THE LATE FIRE AT ASHBURTON.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2628, 8 September 1882, Page 4

THE LATE FIRE AT ASHBURTON.

An inquest was held at Quill's Hotel yesterday afternoon touching the circumstances attending the fire whioh ooourred on the North-east belt, i.»hDurton, on the evening of SundaT; August 20th. A number of witnesses were examined, and from the evidence adduced it appears that the fire was first discovered by Mr W. White, who lives close by. Mr White, a member of the Ashburton Fire Brigade, and two others succeeded in extinguishing the fire with a few buckets of water, and a subsequent examination of the premises revealed the fact that a bundle of loose paper, satuiated with kerosene, was found in one of the bunks in the house, and in the contra of this paper a small piece of oandle was found still burning. The match-lining over the fire plana was also saturated with kerosene, and the wood was all charred, the fire appearing to have sprung from a small centre and spread to the coiling. On tha shelf over the fireplace was discovered a small tin with ashes in it, and the tin appeared to have had keroscno in it. The grate in the room did not appear to have had any fire in it for some time, both the ashes it contained and the bars being quite cold. The

home was unoccupied at the tune of the fire, had been empty for soma time. It wur insured for £SO, but the estimated value of the building was, according to the evidence of a witness, between £25 and £3O. The house ia the property of a gardener named Alex. Eej mil, who stated that he was up - country at the time of the fire, and did not return till the following evening. In addition to the policy of £SO oa the bouse a policy of £25 was still current on the supposed contents, but at the time of the fire thdre was nothing of any value in the building, the goods insured urd-..- the aeoand policy having been taken away from time to time some months previous to the fire. Up to the present time no claim had biea made for payment of the sum insured, acd the time daring which a legal claim on the insurance company conld be made had now elapsed. SThe delay in this matter, however, had occurred through the netflecb of the owner's agents, to whom the owner of the property had communicated on the question of repairing the damage done by the fire. After hearing the whole of the evidence the jury consulted together for a short time, and returned a verdict to the effect that there was no evidenoe to connect the origin of the Are with any particular person, but they were of opinion that the house had been wilfully Set on fire by some one at present unknown.