“MAD THROUGH DRINK”

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 29, 27 April 1927, Page 12

“MAD THROUGH DRINK”

MAN CONFESSES ARSON A STRANGE REVENGE (From Our Own Correspondent.) DANNEVIRKE, Tuesday. Refused a bottle of whisky by a hotel - keeper, Douglas Fraser took a strange revenge, setting fire to property of the Napier Brewery Company, and to other buildings. Before Justices of the Peace he was charged at Ormondville to-day with wilfully setting fire to a stable, the property of the Napier Brewery Co., and leased to James Mackie Smith; with wilfully setting fire to a motor garage, the property of Henry Perry; attempting to set fire to a stable, the property of Wm. Henry Edkins; wilfully setting fire to a four-roomed cottage, the property of Henry Perry. The fires all occurred at Ormondville on Saturday night last. Mr. Perry’s garage and the Napier Brewery Company’s stables, also Mr. Perry’s cottage, were all destroyed, the loss running into some hundreds of pounds. The accused pleaded guilty and was committed for sentence. In a statement to the police the accused said on Friday last, after having spent a considerable sum at a hotel since April 14, he was refused a bottle of whisky by the hotel-keeper. He was very annoyed at the refusal, and the idea struck him to burn down the hotel before he went back to work. On Saturday evening he went to Mr. Edkins’s stables, close to the Ormondville Hotel, and lighted some paper with the intention of burning the stable, with a view to igniting the hotel. He was discovered and went away, returning later to the hotel stables, which he set on fire and ran away to his home. He was mad from the effects of drink, otherwise he would not have done it.