GISBORNE FIRE INQUIRY

Taranaki Daily News, 21 September 1931, Page 11

GISBORNE FIRE INQUIRY

BURNING OF GARRISON HALL WITNESS RECALLED BY CORONER. AN INDEFINITE ADJOURNMENT. By Telegraph—Press Association. Gisborne, Sept. 19. Arthur Owen, tobacconist and billiard room proprietor, was the first witness called in the Garrison Hall fire inquiry this morning. He stated that tnere had been no feeling between hiniseif and Kerridge over the rival golf courses. Witness knew Ralston, but denied knowledge of Hannah and Semb. He was quite sure that he had not seen them before the fire. He knew nothing about the sums reported to have been paid for burning the hall and knew no reason why such statements should be made. The £3OO or more he had lost in connection with the golf venture had not affected him. He was still on the box seat directly or indirectly. Witness had never suggested to anyone, or induced anyone, to take steps to burn down the hall, and had nothing at all to do with the fire. William Frank Winter, salesman, Hamilton, corroborated McKenzie’s evidence as to Ralston receiving a message to the telephone at Owen’s saloon, and Ralston’s subsequent statement as _to the offer alleged to have been made him. Semb spoke about the fire on the way to the Wairoa carnival, stating that ‘it went off last night.” Witness had heard Semb and Hannah talking, and one of them said, “If we go off for this we will take McKenzie with us.” McKenzie, who he said was the black sheep of the family, had threatened to kill him at his home at Frankton Junction. McKenzie had never discussed with him getting the reward. The coroner said he thought the witness Rees A. McKenzie should be recalled as he wanted an explanation of the following note which McKenzie wrote to Hannah;—“Dear Dave, I am sending this note as I will not be able to see you. I was told I mentioned your name in a statement in regard to the Gisborne fire, but you can take it from me that is not so. It was just someone trying to make mischief between us again as our little squabble was all over after we shook hands and had a drink.” “STALL FOR TIME.” In answer to a question by the coroner McKenzie said he wrote the note to “stall for time.” “I had been threatened,” he said. “I heard at the Wellington Show there was a summons for me, and Mrs. Hansen told me to put myself in the smoke and not get it. I went up for tea. Hannah came over and said, ‘I want you downstairs.’ I asked him to wait till I had finished He said, ‘Come on now.’ I went down with him and he went over and spoke to a constable and said, ‘I found McKenzie,’ and the constable served me with a summons. On my way down Hannah said to me, 'You’ll get what’s coming to you,’ or something to that effect. “I went back to the tearooms and finished tea, and presently Mr., .Hansen came to me. He said, ‘You’re in blue, Mae, the mob’s waiting to give you a kicking. They reckon you’ve made a statement about the fire.’ We walked down to the end of the hall, and on the way down he told me when the kicking was suggested he told them straight he would not be a party to it and that he didn’t believe I had made a statement. He said we’d have to think out some way of breaking it down. “With that he produced a notebook and said the best thing I could do was to write a note, and he dictated the note to me, the note being written out on Hansen’s notebook. With that 'he went down and told Hanna t- put the note in his pocket, that it might be of some use to him. About a quarter of an hour afterwards Hannah said it was all right, but that I’d better get out of the building. I went. “The following morning I went down to the police station and told the sergeant about being threatened. Hannah had said he was coming after me with a gun. He was going to induce me into a ear, put a bullet into me and dump me over the cliff. He used the same words in the hearing of Winter at this court.” To the coroner witness said the object of the note was to gain time and enable him to get away from the people who made these threats. The inquiry was then adjourned sine die.