POST OFFICE BLAZE

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXX, Issue 189, 19 August 1935, Page 2

POST OFFICE BLAZE

FOLLOWS BURGLARS’ VISIT

SOME MAIL DESTROYED

(Per Press Association). AUCKLAND, Last Night

Damage estimated at about £lOOO

done by a fire which broke out shortly after thieves had visited the combined

post and telegraph office nt Kumeu early this morning and removed the office safe. The building, which housed the telephone exchange serving Kumeu and district, was completely destroyed, and with it was burned a quantity of mail intended for rural delivery. Although detectives made widespread investigations throughout the day, no arrests have been made. The safe, with its heavy door torn from its hinges, was found at the side of the road between. Taupaki and Waitakcre. The contents of drawers and two cash boxes —<a small sum of money and a quantity of postage and unemployed stamps of a total value of about £24—were missing, although the safe still contained a number of books and office records, which were slightly damaged as result of exposure to the weather.

It has not been definitely established whether the fire was caused deliberately or whether it followed an unsuccessful attempt to blow open the safe. Whatever its cause, the outbreak occurred shortly after the safe had been removed by the thieves, who made their raid between midnight and 1.30 a.m.

The fire was first noticed by Dr Harris, whose home is a short distance from the Post Office. Members of his household Said that the building, a

small wooden structure of two rooms, was a mass of flames when they first ■noticed the outbreak. Nothing could

be done to extinguish the flames, which were fanned by a boisterous westerly wind and were carried toward a telegraph pole outside the Post Office. The pole was charred almost from top to bottom and the cross bars carrying the wire were portly consumed. The post mistress, .Miss Wright, who lives at Tuapai, was roused by Dr Harris and she was driven to Waitakere, the nearest telephone exchange, to report the fire, which u ( p to that stage was believed to he purely accidental.

On the return trip, however, the driver of the car noticed what he took to ho a large box 'at the side of the road between Waitakere and Taupaki. He stopped to investigate and found the safe from the Post Office, broken open and rifled. The two cash boxes had both been forced open and the two drawers, which had heen wrenched

from the inside of the safe, were near-

b ?- Although it is obvious that a motor car or truck was used to carry the safe from Kumeu to where is was found about four miles away, the police have received no reports of any motor vehicle having been stolen. The work of restoring telephone communication was commenced by a telegraph gang about 3 o’clock, while the wreckage of the Post Office was still smouldering, \and by 8 o’clock one toll line was available for use. Arrangements were made to set up a temporary telephone exchange in the waiting room at Kume.u railway station, a short distance away from the Post Office, and the necessary equipment was brought from Auckland with all possible dispatch. The post office at Kumeu had heen broken into twice previously in about the last five rears..