AUCKLAND.

Manawatu Times, Volume II, Issue 58, 9 May 1877, Page 2

AUCKLAND.

May 5. There has been a fearful case of burning to death beyond Lucas' Creek. William John Peacock, a notorious drunkard, who had had several hairbreadth, escapes, got a bottle of rum at Riverbead yesterday, and after coming home drank the whole bottle between 5 and 8 o'clock. He went to bed and asked a youth named Nesbitt, who lived with him to give him a light for hispipe. After smoking some time, he went out and relighted the pij.e. Nesbitt, who went asleep, was soon wakened by a crackling noise, and saw the head of Peacock's bed m flames. He could not awaken Peacock. He then tried to drag him out, being a very heavy man, only got him as far as the door of the partition. Soon after a powder flask under Peacock's bed exploded, and a gun on the wall went off. Nesbitt was obliged to leave the building. He alarmed a neighbor, but when both returned, the roof had fallen m, and the body was burnt all but the trunk. It is supposed Peacock threw a match into the thatch when lighting his pipe. Police gone up. Considerable dissatisfaction is caused by a combination of twenty bakers to raise the price of" bread to sd. the 2lb. loaf. The Insurance Buildings narrowly escaped fire to-day, caused by a lighted match thrown down the grating. The rafters were ignited but the fire was extinguished. A man named Anderson was stabbed m the eye by a man named Healey m Queen-street this afternoon.