THE WANGANUI FIRE.

Evening Star, Issue 3778, 3 April 1875, Page 3

THE WANGANUI FIRE.

[By Telegraph ]

Wanganui, April 3.

Thomas Anslow was brought up on remand yesterday and charged with arson. A good deal of strong evidence was aduced, but the case was again remanded for further evidence. The principal witnesses were a laborer named Gower and a commercial traveller named Skelly, who state that they entered Anslow’s premises immediately after the alarm of fire was and on bursting the door open observed behind the counter a man dressed in dark clothes, whom they believed to be Anslow; and Captain Robinson of the "Wanganui fire brigade, in course of his evidence said:—“On entering the premises I saw Anslow standing behind the counter with shirt, pants, and perhaps vest, but no coat, on the left-hand side of the shop. He was handing goods over the counter. Sometime afterwards, in the Provincial Hotel, I asked him about the origin of the fire. The prisoner then told us that he slept above his shop on a flat mattrass on the floor, and that he had been very ill lately, and had taken some medicine which caused him to go to the back premises. He said he felt giddy and faint, and in getting up he capsized the kerosene oil lamp (he said he was suffering great pain at this time) over the mattress, which caught fire almost at once. 1i e then cried out, ‘ Bain! Bain!’ and called fire, and stated what he had done. He t icn got a box that contained money and threw it down stairs, and also some clothing. I asked him if he was insured, and he said ‘No.’ I then said that he would be a heavy loser, aud he said that it would save him L4OO or LSOO, which he would have to pay to his creditors. The description that the prisoner gave of the way in which the fire originated would tally with the way I found the place ; a lamp upsetting on a flax mattrass would ignite quickly ; the fire could not have originated in the prisoner’s shop.” Anslow remains in custody, being unable to procure bail.