VICE-REGAL RESIDENCE BURNED

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8733, 15 May 1914, Page 5

VICE-REGAL RESIDENCE BURNED

SERIOUS OUTBREAK AT AUCKLAND. Press Association. AUCKLAND, May 14. A fire occurred at Government House at 9 o’clock this morning while tho Governor and General Sir lan Hamilton were at breakfast. There was a Vico-Regal hall last night, of which the electric lighting was a feature, and it is supposed, that the fire was caused by tho fusion of electric wires.

The alarm having been given, the brigade responded smartly. A detachment from H.M.S. Psyche under tho commander also arrived early on the scene.

The Earl of Liverpool, Sir lan Hamilton, and their staffs assisted in saving their personal effects, and removed some of the furniture.

When the brigade arrived the fire had a good hold, and had burned a hole in the wall immediately above the bed in which Sir lan Hamilton slept last night and through the floor in front of the fireplace in the same room. It had also burned through the floor of the passage leading to the Governor’s bedroom, and had attacked tho roof of the building. Tho brigade got the fire under after it had spread to several other rooms.

The damage by fire and water is estimated at £6OOO. .Quite half the building is beyond repair. Mr N. A. Nathan has placed his residence adjacent to Government House at His Excellency’s disposal.