THE LATE CATASTROPHE AT LYTTELTON.

Timaru Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 1763, 25 June 1877, Page 8

THE LATE CATASTROPHE AT LYTTELTON.

[From the Timaeu Herald, June 19.] The fire at the Lyttelton Railway Station on Saturday night, is certainly one o(' the oddest m the whole list of catastrophes which have made the last few months so remarkable. Ten thousand pounds' worth of property appears to have been destroyed m the mo*t cheerful manner, without any effort worth speaking of being made to save it. Of course the energetic constable on duty on Norwich Quay used the most strenuous efforts to put the fire out by running away as soon as he discovered it, and ringing 1 the fire-bell frantically. Of course the indefatigable Mayor and the omnipresent Dr. Donald, were immediately on the spot. Of course Mr Brown and Mr Jones and Mr Robinson flew round m an excited state, and did their best to add to the general confusion. Of course the fire burnt ou merrily, until the goods-shed with almost all its contents, was totally destroyed. It seems, indeed, to hare been by a mere accident of wind and weather, that the fire did not annihilate the whole of the railway station and the greater part of the town besides. Now that the damage is done, and the excitement over, peop'e rub their eyes and ask whether it can really be true that all that vast amount of property has been left for months and years without any protection whatever from fire. We doubt not that if, iast week, we had expressed an opinion that the Lyttelton Railway Station was liable at any minute to be burnt to the ground without a chance of rescue, because the authorities had wholly neglected the most ordinary precautions against fire, \vn should have been denounced as busybodie.*, if not as actual perverters of the truth. We should doubtless have been told that the Railway Department knew what they were doing; that powerful engines were at all times within reach ; and that with an unlimited supply of sea water within a few yards of the spot, the buildings and the accumulated stores at the Lyttelton Station were entirely free from danger. Yet what actually happened ? At two o'clock on Sunday morning the export shed *as found to be on fire; and the next thing- that was found was that no appliances of any description whatever existed for quenching it. Truly there were powerful engines at Christchurch ; but they might as well have been at Kamschatka, for all the use they were at Lyttelton. The telegraphist there, we are told, tried for two hours to obtain communication with Christchurch. We can hardly conceive a more ludicrously mournful picture than that of this infatuated official, clicking away for two mortal hours, while the man whom he wished to " wire " to slept the sleep of the just at his private residence. Then we are assured that a man sleeps at the Fireßrigade Station at Christchurch, ready to be aroused at auy moment of the night. This, of course, ia an excellent arrangement; only, as there is no alarm at the Fire Brigade Station connected with the Telegraph, the poor man might as well sleep m the bosom of his famil/; for all the use he is on the occasion of a fire at Lyttelton.

It seems, to say the least of it, a little funny that a fire should break out m a railn-ay goodß shed at two o'clock on Sunday morning. Of course, we fall m at on.cc with the opinion expressed hy the Christchurch papers, that rats diii it, gnawing matches. The penchant which these eccentric rodents have tor lucifers, is one of the most singular facts m natural history. It might at first sight be supposed that m a store crammed with jrrain, haoii, bacon, potatoes, and such good cheer, ! the rats would select for their nocturnal repast; the most succulent viands that' came handy. This, however, is quite a I

mistake. Rats have a passion for lucifer matches so ardent that they wil. leave all other kinds of food m ordtr to least upon them. It has also been observed that m storehouses, or other places where their nntural provender abounds, if no matches are supplied to them by the carelessness of mankind, they will even bring them from a distance and gnaw them m the midst of unlimited luxuries. They do not take them m their mouths and suck or lick off the phosphorus, as children not unfrequently do. On tho contrary, they keep them scrupulously dry, anil crack the heads betveen their teeth, so that the matches explode und take fire. Tue rats then carry them carefully to the nearest dry wall or bale of inflammable goods ; and having created a pleasant blaze they sit round m a circle on their tails warming their toes and winking ut one another. These habits of theirs have been frequently observed by curious zoologists, and are quite as well ascertained as many of the facts mentioned m Goldsmith's Natural History. The most singular part of the business, too, is that these wily little animals almost invariably choose well insured premises m which to play their pranks, and commonly select an hour when the community are buried m slumber, and when the means of suppressing fire are least easily to be procured. We once knew a man who insured his house and stock; and a few nights afterwards actually heard »nd saw rats performing on the matches. The place was burnt, as well as several adjoining buildings ; and the Supreme Court, having no taste for natural history, gave the pupil of Cuvier, ten years' penal servitude ! We do not for a moment wish to make any insinuation. Wo will, however-, go the length of saying that, when the Christchurch papers gravely attribute tho fire at Lyttelton to rats gnawing lucifers, they might as well state boldly that they believe it to have been the work of an incendiary.

We trust that a really searching, uncompromising enquiry will be made into this most discreditable affair. We trust tha!; no stone will be left unturned, m order to discover the real author or authors of the disaster; and we also trust that those by whose insnne negligence and folly it was enabled to occur at all, will be brought to account for it, and be punished as severely as they deserve. Should this startling event be the means of awakening the public and the Government to a due sense of the scandalous mismanagement which prevails on the Canterbury Railways we shall not regard it as by any neans an unmixed evil. Should the investigations, which must surely follow it, lead to those reforms and that reorganisation so urgently demanded, we shall deem the destruction of property at Lyttelton a public gain, no matter how grievous a private loss.