CHILDREN PLAYING WITH FIRE

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 18 February 1915, Page 2

CHILDREN PLAYING WITH FIRE

A NARROW ESCAPE TO WESLEYAN CHURCH AS Mr W. T. Cullens' nasal organs are rather keen on the smell of smoke, his attention was drawn towards the door of his boot-making work-room on Monday afternoon last, and upon opening it, he noticed a whiff of smoke pa,ss. This led him to [ investigate further, and upon going down the rear paddock a few yards he noticed that a grass fire had been lighted up against the lower wall of Miss M. Rimmer's music-teaching room, which is underneath the Wesleyan Church. He also noticed a box of matches lying upon the ground close by, and two youngsters between the ages of four and five sitting upon a box a few yards away, in high glee and roars of laughter. On the bustling appearance of Mr Cullens, the youngsters soon made tracks out and across the road. Mr Cullens at once doused the fire, which was just catching the building, with a few buckets of water. Had the fire got a good hold before being discovered, nothing could have saved the Church, Mr Cullen's own shop and factory, and for all one can tell, the Church of Christ, a little farther down, might have suffered destruction also, as there was a stiff breeze blowing at the time. It is to be hoped those little, playful kiddies have been taught by the application of the rod, not to play with fire again.