ANONYMOUS LETTER

Chronicle (Levin), 11 March 1948, Page 5

ANONYMOUS LETTER

Press Association) '

Fresh Turn To Ballantyne's Fire Inquiry

(Per

CHRISTCHURCH, March 11. Refeyence to an anonymous letter received by the chairman of the Koyal Cpmmissidn of inquiry into Ballantyne's fire, Sir Harold Johnston, was made by counsel for the Crown, Mr. G. G. G. Watson, K.C., when the inquiry was resumed today. The letter purported to be a resume of a cojgvefgation between the ...writer, who; signed himself "True Citizeri," aiid Thomas Silk, a . buyer employed by Ballantyne's. Authofship of the letter had been traced to a man named Andrews, j of Dunedin, who had admitted j writing it, , said Mr. Watson. j Andrews had had no eonversation I with Thomas, but had obtained his ; information from Herbert E. Barns- j ley, who had, conversed with ; Thomas about the fire while fish- i ing from thp wharf- at Timaru. ' "As certain facts in the letter • have some sub-stratum of truth, I' propose to go over them," said Mr. Watson. He quoted Andrews as saying that "part of the first floor had been converted into , a large, modern display. room," with floor-in-g of a bituminous compound. Although a bituminous material

I had been used to patch the wooden | fioor in other parts .of the buildling, it had not been used in Congreve's Building, said Mr. Watson. Andrews' statement that heavy power lines were being laid across the new fioor was incorrect. The point raised by Andrews, which might be -a material factor in explaining the quick spread of the smoke, was the statement attributed to Thomas that the-'lift in the furnishing departmeht was smalier than the shaft accommodating it. Trevor Ernest Thomas, in evidenee, denied that he had told Barnsley that he had been badly shaken up by the fire, or that he had been sent on a holiday by the firm to recuperate. He might have men tion ed that some parts of the building had bituminous flooring, but did not say that "Iieavy power lmes" were being. laid across the fioor. .His first -.knowledge of the fire was smoke eoming from the basement and not, q,s he was alleged to have told Andrews, from "the bubbling up of the composition fioor at intervals eight feet apart, tollowed by a series of blue lights " Thomas said. that he had told , Barnsley that the lift shaft was considerably larger than the lift it accommodated. , He had not mentioned that the construetion of a larger, modern lift was contemplated. He did not know James Frederick Andrews, of' High Street, Dunedin. ; The hearing is proceeding. I