DISASTROUS FIRES. PAPER MILLS TOTALLY DESTROYED.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 87, 13 April 1911, Page 3

DISASTROUS FIRES. PAPER MILLS TOTALLY DESTROYED.

LOSS ABOUT £24,000. fß^ XELiaBAPH — PBESS ASSOCIATION.] DUNEDIN, 12tn April. A fire broke out in the New Zealand Paper Mill Company's Woodhaugh paper mills this evening shortly after seven o'clock, resulting in the total destruction of the building, plant, and stock. The four o'clock to twelve o'clock shift was working at the time, and the first intimation of the conflagration was a burst of name from the paper-sorting department, situated at the north end of the building, and od the windward side. The first riush of the fire wAs so furious that the men had" to rush from tho building, but the engineer was able to remain long enough to blow the steam whistle and give the alarm to the district. In an incredibly short space of time the interior of the building was enveloped in flames, and although.six leads of water were brought to bear on\t-he fire the posi. tion was hopeless, and the^fforts of the brigade to subdue it futile. ']'', The whole building practically burned v itself out, and by ten o'clock nothing was left but the ragged brick walls and the smouldering interior. How the fire originated is a complete mystery. The building covers about half an acre, and the plant contained in it was efficient -and modern. The building is valued at £600, and tho plant at from £12,000 to £13,000. There was manufactured stock on the premises to the value of £3000 ; raw i material to tfce value, of £2000 (this in- i eluding ' a large' quantity of pulp), while the stock of dyes and chemicals is valued at^ about £1100. The insurance on the building, plant, and stock is £12,500, which is distributed over the Standard, National, Commercial Union, Royal, Alliance, South British, and- London and Lancashire offices. Tho destruction of the mills will throw over 50 hands out of employment. The Woodhaugh mills have been running for the past 35 years. They were originally owned by a company, and then by Mr. John Mitchell for twenty-two ' years, and by the Now Zealand Paper Mills Company for the past six and a half years.