Accidents and Offences.

Otago Witness, Issue 1502, 28 August 1880, Page 23

Accidents and Offences.

A fire ocourred at about 1 o'clock on the mornine of the 20th atNorth^Bast Valley, bywhich a small wooden cottage, the property of Edward Devitt, labourer, was ; burned down. He and his wife had left it in the evening, and were within a couple of hundred yards of it on their way-back when they noticed it on fire. It is presumed that the wind must 'have blown ashes from the fireplace on to the.floorv The cottage was insured for L 75 and the furniture for L 35, in the -New Zealand office. ' ,

The fcultry weather of . the 19th was succeeded "during -the eatly'palrt of Friday morning by a n'6rce north-westerly gale, which, lasting till daylight, was followed by a welcdme shower. The gale did a good -deal of damage in to wn. Messrs' Park and Curie's workshop, situated w Moray place, opposite the *irat. Church gate,' was blown completely down, it was an old building, Btanding upon piles, and completely collapsed,' nothing but ,the rums bein^leftin the 'morning. . The owners, estimatlitheir, loss' at from L2OO to L3OO,- anumber, of articles stored in the building, such as. stoves, &c.,;having Taeen.broken and otherwise injured. Mr Campbell's crockery' warehouse; opposite the 'Norm»l ; 'School, also suffered severely. The back gable was blown right in, 10 to 20 feet of theroof going with it., Inside, the baok wall was lined with shelves of crockery, and the damage through breakage was very great. The" place wds' in a perfect Jitter of fallen bricks and broken crockery yesterday. - Mr Campbell must have lost several hundred pouhda, In M these two instances the damage was serious, but in numberless cases injury was done to a more'Vining extent. Windows were blown 1 in, vferahdah roofs blown off; 1 fences and outbuildings blown down, and street lamps blown to pieces ■ i& various portions of the town,': In, ;the suburbs also the, gale was felt severely.: A cottage. .near the head of Hawthorn' avenue) 'Mornington, was blown over, anddid injury to the gable of an adjoining house. • On'the-bay several small icasualties are reported.- The Telegraph Rowing, Club were unfortunate, haying their, boat-shed damaged, and we believe they lost one of their outriggers through its being blown into the bay. , A couple 'of bush- fires 'alß9 occurred— one ap. parenUy'from- the' remains' of the one which' caused the alarm on Thursday evening, near the Waterr6f-Lejth, and, the, ,• other, which was the more serious, on .the Peninsula, n,ear I^arnach Castle/ Altogether, the' 'gale appears to have bßen more severe than any experienced here for Borne years. « . . ■ .• - A settler named William-Bisselli- residing at St. Leonards, left that place on Friday afternoon in a Bmall dingy, to search for a missing boat. He arrived at I Poftob'elloabout4p.m,, and, not finding the boat;, determined to return home. He was advised* not to do so by Mrs Latham, wife of. a storekeeper there, but in reply to her, stated that he would go whether he Buccaededin getting Home or not. Since that time nothing has b6en seen* or heard of him, and it is supposed <f that he has been drowned. We are informed that Mr Bissell leaves a wife and family. Mr" Andrew Mercer, a well-known resident of'this'city," with Mrs Mercer, met with a somewhat serious buggy accident on Saturday morning. They were driving up the Portobello beach road when, near Vauxhall, a telegraph wire which had, been blown down caused the upsetting, of the buggy over th 6 bank. Mrs Mercer suffered, a dislocation of the hip, and Mr Mercer had a 'couple of his ribs broken. Both are in a fab way towards recovery. There were several bußh fires in the Purakanui .district on] the 19th inst., and a cottage in the, occupation of a < person named Robins was entirely consumed. There was an insurance of Ll5O on the place, .taken out' by the Nationa Bank as security for a debt owing by Kobins to fcbit institution.