DESTRUCTION OF THE SYDNEY GARDEN PALACE BY FIRE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIX, Issue 6693, 29 September 1882, Page 3

DESTRUCTION OF THE SYDNEY GARDEN PALACE BY FIRE.

From files of the “Sydney Morning Herald’ to hand, per s,s, Wakatipu, wa_ compile the following acftount of this great disaster : At about'3 o’clock in the morning of the 22nd instant, Senior Constables Hay and McVain paid their customary visit to the Palace. The night watchman, F. Kirehen, was a member of the Insurance Brigade, and bad been much commended. for attention to his duties. At the time of this visit all was apparently right. At about half-past 5 o’clock, within a quarter of an hour of the outbreak of the fire, a second visit was paid, and one of the_ senior constables passed round the main hall, stopping to view some of the' statues, and paused for a few seconds in the neighborhood of .the fountain, but detected no sign whatever of fire. The constables then left the, building, the door of which, in accordance with the habit of the watchman, was immediately closed behind them. In respect to keeping the entrance closed, the watchman asserts he was most particular never on any account whatever leaving the door open whilst he was on-duty At about 25' minutes to 6 o’clock Kirehen went outside into the park surrounding the Palace, and walked to the entrance from the Homain roadway. There he met J. McKnight, the day watchman, who was due at _ 6 o’clock, but he arrived earlier than his appointed time. They stopped for a few minutes talking together, Kirehen holding in his hand the key of the door facing Macquarie-street, by which entrance the watchmen and police passed in and out, the door at the time being locked. They had talked for a minute or two when McKnight, turning his face to the_ building, suddenly exclaimed, “ Look 1 there is smoke.” ‘The smoke appeared to come from beneath the dome. The two men ran to the door, and Kirehen unlocking it, they entered. Kircheri says, “I cannot describe it; there was a great cloud of smoke, and then an immense burst of fire.” The roar of the flames leaping up from the basement through the circular aperture for the fountain sounded like an explosion when the sight suddenly burst upon them. The flames wreathed round the great bronze statue of Her Majesty the Quecn, and soon the whole circle around which the spectators used to lean against the railing to look down at the pond in the basement floor was a pit of fire—the flames rushing up in long tongues to the. dome. The supporting pillars were wrapped in fire, and along the richlypainted panels of the dome rippled its golden lines. The stained glass of the skylight dropped in a molten rain. The men connected a hose with a stand-pine, and got a stream of water on; but it was only a drop to quench a furnace. The smoke blinded them, the heat blistered their hands and faces, and they were forced to turn their backs upon the flames. A telephone connected the building with the No. 2. Volunteer Fire Brigade station, and teaching it, one of the two watchmen sent the alarm along the line. Then he fled for his life. The other ran to the bell and tolled it. The flames had now reached_ the supporting beams of the dome, and quickly spread to the north and south, the winch which was blowing from the north-west, carrying the fire rapidly to the south-east portion. There were standpipes distributed throughout the building, hoses, and. a manual engine; but with the exception of the one standpipe none of them could be used. Bsfore leaving the building one of the watchmen braved the heat to return a few yards and release a little dog that howled piteously, and strained at its chain to follow its master. Then the building was deserted, and after that time no one dared to enter it. The interior of the main hall was a glowing mass. To describe, the progress of the fire is to analyze the events, of a few minutes. The flames burst through the dome, then to the right and left, north and south, the roofing, like a gigantic firework, breaking into dotted lines of light. The flames appeared to have run along the interior walls of the transepts before they broke out, as in places great gaps were left between the outburst. Beaching the towers the fire rippled along the parapets, and in a few minutes there was no point of the building on which the eye could rest but was fringed with bright flames of fire. Then canie a dull roaring sound, and a crackling like the discharge of firearms. An immense flame leapt into the sky, volumes of black smoke rolled up, and with a crash like a petal of thunder the mighty dome fell in. The current of air created by the fall carried up as in a whirlwind great sheets of galvanised iron and clouds of burning embers. The wind carried the iron and fragments of the covering of the dome far away to the suburbs. Hot cinders fell on a house at Botts Foint, and ignited it, but the fire was soon extinguished ; other fragments were carried to Kushcutter Bay and Darling Point; two sheets of corru-

