The Town of St. Johns

Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 15, 23 July 1892, Page 4

The Town of St. Johns

The following description of St Johns, * Newfoundland, which has been devastated by fire, is supplied to the New Zealand Herald by Mr Thomas HMabin, who formerly, resided, there for 12 years :— St Johns, at the time of my residence there, contained about 30,000 inhabitants, a number, no bbttbt, considerably augmented since then. It stands on two sides of,a small landlocked harbour, near the eastern point of the island. The chief business premises and about nine-tenths of its people occupy the north side. The form of the chief part of the city soine-what resembles that of Wellington, in having along water front age without much depth.. Every merchant there has his own wharf, or wharves, with stores adjoining, and formerly his oil vats. At the time of my first ac« quaintance with the place, as a boy of thirteen, it was rising from its ruins. Prior to the year 1846 the city was con--Btructed exclusively of wood, but on the 9th of June of that year, during a heavy gale, a fire broke out in the workshop of a cabinetmaker, a short distance from the main thoroughfare. The fire spread rapidly. Unfortunately it occurred when the merchants' vats were foil of oil, the products of the spring seal fisheries, and when the yats became involved all human efforts proved ineffectual, and the city was swept from its western to its eastern end. The main parts of the city were then rebuilt with substantial brick and stone stores and dwellings. The oil yats, I am told, have disappeared from the north part of the city, and are now to be found 'only on the south side, so that m the fire which, after an interval of 46 years, has again destroyed the city, no abnormal feature can have presented itself. This fire has happened at a season when the men are to a great extent absent on the Labrador' and coast fisheries, so that the position of their wiyes and children will be aggravated.