WILFULLY SET ON FIRE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3524, 27 September 1921, Page 53

WILFULLY SET ON FIRE.

AUCKLAND, September 21. At the conclusion of the inquiry into the fire on the premises of the Auckland Furnishing Company, Ponsonby, on August 15, Mr J. W. Poynton, S.M., found that the premises were wilfully set on fire; that three tins of benzine were placed there for tlie purpose of ensuring destruction of the office and books, there not being sufficient evidence to show who started the fire. The partners in the Auckland Furnishing Company are three returned soldiers, Walter Coombes, Vincent C. Dwyer, and Claude Stapleton. Geoffrey Neville, branch manager of the British Trade Insurance Company, stated in evidence that the stock and plant were over-insured by £3lO at the time of the fire. G. D. Peery, representing the Repatriation Board, stated that in January last trie office advanced each of the three partners £330, a total of £9OO. The department held a bill of sale over the assets, but in the fire insurance policy the department was not named as mortgagee. Coombes bought out one of the original partners, Robert Dalzell, for £214 in February last.