FIRE IN PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3725, 3 December 1927, Page 2

FIRE IN PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS.

INCENDIARISM SUSPECTED. The fact that on three nights in succession small fires have occurred in the old wooden wing of Parliament House suggests that attempts have been made at incendiarism (says the Post). In each case the outbreaks have been of a minor nature, but had they not been discovered in the early stages the consequences might have been serious. On Monday evening, at the height of the gale that was raging, a telegraph messenger reported that papers on the table in Mr. W. D. Lysnar’s room were ablaze, and the (lames were quickly subdued. Yesterday morning the charred remains were found in the room of Mr. Linklater, in the tower of the old building, of a roll of paper in the corner of a shelf. The paper apparently had burned to cinders some time on Tuesday evening or early on Wednesday morning," but probably through lack of draught, the flames did not affect the walls, shelf, or the papers underneath. Last night two more outbreaks of fire occurred in the same building. The first was discovered in a woodshed near a lavatory, and the second in a small room near the old Legislative Council Chamber, a mop being found ablaze. In neither ease was material damage done.