SUSPICIOUS FIRE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7818, 10 May 1905, Page 3

SUSPICIOUS FIRE.

MAN REFUSES TO GIVE EVIDENCE. (Per Press Association.) DUNEDIN. May 9. An inquiry was held tc-Say by tha Coroner into circumstances connected ed with the outbreak of fire on Saturday week in a house in High Street. Mrs Richards, of Aronni Bouse, had leased a house next door to accommodate some boarders, and had partly furnished it. As she was preparing dinner an alarm was given, and on going out she saw John Gwynne, a young man boarding with her, who had been in the kitchen a few minutes previously, run down' the street. He told her the fire was next door, and on going in she found some dusters in a cupboard outside were on fire". The brigade arrived, and a little later put out the fire. There was no insurance on the furniture she had put into the house. The statement of Gwynne to the police was that he had seen the reflection of the fire, and his only thought was to go and give an alarm. The police found that Gwynne could not possibly have seen the firo or the reflection from Aronui House. C<wynne, on the advice of his solicitor, declined to go into the witness box. The jury returned a verdict that' the fire was wilfully caused by some person or persons unknown.