of drunkenness and disorderly conduct, particularly amone young men ana women, in the city on Y-E Day. The resolution urged the Government and local authorities to hare the hotels closed on the occasion of future peace celehrations and to make positive arrangements whereby people could gi re expression to their feelings in a manner more befitting such an occasion ot thanksgiving. Preserving Native Bush During the year the Government decided to mill certain areas of .-tate forests for timber for housing, said ta chairman, Mr D. J. Gibbs. at a meeting of the Wellington Acclimatisatio Society. The society had appointe committee to co-operate with l pc bodies in asking that no undue should take place and similar tr should be planted where the nati were taken out. It was difficult , object to interference with the - forests in times of national emerge.„• but to plant larch andpinus in»i - in place of the native trees was . looking for trouble. The Government had issued a fine bulletin on the inc - of erosion and its effect on rin % rs :- n , was hoped that its recommends would be remembered by those departments now concerned m cu down th® bush.