A MYSTERIOUS FIRE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2929, 4 May 1910, Page 15

A MYSTERIOUS FIRE.

VICTORIA HOTEL, NASEBY. MAGISTERIAL INQUIRY. (Feom Our Own Correspondent.) NASEBY, April 27. At the Magistrate's Court at iNaseby on Tuesday an inquiry was held before Mr E. W. Porritt, !S.M., into the circumstances surrounding the fire which (recently gutted the Victoria Hotel, Naseby. XM/eetive Hunt (Dunedin) represented the police, and Mr T. C. Burgess was foreman of the jury. Constable Lemm (Naseby) stated that he bad occasion to enter the bar of the hotel at 7.30 p.m. on March 22, to see about the light over the door. He also saw and spoke to the licensee (Mr W. B. Allan), who was in the yard. He then left, and 15 minutes later the fireball rang. When be returned flames were coming out of the sitting room window, dining room window, and the door on the south side The brigade quickly bad the fire under control. The captain of the brigade drew his attention to bedroom No. 12, on the north side, and showed him some rags sticking out of the lining boards on the north side of the room. I'he rags were completely saturated with kerosene. The boards appeared to have been prized open and the rags (produced) were stuffed down tignt behind the otbe>r boards. Witness sent for the licensee and showed him the rags, and he replied, "It looks very suspicious." Mrs E. S. Black (owner of the hotel) stated that" she resided in Naseby. She conducted the hotel up till about 16 months ago, when she leased it to Mr Walker, who subsequently eold to Mr Allan. The insurances were £650 on the building and £435 on furniture and stock. Mr Walker's lea.se was for 5 years, rent £3 a week, and was still in force. When witness sold out £2OO was paid her as the value of the stock and furniture.

Wh. B. Allan (the licensee) stated that he took possession of the hotel on November 8,1909. There was a mortgage of £3OO at 7 per cent, on the furniture when witness took it over. His takings were from £2O to £23 a week. When the fire broke out witness was in the sitting room off the bar; there were Sour of them there playing cards. Witness had besin there from 20 minutes to half an hour. Previous to that he was in the billiard room. He noticed nothing wrong till the alarm was given. His attention was called to bedroom No. 12. Constable Lemm and' others were thieire. The rags (produced) were shown to him. He had no idea where they came from. The kerosene used in the hotel was kept in the billiard room in a cupboard, not locked up. Witness was not in the room en the day of the fire nor on the previous day. He paid £IOO to go into the hotel, and gave a mortgage for the balance. He could not remember if the piano or the billiard table was included in the security. The furniture on the night of the fire was the same as when he took 1 possesion. Witness was not in any financial difficulty. So far as witness knew nothing had to be deducted from the insurance money but. the amount due on the mortgage and on current account'. Had the building been de sbroyed by fire witness would have been a heavy loser. His piano was uninsured, and all his cutlery, sewing machine, and clothes to the value of £7O or £BO. About £ls in cash was recovered from the fire at the last moment.

Mary Allan, wife of the licensee, gave evidsnee as to the rags and clothes which were found in No. 12 bedroom. Some of them had not been used for some months, and were kept in various parts of the hotel.

Further evidence was given by James Young, Henry Jacobs, and Captain. Marsha (fire brigade). After a few minutes retirement, the jury brought in the following verdict —"That the Victoria Hotel, Naseby, was damaged by fire on the night of Tuesday, Mairch 22; that the fire originated in No. 12 bedroom ; that the fire was caused wilfully, but the evidence is not sufficient to show by whom."