The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 1878.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 18, 21 January 1878, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 1878.

Foxt some reason or another unknown to us the Press Agency omitted to make any mention of a serious fire that occurred in Wellington on Weduesday last, whereby the Kail way Hotel, the railway station and all the offices, and a Maori house Jwere completely destroyed. It may have been that the Agency did not care to publish too widely the fact that Wellington is without fl, water supply, and that, should a fire break out on L'ambton Quay or jja any other part of the town tljat is closely

built over, there is nothing whatever to prevent its sweeping everything before it. We are rather inclined, however, to think that the omission is the result of a mistake, 3uch as, we trust, will be more carefully guarded against in the future. The Post devotes a large amount of space to a description of the fire, and to comments upon the utter uselessness of the existing water supply, from which we gather the following :— The fire broke out about half-past three on Wednesday afternoon in the Railway Hotel, which is on the opposite side of the street to the station. The Eire Brigades were in attendance immediately upon the alarm being given with their apparatus, and very soon had a hose fixed, but to their utter consternation when the main was turned on not a drop of water was forthcoming, and it was three quarters of an hour before a fair supply was obtainable. Meanwhile, as might have been expected, every building within reach of the fire had been completely destroyed. The state of affairs after the fire had been burning half an hour is thus described :— " Shortly after four o'clock the flames were issuing also from the engineer's and mauager's offices, which quickly became a seething,and roaring mass of flame, like the other buildings. A house in the rear of the Railway Hotel, belonging to some Maoris, and occupied ,by them, also caught fire, and at four o'clock the hotel, the railway station, booking office, waiting rooms, «ngineer's office, manager's office, the house above alluded to, and an outbuilding of the hotel, all combined to form one mighty blaze. The heat was intense, and it was iaipossible to approach within a considerable distance of the conflagration, but the firemen rigged up a sort of tent of wet blankets and thus protected got as near as practicable to the burning buildings so as to direct the jets of salt water, obtained from the harbor by engines, with better effect. Soon the chimney of the railway station came down with a crash and the. iron roof of the Engineer's office also fell in, while the telegraph post opposite the station catching fire, the wires dropped on to the road, and even the railway platform was In flames along nearly its whole length. At half-past four o'clock the fire had fairly burnt itself out, all the buildings which had become ignitee having been completely levelled with the ground, leaving only the chimneys, (all but one) standiug, and these were pulled down by the brigades as soon as possible, to avoid danger to life aud limb from their fall. So intense, however, had been the heat, that the very ground and stones were red-hot, and water had to be poured continuously on the ruins for a considerable time after the final extinction of the fire." In commenting upon the fire, aud the surrounding circumstances, our contempoary says: — Here was an instance in which the Brigades were on the spot within a few minutes of the. fire breaking out, with all the means and appliances for extinguishing a fire readily, when the alarming discovery was made that not a drop of water could be obtained from the main. Thus the men of the Brigades' were unable to do anything, and the fire burned on till the flames, blown across the street from the building in which the fire originated, caught the railway station, which in the end wa3 wholly destroyed. By and bye the water came in a small useless stream, and the first water obtained in sufficient quantity to be of any service was from the harborj two engine pumps being used in rendering it available. A period of nearly three quarters of an hour elapsed before a fair supply of water could be obtained from the mains, and even then the degree of pressure was low. Of course a number of ingenious scientific theorieswill be propo mded to account for the length of time which elapsed between the water being turned on and the supply becoming available at Pipitea Point, but so long as the fact remains that with a high wind blowing a terrible conflagration might gain head in the Thorndon end of the city before a drop of water could be got to put it out, people will not feel satisfied with anything short of obtaining a practical remedy for so serious a state of affairs." So one would thiuk; but it was nothing new to the Wellington people to find that their water supply was not be relied upon. They have been served precisely the same trick before, aud yet they appear to have remained perfectly satisfied, j udging from the fact that they have done nothing to remedy the evil. Wellington journals are fond of dubbing Nelson " Sleepy Hollow," but they will very soon have to adopt the same or a similar name for their own city if the disgraceful apathy displayed in the matter of sanitary precautions and water supply much longer prevails. As it is, the powerful stinks which taint the atmosphere, and the utter insufficiency of the system of waterworks render the self-styled Empire City the most undesirable spot in the whole of New Zealand as a place of residence.