INCENDIARISM
BLOCK OF FLATS. (By Telegraph—Per Press Association) AUCKLAND, September 7. Charles Vernan, 55, a tailor and owner of a block of flats at Ponsonby pleaded guilty to-day to wilfully setting fii-e to the building. Evidence showed that when the fire occurred about two o’clock in the morning of August 24th. five of the twelve flats were occupied and there were fourteen people in the building. Fires had been. started in seven different parts of the building which was insured for £3,500 and the furniture for £7OO. Detective Knight said the accused first denied all knowledge of the fires, but when witness accompanied him to bis business premises he discovered in the dustbin a quantity of paper cuttings, cottonwool etc. similar to thovse found in the flats. Accused then made a statement admitting the offence and explained his financial position, showing be bad been pressed for considerable sums of money.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/HOG19310907.2.60
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Hokitika Guardian, 7 September 1931, Page 6
Word count
Tapeke kupu
150INCENDIARISM Hokitika Guardian, 7 September 1931, Page 6
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
The Greymouth Evening Star Co Ltd is the copyright owner for the Hokitika Guardian. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of the Greymouth Evening Star Co Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in