gated iron fell into the grounds of the Hon. W. Macleay, Elizabeth Bay, and showers of ashes fell upon the houses in Woolloomooloo. After ! the dome the first tower to fall, perhaps because [ it was the most exposed to the breeze, was that lat the north-western corner. Soon the flagpole on the tower facing Macquarie-street fell over, then the wooden upper portion collapsed, and fell within the brick walls of the tower. The scene would have been magnificent at night time, and even in the light of day it was grand. The flames were sometimes tempered carmine, green, yellow, or blue, by the burning of the galvanised roofing, and the various metallic substances contained in the building, and the heat from the conflagration was so great that at five minutes past 6 o’clock, or twenty-five minutes after the first alarm was given, the glass in the windows of houses in Macquarie-street began to crack. At this point the wind veered round for a few minutes, and the occupants of No. 1, Kichmond-terrace, hastily packed up and prepared to leave the house, as, had the wind continued to blow in that direction, the building would certainly have been destroyed. The terraces and highbalconied houses in Macquarie-street presented quite a carnival appearance. In every balcony was a group of people, some of the members clad in dressing gowns, others hurriedly robed in the costumes that came first to had. Even upon the tops of the houses were spectators. Alot.g the line of footpath clustered men, women, and children, all quiet and absorbed in the sight; and, as the flames took fiercer hold upon the building, and the heat increased, they hurried away with their hands shading their faces. When the fire was raging in its greatest strength, the sun was seen behind the burning Palace through the haze of smoke raising above the horizon its crimsondisc. The scene was the most imposing, as it was the most pitiful, ever scene in the colonies. Eire brigades arrived from all quarters of the city, with steam fire engines and manual engines, with reels and all the equipment of their warfare ; but they could only stand still and gaze as utterly powerless before the great element opposed to them as children to keep hack the tide of the ocean. The breeze blowing towards that direction, it was feared that the Art Gallery might be endangered, and a body of firemen accordingly were stationed in its locality, but fortunately their services were not required. The fire was now in the fulness of its power; walls were falling, towers toppling over and tumbling huge masses of ruin into the great lustrous sea of red-hot metal and burning woodwork beneath. By 9 o’clock all was over, the residences in Mac-quarie-street had their view of the harbor restored to them, and the pretty Garden Palace, whose grey-tinted dome could be seen_ lifted above the pine and fig trees —a beacon light to those “ incoming to our shores,” the first object of beauty in the city as the Heads was passed—was a mass of smoking timbers and falling walls. The fire was a splendid spectacle from the harbor, and the officers onboard H.M, ships now in harbor despatched detachments of “ blue jackets’’ to render what assistance they could. Among others who lent willing aid to prevent the trees and grass of the surrounding gardens being destroyed was the paymaster of the Espeigle, who, in full evening costume, set himself right heartily to beat out the fire with a branch of a tree. A detachment of police were ordered by the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Fosbery, to surround the smouldering ruins. A detachment of the Permanent Artillery was also _ present. An immense crowd gathered in Mac-quarrie-street and in the Domain during the progress of the fire, but good order was kept, and no case of accident has been reported. There was at one time some danger of the fire extending to the Governor’s stables, but the Volunteer firemen, obtaining a supply of water from the po»d in the vicinity, kept the flames off. The heat, however, was so intense, that the horses had to be removed, and the carriages were also taken to a place of safety. The origin of the fire is likely to remain a mystery unsolved. The watchmen Kirchen is a smoker, but he protests that it has never been his habit to smoke in the building when on duty. On Thursday night he did not smoke in doors at all, or out of doors after 9 o’clock. His fellow relieving watchman, M‘Knight, was a non-smoker. The night watchman says he has never yet found a man ir. the building during the hours when ha has kept guard. About half-an-hour before the outbreak of the fire he visited the basement floor, and neither smelt nor saw anything to lead him to suspect a fire to be burning. Whether the old theory of “ rats and matches ” will be advanced as, after all, the most feasible of explanations as to the origin of a fire causing so great a