Incendiarism in Auckland.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 244, 14 July 1874, Page 6

Incendiarism in Auckland.

(Daily Times.) Tho extraordinary case of incendiarism under investigation in Auckland when the Wellington left was exciting considerable in* terest there. The Court was crowded daily, and it appears from the evidence that the information given by Brown from time to time prior to his arrest, had led to several persons being under surveillance by the Police. Suspicion eventually fell on Brown, by the contradictory accounts which he gave of the discovery of the fire, and was strengthened by the Police finding, two days afterwards, a bundle of paper and rags wetted with kerosene, and which had apparently been thrown hastily over the hoarding round the new Post-office, next to Must and Co.’s store. In this bundle there was a torn page of the Jewish Chronicle, and the remainder was found in the house of Brown’s father. There was also a part of the New Zealand Herald , of which the remainder was found at the same place. Other articles in the bundle were identified in the same way, but the motive for the crime remains a mystery—that is supposing Brown to be the guilty party. It may have been, in that case,fa boyish freak, or the result of a plan to secure reward for the discovery of the fire. But in any case it is clear that absolute incendiarism was not intended, as the fire must have attacked the door first, and could not have spread at that early hour of the evening without detection. The door of Must and Co.’s store is one of the best lighted spots in the City of Auckland ; for the lamps of three public houses and four other lights converge upon it, while it is in full view from the windows of the hotels directly opposite. A more serious case which remained undiscovered was the attempt to burn the Catholic Institute, which was deliberately fired about midnight, though the fire did not spread, being stopped by a sheet of tin. Nothing was known of this till morning ; but, strangely enough, about midnight a brick was thrown through the windows, and alarmed the inmates who sleep on the premises. It is supposed that the miscreant, after firing the building, gave the alarm to save the people, and took this curious mode of accomplishing his aim.