OLD AUCKLAND GRAMMAR SCHOOL GUTTED BY FIRE; CONTENTS LOST

Wanganui Chronicle, 17 January 1949, Page 5

OLD AUCKLAND GRAMMAR SCHOOL GUTTED BY FIRE; CONTENTS LOST

AUCKLAND, Saturday (PA).— Fire early this morning swept through a large old, one-storey wooden building in Symonds Street, formerly the Auckland Grammar School, but latterly occupied by the Workers’ Educational Association. Despite a valiant fight by city and suburban fire brigades with seven machines, the building was reduced to a charred shell. The brigades, however, prevented an extension of the fire to other buildings in a large city residential area. There was nobody in the building when the fire was first seen at about 1.30 o’clock. The fire had gained a strong hold in the southern section of the building facing St. Paul’s Church, and fanned by a strong breeze, the flames leapt to a height of 50 feet above the roof and were seen from distant suburbs.

As hoses played on the tower, the old school bell, for the first time in many years, tolled fitfully. When the glare from the flames died down, fire engine lights, including a searchlight on the new turntable ladder, were turned on the building. Residents brought tea to 44 battling firemen At 9 o’clock today flames were still flickering in the tower. All that remained of the School of Art and Adult Education Centre, which were located in the building, was the blackened facade of the tower and several chimneys. Fernleigh Private Hotel was endangered until the blaze was quelled at 4.30. The greatest personal loser was the well-known artist, John Weeks a teacher at the School of Art, who lost a collection of 200 original paintings, water colours, and pencil sketches from all parts of the world, valued at £2OOO. They had been used for instruction. Mr. Weeks held no insurance The Adult Education Centre and the W.E.A. lost a valuable library of more than 5000 books, also irreplacable lecture material and old recordsTher e is an insurance cover on the library and chattels. The School of Art lost all its teaching material, numerous pictures and a valuable library. The school is operated by the Education Department, through which insurance arrangements are made. The school, which last year had 100 day and 150 night pupils, was closed for the Christmas vacation. The W.E.A. Drama Club lost heavily in gear and plops, and th e Goodwin Marionette Theatre lost everything except three or four charred marionettes left hanging limply from their wires. But for the thoughtfulness of Miss I. G. Eiss, a teacher at the Elam School of Art, the Rosemary Grice collection of water colour paintings would have been destroyed. Seventy of the late Miss Grice’s works were at the. chool until the first week in De- ' comber, when Mis; decided tnat it might not be safe to leave th