LAWRENCE. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Otago Witness, Volume 26, Issue 1705, 26 July 1884, Page 13

LAWRENCE. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

July 22. Fmx.-7-Another of those unaccountable fires occurred in a barn on the Beaumont road on 6'aturday morning last. A surfaceman named William Mills and a son of the owner, James Brown, were in the barn nntll 9 o'clock on Friday night, the lad caitiug chaff until .that hour. Mills, whu slept there, wt.o aroused about 'l o'clock on Satuiday morning by a long dismal howl from his dog, and find tho whole building in flames. Retreat by the dcor was cut eff, ond the thatch roof was one mars of fire. Ho managed to ■qustze through an aperture— a feat ho would have deemed impoatiblo under ordinary circumstances. The deg, a hixhly-priztd animal, perished AJills also lost his watoh, bedding, and clothe?. Brown's loss is heavy. The barn was not inuured, and it contained at the time of the firo some farming implements, several bags of oats, a chafieutter, harneES, &c. Thb Election.— Peel sweet was thronged to-night with an eager, good-humoured crowd awaiting ihe Kturns from the different polling-booths. From the first Mr Brown's tuppotters had no fears as to the result. The announcement that he had a maiorily r>f 244 was received with much cheering, but no surprise The wonder is that Mr Oudaille should have polled 'so well, as his candidature has been marked by a scries Of blunders sufficient to chill tho warmth of his racst ardent adtrirers. L ud and contiuued cheers were given for "J. U. Brown, the man of the peope " rockets were let off, and all manner of election humours indulged in, Mr Johrr Thompson returned thanks on behalf of the newly-elixtcd member who deferred his remarks until the. official declaration of the poll on Saturday next. Thb Meteor on Sunday eyening was a magniQcont spectacle. As Been here, it really stemed to tink into the earth. About five mioutes afterward there was a low, rumbling sound, not uniike thunder.