calamity, remains to be seen. As a matter of course, all sorts,of absurd rumors from dynamite plots to masked men and trains of gunpowder were yesterday afloat concerning ■ its origin. One rumor, appearing to have some foundation in fact, was that two lads, one employed in putting out the gas lamps, yesterday morning passed the southern vestibule about the time the fire broke out. They saw, so the story goes, a few wreaths of smoke issuing from the building, and then from one of the windows a man jumped to the ground. He appeared to be a, little hurt by the fall, but soon rose to his feet and ran away. .The story was heard from the boys themselves by a gentleman who has given his name to the police. One supposition is that the cause of the fire was an explosion of gas, but this does not appear to be at' all a likely one. All the gas mains in the building but one were turned off at the meter on Thursday afternoon at 4 o’clock; The one main not turned off was taken from a meter at the northern end, carried along a gallery, and fed a gaslight jet and a jet for heating a stove, both jets being for the use of the night watchman. Even had there been an escape of gas in the basement, with so great a space and so many means of outlet, an explosion would have been impossible. The effect of the terrible conflagration on the plants and shrubs, which proved , such an ornament to the enclosure, is likely to prove very serious, and it is estimated by Mr Moore, the Curator of the Butanic Gardens, that about 20,000 or 30,000 plants are nearly all destroyed, though it will be impossible, to arrive at anything definite upon the subject for a few days, on the eastern side of the ruins the plots which were so tastefully laid out with choice plants, presents a melancholy spectacle of withered limbs and dead leaves, while' the once verdant and well-mown lawns in the vicinity furnish an unbroken area of burnt grass. The pitch pines on the western and north-western sides are very much charred about the trunks, and the majority of them will probably die. Most of the tress near Macq uarie-street are also badly scorched. The statuary and other marble ornaments about the grounds have not been materially injured. Off the group representing the Seasons, and which were placed on the terrace steps, “Spring ” is minus an arm, and one of the massive marble r flower vases standing on the eastern stairs came to grief owing to clumsy handling in removal. The Mayor’s marble fountain on the western side has been demolished. The following offices were on the basement floor of the building Census Office, Amsterdam Commission, Diamond Drills,’Forest Conservancy Branch, Occupation of Lands, Kailway Survey, and Harbors and" Kivers Department. On the ground floor there was the Technological and Sanitary Museum, Office of ‘,the Mining Department, Fisheries Commission, Office and Museum of the Linnean Society, studio of Signor Ferrarini, and gallery of statues. There was also a very extensive museum of geological specimens arranged by the officers of the Department of Mines. There were three ■ branches of the Harbors and Kivers Department, and in each many valuable original plans and tracings were destroyed ; amongst them a longitudinal section plan of the Darling Kiver for 344 miles, and an immense number of cross sections and feature and detail surveys. Besides the valuable plans destroyed, the furniture of the offices, which included large drawing tables, and office fittings of a superior kind was destroyed; and several gentlemen connected with the offices have lost instruments, papers, and other things to the value of several hundred pounds. In the Trial Survey Branch —a most important office connected with the Railway Department, a large number of most valuable plans and other documents were consumed by the fire, and so serious is the loss that many hundreds of miles of country will have to be resurveyed, and the construction of several lines of railway urgently needed will in consequence be delayed for, a very considerable length of Of" the three branch offices connected with the Department of Mines the most important, and that in which the loss was most serious, was the,Occupation of Lands Branch. All the business connected with that branch was done at the Garden Palace, and the documents that were destroyed there included the entire official records of the pastoral runs of thecolony, their descriptions, amended descriptions, and all the settlements by arbitration and agreement ; all the plana of the work of the last twenty years; all the documents relating to transfers—which are most important legaldooumen ts —and all the correspondence relating _to the branch. Much of the information which has been lost will never again be obtained. It is onlv about three months ago that the Occupation of Lands Branch was reunved to the Garden Palace from the premises opposite the Exchange, where the business of the branch was carried on for years.

