LATEST TELEGRAPHIC.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 260, 9 September 1879, Page 2

LATEST TELEGRAPHIC.

(per press agency.

WELLINGTON. ! Monday. The New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency have received a telegram, dated London, 4th, as follows Wool market: Superior greasy lias advanced a halfpenny to a penny per lb; crossbreds and scoured unchanged; washed and combing firmer; washed and clothing are unchanged. Up to date 155,000 bales were sold; 180,000 bales were withdrawn during the past sales, Seymour, the Opposition candidate for the Wairau has been returned, beating Henderson, ibe Government candidate. At the official declaration of the Wellington election to-day, there was no material alteration in the numbers. Saurdcrs is returned for Cheviot by a majority of twelve. The Flaxbourne return has yet to come in, but it cannot alter the result. Seymour George has been returned for Rodney unopposed. Richmond has been re-elected for Nelson suburbs by a majority of eleven, beating Waseney and Stafford. Shepherd has been returned unopposed for Waimea. NAPIER. Monday, So farthe returns are in Sutton is 469; Russell, 459; Maney, Grcyitp, 427; Buchanan, Greyite, 411. Several returns arc yet to come in which will increase the majority. OTAKI. Monday. Western Maori election- Hoani Taipua, 115 votes; Major Te Wheoro, none. DUNEDIN. Monday, A dreadful 6re broke out at 2,30 a.m. this morning, at Water's Cafe, Rossa's buildings, Ociagon, Next to the Cafe was theshopof Mrs Wilson, wife of Editor Witness ; the block numbered s n me four shops and buildings all thickly peopled, and as the whole of the lower part was in flames before being .discovered escape was impossible for the majority of inmates. Several people jumped out of the windows at the rear and front, nearly all of them being seriously injured some being badly burnt as well, one woman, Margaret McCarthy was told by some people to jump from the third story. In her terror she obeyed. As she fell she struck a projection over the main entrance and was carried away bruised and insensible. Her moans told life was not quite extinct; eventualy a long ladder being obtained numbers of people were taken out from the side of the building. Next to the Athenaeum a large number of boarders who slept on the third floor were seen wandering about the building for some time utterly bewildered; but they luckily broke into a room used for drying clothes, and making fast the clothes lines which they found there to a bedstead, numbers escaped. This block was almost entirely destroyed, but the fire was confined to one block, and scarcely any wind blowing or the damage must have been even more serious, The fire escape did

not arrive till it was too late to bo of any service ; the building is a perfect hive of bedrooms, especially on the top floor, there were in all forty beds in the Cafe, conjectured about 100 people must have been on the premises, Captain Murphy of the Fire Brigade states that eight persons known to have been in the building have not yet besn accounted for. A survivor who slept in a bedroom on the side of the building near the Athenaeum, who got downstairs at the cost of a scorched face and hands, says when ne left his bed along with another man who slept in the «ame room, three men who had wandered from the upper rooms of the Cafe were left in the passage. They were stupified by smoke, which was excessive, and one of them attempted to hold him as he was leaving. He tried to direct them to the stairway, but they did not appear to be able to find it. He himself had very little recollection as to how he got downstairs. The remains of Mr and Mrs Wilson, their eldest boy, and their other children were found huddled together near where the bed stood. Another body was also found near their remains. The building was one mass of flames before the fire-escape arrived. During the height of the fire

some most exciting scenes occurred. One man, who occupied the third story, escaped through a window on to the parapet, where he continued hanging on fully ten minutes whilst ladders were being joined to reach him. Insurances.:— Union, £1150; Standard, £1000; National, £1450; Norwich Union, £I3OO ; Victoria,, £200; Hanseatic, £4OO ; New Zealand, £2OO. McGlashan's paper mills at Water of Leith are burnt down. Insurances Victoria, £100; Union, 500; Australian Alliance, £6OO ; National, £250; London antl Lancashire, £3BO.