WHO IS TO PAY?

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 545, 24 December 1928, Page 1

WHO IS TO PAY?

HOLBORN GAS EXPLOSION DAMAGE ABOUT £200,000 (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) (United Service) LONDON, Saturday. “Who is to pay the damage done in the High Holborn gas explosion . ” asks the “Daily Mail.” Many buildings are badly damaged, the shopkeepers’ Christmas trade is ruined, and 100 families are temporarily homeless. The Holborn Dorough Council is sending the bill to the Gas Company, and advises private individuals to do likewise. The company savs it will pass on the bills to the Post Office. The Post Office says nothing. “It seems inevitable that there will be a crop of legal actions before the responsibility is fixed and the claims met.” The Home Office has appointed a commission of three members to report on the explosion, with a view to preventing a recurrence. It is explained that they will have nothing to do with the legal responsibility, but are only concerned with discovering if further safeguards are necessary. The officers of the fire brigade estimate that 2,400 feet of the roadway of High Holborn and 20 buildings were damaged in the gas explosion and that 1,680,000 ft, or three tons of celluloid film were destroyed in the premises of the Overseas Film Services, Ltd. A rough estimate places the total loss involved in the wreckage at about £2 00,000.