In the Forest Conservancy Branch all the books, papers, and everything else were destroyed, but as the branch had not been long established the loss is not very heavy. Very little is said to have been there that cannot be pickedup again. The duties of this branch were those connected with the Bingbarking Act, the management of the timber reserves throughout the colony, and the superintendence of the forest rangers. The third branch of the Mines Department located at the Garden Palace was the Diamond Drill Branch, and that was formed about three or four months ago. In this branch the loss was not great. The Art Society of New South Wales was to have held its annual exhibition on the < 2nd October in the Garden Palace, and the private view would have taken place on the 30th instant. About 300 pictures, and an unprecedented amount of faience had been sent in, and the Hanging Committee, Messrs A. Co'Hngridge, W. O. Piguenit, J. C. Hoyte, and Smedley, had hung the pictures and placed the faience in position. Every member of the

Society seemed to have done as good work as he was capable of for this exhibition, and the faience shown by ladies was superior in quality to any hitherto exhibited by a Sydney Art society, and was comprised of a greater number of placques and other pieces. The pictures belonging to the Art Society, valued at LCOOO, had been insured for L3OOO. The pictues in Signor Ferrarini’s studio were valued at L6OOO, and they were uninsured. The Technological Museum contained all the fossils, minerals, and rocks collected by the Mining Department at the instance of the Government Geologist, and also the collection of the late Eev. W. B. Clarke, which, with Mr Clarke’s map's and library, cost the Government L7OOO. The whole collection was the most complete in Australia. The formation of the collection had been the work of years, and its value is estimated at L 50.000. _ It is probable that some of the fossils and minerals will be recovered, but many maps, books, and manuscripts which were simply priceless, because they can never be replaced, nave been reduced to ashes. One of Wearne’s safes was recovered and opened, Its contents were a number of uncut gems diamonds, sapphires, and emeralds —and gold specimens, worth altogether about LSOO. These were very little da Thf e Linnaean Society of New South Wales has suffered to the extent of over L2ooo. Its loss includes the whole of the valuable library, comprising the donations and exchanges, with about LI2OO worth of books recently purchased by the Hon. W. Macleay. The valuable collections of plants belonging to the members were The Kev. J. E. Tenison-Woods lost books to the value of LISOO, and other persons have suffered to a smaller extent. A very large number of works of art, pur* chased by the Government and placed in the Garden Palace, were also destroyed. Some of them are not to be regretted much, but others were very fine, and. the collection cost the colony a large sum of money. The exact amount cannot be ascertained at present. First and foremost was the colossal bronze status of Her Majesty, for which such a handsome price was paid three years ago to the sculptor, Mr Marshall, The value of works in marble and bronze is estimated at L 5958. The loss to the Fisheries Commission is estimated at DI2OO. The Amsterdam Exhibition Commission also suffered by the fire, but not seriously. „ , , . . The only insurance effected on the contents of the Garden Palace, so far as ascertained from the insurance companies represented in Sydney, are L3OOO in the Fire Insurance Association of London on pictures, as a direct insurance from the Art Society; and L6OO in the London and Lancashire Company on pictures for Mason Brothers. The 41 Herald says : Looked at from the fire-insurance point of view, the budding was always a bad risk. It was merely a shell —a wooden framework with an iron skin. The on which it was built was a slope, and a series of parallel walls built up the inner foundations. In case of fire, these spaces were so many flues to increase the draught, and the wooden floor with the cracks between the boards was admirably laid for burning. The only chance of patting out a fire would have been to be on the spot, with abundance of water, in a minute. If a fire once got hold, all the brigades in the world could not put it out.