PINANG.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVII, Issue 1712, 1 April 1862, Page 6

PINANG.

(From the Gazette, Jan. 18.) Great Fire.— On Saturday night the 11th inst., a fire broke out in one of the houses of the suburb beyond the Pangrin bridge. On each side of the road theve stood a continuous row ofattap houses. Many of the hitter stood at soui3 distance from the road, with which they were connected by long; narrow platform bridges of split cibong. A good number of the houses ' were very neat, having been built during recent years by Chinese merchants for their families, as the rent of houses in town rose. The rows of houses on both sides were sojii in a blaze. The wind at first blew strongly from the south -ward, and in an incredibly short time the fire extended along the road right up to the bridge, thus placing the town in imminent danger. Foitunately the wind soon veered round to the northward, otherwise the market and the adjacent buildings on the town side of the bridge must have been ignited. Owing to the combustible materials of the houses, and their excessive dryness, induced by the long drought, the entire suburb, consisting of about three hundied houses, was in flames in about an hour, and between two aud three o'clock, the destruc- ! tion was complete. A few of the Chinese succeeded in carrying off some of their proprtey into the mangrove jungle behind, but with this slight exception the destruction was complete. / It is now known that no lives were lost. Rob-' bery was attempted both on land aud by boats. A number of the Chinese were apprehends 1 by the police in the act of seizing some of the goods that had been carried into the mangrove jungle. Had the wind continued southerly, nothing could have saved the houses on the other side of the river.