THE FIRE AT HASTINGS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume X, Issue 7, 18 February 1893, Page 159

THE FIRE AT HASTINGS.

(FROM OUR •GRAPHIC’ SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.) THE chief topic of conversation is the tire which caused such destruction at Hastings early on Thursday morning. The pretty little township presents a mournful appearance, two large squares having been swept by the devouring element. Shops, banks, stores, business places, and one large hotel have disappeared, leaving a wilderness of blackened and broken fragments from which rise a scattered forest of chimneys in various stages of dilapidation. The sufferers have lost no time in recommencing business. Great placards and strips of white canvas, announcing in large black type, the temporary location of banks and tradespeople, add to the air of conscious importance which the place wears. Groups of fantastically-dressed Maoris give colour to the same, and the number of visitors, insurance agents, merchants, country settlers, and mere sight-seers make business brisk. A wonderful contrast was presented throughout the fire by the heroism, clear-headedness, and untiring efforts of a few, and the apathy and laziness shown by the great crowds who flocked into the streets to share in the excitement. Hearing praises from all quarters of Miss Caulton’s energy and thoughtfulness I went to see her. She very kindly gave me a graphic account of her experiences. When wakened by the first alarm no flames were visible, but a dense cloud of smoke was borne by the wind into her room from McEwan’s shop directly opposite her father’s hotel. For a moment terror overmastered her, but quickly rallying, she and the rest of the household set to work carrying valuables to a place of safety, fetching blankets to hang from all the windows, and constantly drenching them with water. At this fatiguing labour women worked as hard as men, some of whom were stationed on the roof. Time was lost by the man who filled the buckets having also to carry them up a ladder. Miss Caulton went to the crowd of idlers thronging the footpath, and asked for one volunteer to stand in the gap and pass the buckets on, but her request met with no response, and she had to turn away and call her brother from some other duty. At the same time the firemen, instead of being free to fight the flames, were pumping for the manual and getting very little assistance, although ten shillings an hour was offered to outsiders. Two firemen were brought fainting to the hotel, their helmets fused by the heat, in which it was only possible to work when drenched with water. They had been forced to slide down the sides of the ladder which had caught fire.

Then Miss Caulton thought of an errand of mercy, and commenced carrying jugs of beer out to the parched Fire Brigade. She describes the heat where they were working as being like a furnace ; the glare was blinding, but the general effect superb. The flames leaped into the clear blackness of the night, and paled the steady light of moon and stars. Great sheets of galvanised iron curling up and flying into space burned with starlike flashes of coloured fire, blue, green, and red. Burning grass-seed kept up a steady volume of flame.

J nil’s Hotel caught, flared fiercely, and blazed out in fifteen minutes. Thesmall jetsof water which could be thrown seemed an insult to the conflagration. Ultimately water was utilised more to prevent other buildings catching. The wind was light, but variable, and with each change came fresh alarm to some ; unlocked for hope to others. Property removed to what appeared a place of safety would in a few minutes be reduced to shapeless heaps of ashes as the long tongues of flame swept by a sudden gust leapt round them. Buildings some distance away caught fire, and instant aid was needed to extinguish the flames. Isolated teiegraph poles stand charred monuments to the fierce heat. In most cases people had time to dress, and there were fewer irregular toilets than usual on such occasions. One excited individual, however, disported himself among the crowd in a garment which is generally reserved for the privacy of a bedroom. There was little of the inevitable lowering of feather beds and reckless hurling of glass and china from upper stories. It is said that one gentleman wandered aimlessly about with a sieve under one arm and a pair of socks under the other.

The loss of property is very great. One man has lost the savings of thirty years ; another had barely commenced business in an elaborately furnished restaurant. Great sympathy is felt for Mr and Mrs Galwey, of the New South Wales Bank. They have not long been married, and all their tasteful knicknacks, a great number of wedding presents, and even their clothes are burnt. Mr Galwey was so busy looking after the Bank’s interests and getting out the safe through a hole cut in the wall that he had no time to save his own property.

There is no truth in the statement that the water supply was inadequate. Hastings is supplied by artesian wells, the overflow from which, together with the surface drainage, escapes by the sewer. There is thus a river of clear water under the town supplying over four hundred gallons a minute. This was not effectually used by the Hastings brigade, who, finding they were pumping air, concluded the water was low, while, in reality, the connection must have been defective; the hose itself burst in seven places. The ‘ tanks ’ from which the water was chiefly drawn are large cisterns, each acting as a reservoir to one artesian well. One of these was exhausted by the continued pumping, and an unavoidable delay occurred in moving the manual to another. When the steam engine came from Napier the sewer supplied much more water than was required to completely drench the smoking squares. The fire lingered obstinately, and when daylight faded the whole surface glowed with red light. The steam engine stayed till the last train left for Napier, and after its departure some of the local brigade watched till daylight. On several occasions they had to extinguish reviving flames. L. Rees. (Our picture of Jull’s Hotel, Hastings, before the Arc is from a really excellent photograph by Valentine and Co., perhaps the most famous firm of photographers in the world. Owing to bad weather, the present reproduction, though it gives a most excellent idea of the part of Hastings represented, scarcely does the photograph fullest justice. One of the new series of New Zealand scenery, the photograph, like all its companions, is a marvel of artistic workmanship. Each photograph in the hands of Valentine becomes a picture, the greatest care being

taken in the working up and development of each negativ Their specimen books are well worth looking over, as showing to what artistic perfection photography may be brought.)