AUSTRALIAN HOLOCAUSTS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 3 December 1907, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN HOLOCAUSTS.

GREAT -UiXbuliUNt FIKES. t Melbourne, December -■ The fire raged lor Hours, it threatened to deinouau ine wnule block bouuuqd by Elizabeth, Lonedale, Swanson, ana little Bourke streets. The fire started in a blind alley in a great pile 01 packing-cases and straw Btackea up against tlie rear portion 01 Clark and Co.s warehouse. Hoor alter floor of the warehouse gave way. Ihe fire defied the eliorts ol the bngade for some hours, when Clarke building wag a mass 01 nre. ilieu it steei i-u northward. A great crest of Hume •wept orer to tne Jdoney Order twice |n the Post Utfice block. Xhe whole of Clark's building fell, lUld the email shops beneath became a mass of red-hot brickn and blazing timber. , .With this crush went the relic: ot early Melbourne. These shop*, uhicii cracked like eggskeno, were ouik u ISM. The wind fortunately changed to ue loulh, tuid the pressure on tne I'uei Office was relieved, ilie more serious result* of the Ii 1C were coniined to Clark's and Wallace's Buildings, wuere the postal material was stored. A block of eight two-stoned shops Was destroyed by a lire in West Melbourne,

1*40,000 DAMAGE Al LUXUKEACH. ' ' Brisbane, December i. ' Thig i» the third time within ten jrean that the business portion of the town of Longreach has been swept by file. The fire broke out in a paint-shop and *pread with great rapidity. A large quantity ot explosives in one jstorc, together with an acetUene generator, exploded. Ihe reverl.t :.He ii shattered all the window- in 1 yicinity. The Imperial Hotel, which was one ol the finest country hotels in Queensland, having cost £IO,OOO to build, was among |lm» places destroyed. • The damage is estimated at £JiU«iO.

ffABBOW ESCAPE OF A HOSPITAL Received Dec. 3, 0.25 a.m. Melbourne, December 2. ' The hospital was in grave danger of the lift. For some time a force of artillery quenched the burning particles M they fell on the buildings. At one time the window-screens of the operating theatre were on flre. An amended estimate of the los> puts the damage at approximately fIWJJOO. The Federal (Government had no insurance on their buildings.