THE FIRE AT THE FORESTERS' ARMS HOTEL: INQUEST YESTERDAY.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 19, Issue 1335, 29 May 1872, Page 2

THE FIRE AT THE FORESTERS' ARMS HOTEL: INQUEST YESTERDAY.

An inquest was held at the Foresters' Arms Hotel at 3. p.m. yesterday,, before T. Hitchings, Esq, Coroner, and the following juiy, F. Sutton, foreman, S. Hooper, H. Ford, A. Blake, P. Co.sgrove, G. M'Pherson,. T. Pi ice, A. Budd, E. Dunn,. M. M'Grath, S. Watt, N. Jacobs, —to inquire into, the origin of the fire which was. discovered on those premises, at an early hour in the morning. The Coroner said that the fire had occurred, as in his experience tires usually did, at the mysterious hour of 4 a.m , and considering the situation of the building and the direction of the wind, if it had not been happily discovered in time, it might have Jed to. such a fire as bad never before been known in Napier, and probably have been attended with loss of life. There appeared some reason to suspect incendiarism, but this was a question for the juiy, after hearing the evidence. The jury then viewed the scene of the fire. Harriet Sweetapple deposed : I am servant at Mr Gray's. I was wakeful shortly after 4 o'clock this morning, and saw a flickering light on my win-dow-blind. 1 jumped up, and looking through the window, saw that a little shed attached to the rear of the house, almost beneath my window, was on fire. I heard the wood eiackling, and saw flames and smoke. The fire was rapidly increasing. 1 immediately gave the alarm, and assisted Mr Gray to extinguish the tire. I saw no one about Ernilv Shirley, a fellow-servant of the former witness, who slept in the same room, gave very similar evidence. Gray deposed ; I am landlord of the Foresters' Anns Hotel. About 4.20 a.m. to-day J was awakened by one of my maid-servants who told me that the place vas on fire. 1 imme diately ran downstairs, and found a small shed attached to the rear of the premises on fire. The flames were just breaking through the roof. Before throwing in water, T threw out of the shed a bundle and a few small boxes which were lying on the floor and had not been touohed by the fire. I then, with the assistance of my servants and lodgers, succeeded in extinguishing the flames. The shed was the place where lamps, boots, knives, &c., were usually cleaned. The floor was of earth, and there was a small bench, which was burnt quite through from the upper side. 1 saw no one about the place. When daylight came I found a swag among the things 1 had thrown out, and the remains of a blanket very much burnt. T recognized the swag as belonging to a man who had stayed two days at ylj house, and who left late last night, taking his swag with him. He had been drinking in the evening, having been treated by some of the people in the house. About 11.30 p.m. lje came to the bar and asked for a pint of ale, which T refused. I told him he had had enough, if he was to stay in my house; if he had any more, he must sleep somewhere else. I showed jiiin upstairs to a bedroom ; but about five minutes after he came down with his swag under bis arm and the candle in pis band; he gave me the candle, saying he would ft ot s * io P i» the place any longer, am] left thehoibe, going down the street, Jrje flic} not use any threats, but seeme4 annoyed at my refusal to give him drink. I (.fit) not sec airy more of ljitn till I.

I identified him at the- lock-up to-day. My house is insured for .£3OO, and if it was burnt I should be a very heavy loser. There is no door to the place where the fiie broke out,, and it is not large enough for a man to lie down in it. There is a small quantity of kerosine kept there; also spare lamp*, glasses, lamp rags, shoe-brushes, &c. A match dropped on the floor could uot have caused the tire. The wooden roof of the shed is burnt right through, but some galvanized iron had been laid upon it, which, in my opinion, paved the building A box. of matches was found outside the- place this morning. All was safe when F retired at nearly 1 this morning. James "V'ining, night watchman, deposed that ho saw the smoke of thefire about 4.20 a.m , being then opposite Abrahams'. Hi; hurried to the plaee, but found that the flames had been. extinguished. On his way to the fire he saw a man with something wrapped round his shoulders, walking slowly past the Clarendon Hotel. On Ins return, about a quarter of an hour after, he saw the same man, coming out of Bro wning-st. Thinking lie was the policeman, he hailed him : " Is that you, Pat ? " but the man replied '* No." Could, not identify the man. Patrick Coghlan,, police constable,, deposed : Yesterday morning, about Gi a*m , Sergt. Farmer showed me a swag, which I identified as belonging to a man I had, in charge for drunkenness a few days previously. T went along, the White road to seek the owner. I saw the man near- Faulknor's workshop, coming towards me. As soon as he saw me he curned on to the beach. I went to him and asked him where he stayed last night.. He replied, with some hesitation, that he did not stay at any place. I asked him if he stayed at Grays last night; he not." 1 asked him why he left his swag ; there; he replied!, "I did not leave the whole of it there." I asked him where it was; he said, "I left a part of it at the back."' 1 asked him; what he took away, and he told me—a gray blanket, old coa% pair of boots, and cap. I asked him where they were; he replied, "At the bathing house on the beach." I asked him where the white blanket wa>; ho said he did not know. I then, took him to the lockup. When there I showed him the bag, and asked him if it belonged to him ;. he replied that it would do me no good if he told me. I went to the bathing house, and found the articles he had described there. He was sober when I arrested him ; but appearad to have been drunk overnight. William Churchill deposed : lam servant at Gray's. My business is to trim lamps, clean knives, &c, and the shed where I work is where the fire originated. There is a bench in the place, and there weie lamps, oil-rags, &c., there. The rags were hanging on nails. I w a s there at 9.30 p.m., without a light, and all was right then. No one had any right there after that. The prisoner, William Ganny, was then asked if he had any statement to make He replied that he had no re collection of anything that occurred the previous night. When he awoke in the morning he found himself lying on the beach, wrapped in a blanket. He had one question to «wk Mr Gray : " When I left last night, did I give you any ground to suspect that I would do such a thing?" to which Mr Gray replied, " No." The jury were then locked up, and after a long deliberation returned the following verdict:—''That there is sufficient evidence against William Ganny to warrant his committal far trial at the Supreme Court."