DISASTROUS FIRE.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20488, 5 March 1932, Page 14

DISASTROUS FIRE.

MAORI COLLEGE DESTROYED. INADEQUATE WATER SUPPLY. (MESS' ASSOCIATION TJil,E(lilAll.) CARTERTON, March 4. A disastrous fire which broke out at the Hikttrangi Maori College to-day at 2 p.m. completely demolished the wliole building. Two minutes before the fire was discovered Use principal of the college (Mr 11/- H. Ward) was in communication with the Carterton Fire Brigade asking that they should go out and fill the college baths from the creek. He had rio sooner rung off than a house master called attention to some smoke issuing from a cupboard upstairs. Mr Ward seized a fire extinguisher and applied it, but was driven back by the flames. He again tang the Brigade, which responded, taking its Dennis pump six miles to the scene. When they arrived the' only water available was from a well which ran dry in three 1 minutes. Meanwhile the school furniture was removed to the road at the back of the building and the house furniture to the front lawn. The wind then changed and the flames swept across the lawn, the grass drying up and carrying the fire to the heaps of furniture. The heat by this time was too intense to permit a rescue and all was destroyed except one Morris chair.

At the time ol' the outbreak the scholars were in school and the house domestic staffs were on the ground floor. Ali escaped, but saved none of their eifects. The building was erected some 60 vears aeo by Sir Henry la no red, and about 20 years ago was purchased by the Papawai and Kaikokirikiri School Board and the Hikurangi College for schooling and training Maori boys in farm work. It was established under the Wellington diocese. Mr Ward's furniture was insured for £3OO.