FIRE INQURY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2914, 19 January 1910, Page 70

FIRE INQURY.

!■ ALLEGED ATTEMPTED INCENDIARISM, l AUCKLAND, January 13. An inquiry was held to-day by the city coroner (Mr T. Gresham) into the circumstances connected with an incipient fire that occurred in Queen street on the night of November 19' in tbs shop of Falkland James Macfarlane, draper, of Queen street. The inquiry was held without a jury, i M.acfarlane was the first witness 1 examined. Statements made by him to the detectives were read and confirmed by the witness. These stated that his stock and fittings were insured in the Victoria Insurance office for £IOOO. Since June ■ last he had never taken stock. He valued it at £BSO.- His easiness at the 19th of November was not paying, and he had spoken to an agent about selling out. Previously he bought an assigned stock at Hamilton (valued at £1400) for about £BOO to £9OO. The insurance was in the official asignee’s name. A fire oocured, and witness got no insurance. He was not in financial difficulties. With -egard to the last fire, witness , stated that on November 19 he left his premises at 6 n.m., having locked up everything safely. He returned to the shop about 8 a.in. on the 20th. Hanging up on ih© wail- at the foot of the stairs were sheets of brown paper. So far as he could see some of that had been used to start a fire at the foot of the stairs in his shop. Kerosene and methylated spirits, which were kept in a back room had been used on the fire. The staircase wall smelt of kerosene. There was nothing missing from the shop, and there was _ nothing disturbed. After the fire he carried on business until about the middle of December, when he sold out to Mr Porter, of Newton, for 13s in the pound, or for somewhere about £450. He estimated that in the interim he bad soldi about £IOO worth of stock, and he had also replaced stock to a certain extent, but not to the half of what he had sold. He still retained the fittings, valued at about £IOO, and was also paying rant for the premises. He sold out at a considerable loss. .The Coroner found that Macfarlane did wilfully attempt to set fire to the building with intent to defraud the Victoria Insurance Company. Macfarlane was subsequently arrested on a change of wilfully setting fire to the premises. He was formally charged before the magistrate and was remanded on barf until Friday week.