TE MAHANGA FIRE

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7978, 8 December 1911, Page 10

TE MAHANGA FIRE

In connection with the destruction of the Te Mahanga homestead (Hawke's Bay) by fire, the Napier ’’Telegraph" says:— ■ - An attempt was made to save Airs \V, .T. Douglas* jewellery, worth about ,£2OOO, and consisting, amongst other valuable trinkets, of bracelets and necklets won by the Douglas racing stud at various times. The .articles wpre actually secured and placed in pampa grass at a reasonable distance from the burning house, when the wind carried the llame like a scythe over the place where they lay, with the result that they -were nearly all ruined, and the few that were rescued were utterly spoilt. Mr H. D. P Mortensen (jeweller) says the stones will have to be sent to Europe to be polished and reinstated. sir and Sirs Douglas also lost a gallery of family portraits in oils, as well as oil paintings of the well-known racing stock, including Torpedo and other taiuous flyers, whilst Sir Douglas is particularly concerned regarding the loss of a. hundred guinea, watch, presented to him by his late father as a birthday present. The devastation also embraced a rare collection of native relics, the accumulation of over twenty years, as well as a large number of stuffed specimens of New Zealand and South Seas bird",, and South Sea Island curios. A beautiful aviary, which sir Douglas had acquired, was also demolished, the birds perishing.