THE LATE FIRE.

Kumara Times, Issue 215, 12 June 1877, Page 2

THE LATE FIRE.

[to the editor.]

Sir— Your sensible rematkh in re the. inquest on the late fire at Mr Simmons, are worthy the attention and study of jury-men and the public at large, For my own .part I heartily agree-; with you., ■How any man, upon his oath, witli su'chevidence as that of Sergeant' Browne before-him, :could arrive at the conclu§ion that the fire was the, result of incendiarism I cannot conceive.. As you, very justly put.it—Supposing a man’s life was at stake, would that jury hang him ou such evidence J No, they would return a unanimous., verdict of not guilty. . Tjhen I ask,. is not an oath the same in both cases ? No w with regard to the fire in question. J was there, in time to see something of it. After the fire I thought from. the hot smoke ascending through joints of the flooring, and along the, partition studs, that there was fire beneath. It was so ; and after i a portion of the flooring being cut away, several buckets of water were thrown down, which completely extinguished it. One of those present , descended through the opening, and a lighted candle having been handed to him, ex- ■ amined the place, but he did not report the discovery of sticks or newspapers. Shortly afterwards I went down myself with a lighted candle and examined the place. In this particular spot where the sticks, and papers are reported to have ' been' some hours afterwards found, the joists and,.under side of the flooring boards showed a thick cinder crust, showing that the fire had been ' prettiy strong there, and the' smutty state of the surrounding timbers proved that the tongues of fire extended some distance‘under the floor;, so that had any paper been placed where reported tp have been found, it would have been burned. There were shavings strewed all over the ground underneath the floor, no doubt there since the building was erected; but there was neither Kumara nor any other Times, nor yet mixed sticks, that I could see. I do not believe one word of it. This case is exactly the case of Korlegast’s brewery ,at Ross, with this difference, that there was n,o Kumara Times nor magpie’s nest, nor anything else that an incendiary would use, and yet there were eleven to one that it was the work of such a character. Craving your indujgence for inyovier encroachment on your limited but valuable space, * : - •' -’lam,&e.; ; ! - . ; D. Falvey,-aeqr. P.S.—I forgot in my description of what- I- -saw at; Mr Simmons’ fire to state 1 that, two. feet, or. three, boards, from where the stove stood, in the direction of where the fire under the floor appealed, 40 be strongest, -a clean hole Was burned between two flooring boards, about six inches long, about

one in the widest part, and terminating at nothing at both ends; and my impression was then, to which I gave expression at the time, that a cinder fell in the joint, and was fed by the draught from beneath, until it burnt its way and dropt on the shavings below, and sot them on fire.