Incendiarism.

New Zealand Police Gazette, Volume IX, Issue 21, 14 October 1885, Page 175

Incendiarism.

On the morning of the 27th ultimo, at Waimumu, near Mataura, four stacks of oats, value about £6O, the property of George Barclay, were maliciously set on fire, by which they were destroyed. The oats were insured in the National Office for £6O.

During the night of the 18th or morning of the 19th ultimo, at South Beach Road, near Greymouth, a tworoomed house with fowlhouse and dairy attached, the property of Eliza Newsome, was maliciously set on fire, by which it and contents were destroyed. The contents of the house, which were not of much value, belonged to Ellen West. The house was insured in the Equitable Office for £SO.

About noon on the 29th ultimo a fire was discovered in a cupboard, in which linen was kept, in the kitchen of the dwelling of Charles John Curry, Roxburgh Street, Wellington, but the fire was extinguished before much damage was done. At 9.30 a.m. on the following day a fire was again discovered in the bedroom of the same house, by which a

considerable quantity of wearing apparel, bed-clothes, &c., were destroyed, and the building completely gutted, before the fire could be extinguished. The contents of the house were not insured.

At 8 a.m. on the 2nd instant and 7.30 p.m. on the 4th instant a box containing old clothes and paper, which was in the sitting-room of the dwelling of Andrew and Mary Curry, Roxburgh Street, Wellington, was discovered on fire, which, it is supposed, was maliciously caused. The fire was confined to the box, the contents of which were of trifling value.

On the morning of the 3rd instant, at the Recreationgrounds, Hawera, a stack of oaten straw, the property of David Spence, value £lO, was maliciously set on fire, by which it was destroyed.

On the morning of the 29th ultimo the stable of the Carriers’ Arms Hotel, Dee Street, Invercargill, the property of John Hughes, was maliciously set on fire, by which it, four horses, a calf, Ac., were destroyed. The fire extended to the hotel, also the property of John Hughes, which was also destroyed. The stable was insured in the Norwich Union Office for £2OO, the hotel in the London, Liverpool, and Globe Office for £BOO, and the stock and furniture in the New Zealand and Colonial Offices for £350 each. The amounts insured for are said to be largely in excess of the value of the property destroyed.