RUTLAND HOTEL FIRE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 14134, 14 February 1910, Page 3

RUTLAND HOTEL FIRE.

SENSATIONAL SEQUEL. TWO ARRESTS MADE. Per Press Association. WANGANUI, Feb. 13. A sensational sequel to tbs Rutland Hotel fire, which occurred on tho night of January 22, occurred on Saturday evening, when Joseph Davis and Martin Haynes, proprietor and manager of the jewellery and fancy goods shop in which the outbreak occurred, wore arrested. At the inquiry held on Wednesday last tho evidence was such as to load the jury and coroner to arrive at tho conclusion that tho fire was tho result of an accidental explosion of gas, and a verdict was returned accordingly. Since the fire Davis and Haynes had been staying at the. Arcadia Boarding House. By a strange coincidence Miss Bellamy, the proprietress, required the services of a gasman to remedy a leak, and a man was sent to do the work on Saturday, and found it necessary to examine the pipes above the coiling of tho upstairs rooms. He wont through a trap door, and at the end‘of the pas-, sage, and near tho rooms occupied by Davis and Haynes, to his surprise he discovered a “swag” comprising one large portmanteau, four paper packages, and two brief bags, which, on examination by the police, to whom the matter was reported, were found to contain a miscellaneous assortment of jewellery, fancy goods, and some of the books which were said to have been burned in.tho fire, including the daybook containing an entry made on the day the firo occurred, and, records of sales for some weeks past. The value of the goods found is roughly estimated at from £IOO to £2OO, but have not yet been, valued by an expert. The stock in tiio shop at the time of the fire was valued by Davis at £2600, and was insured for £IOOO. Tho insurance money has not yet been paid over. MORE VALUABLES FOUND. WANGANUI, Feb. 14. The police this morning unearthed a further quantity of watches and jewellery, the estimated value of which is between £IOO and £2OO, in the roof of tho Arcadia Private Hotel, where the previous find was made. Davis and Haynes were before tho court this morning and remanded till Friday. One was charged wih sotting firo to a shop in the Rutland Hotel buildings and the other with counselling him to do so. Bail was refused.