Family Lose All in Suspicious Fire

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 36, 12 February 1937, Page 8

Family Lose All in Suspicious Fire

NO WATER AVAILABLE Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, Feb. 11. An outbreak of fire which destroyed a five-roomed houso and contents nt Pakuranga yesterday afternoon is believed by tho occupiers, Mr and Mw T. White and their two young children and Mrs White’s grandmother, to have originated under circumstances which point to incendiarism. The family is now homeless and all their possessions, which were not insured, are lost. The houso wais empty when the fire was discovered and, in the absence of water, nothing could be done to save it. Two weeks ago a heap of burnt grass was discovered under the tank-stand, while on Tuesday of Inst week a box of dry kindling wood was found alight under the house. These incidents were not reported to the police, and it was not until the family read of the recent mysterious outbreaks in the Howick district, a few miles away, that they became suspicious. A significant fact connected with the fire is that the front gate and that of the adjoining paddock were found open although .both -were left closed and latched iu the morning.