INTERCOLONIAL.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1066, 29 September 1882, Page 3

INTERCOLONIAL.

A report is enne-nt that O’Farrell, who was recently sentenced to two year’s imprisonment in Melbourne Gaol for his attack upon Archbishop Goold, has attempted to commit suicide. The Garden Palace, situate in the Inner Domain, Sydney, the building in which the New South Wales International Exhibition of 1879 was held, has been totally destroyed by fire. The conflagration broke out at 5 a.m. on September 22. and is still raging. The sight of the burning building is most grand, and thousands of people are now on the spot. All efforts to save the Palace have been without avail, and nothing can prevent its complete destruction. The offices of the occupation branch of the Lands Department, the Census Offices, and the Harbour Offices were in the building, and it is feared that there will be a serious loss of official documents and other Government property. All the Archives of the Mining Depirtment, the Census Office, and the ! innae vn Soc : ety, together with the national collection of minerals in the Technological Museum, have been destroyed at the Garden Palace. The estimated lns« in all amounts to half a million sterling. The dome of the building fell with a crash twenty minutes after the fire broke out. The destruction is complete. The whole of the Garden Palace was completely destroyed this momin; within an hour after the commencement of the fire. A few portions of the brickwork are all that now remains standing. There was no insurance upon the building or upon the contents, except the art collection. The loss is incalculable, on account of the great destruction of the Goverment documents, many of which cannot be replaced. All ihe papers relating to the last census, and the plans and records of railway surveys, were destroyed in the flames, and the collections in the Technological Museum will be difficult to replace The flames spread with great rapidity, and mso loan immense height, being visible for miles around. The origin of the fire is entirely unknown, but it is hinted that it is due to incendiarism. . The Art collection in the Garden Palace was insured for £3OOO. This, as already stated, Was the only insurance on the building or its contents. The action of the Government in storing valuable documents in the Exhibition is generally condemned. The suspicion that the destruction of the Garden Palace was caused by incendiarism is gaining ground strongly.