DOMINION NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 March 1920, Page 6

DOMINION NEWS.

EIRE AT BLENHEIM. By Telegraph Press Association. Blenheim, March 22. Early on Saturdav morning the Commercial Hotel, a wooden building in Grove Boad, was totally destroyed by Are. The outbreak was first noticed in the storeroom and had too great a bob) for the inmates to check it. When the brigade arrived there was no hope of saving the hotel, which was soon a roaring mass of flames. The origin of the fire is attributed to matcb-eating rats. Very little of the personal effects of- boarders were saved. The building was owned by the Marlborough Brewery Company and occupied by P. Crcdon The insurances were £IOOO on the building and £240 on the stock and furniture. PROTEST BY TUBERCULAR SOLDIERS. Waipukurau, March 22. An extraordinary general meeting of patients and representatives of disabled tubercular soldiers is called for Wednesday at Pjikeora Sanatorium. The business is to discuss a resolution passed at the last meeting that, in view of the fact that no satisfactory scheme of repatriation has been brought forward for tubercular patients, all suffering from disability shall secede from the R.S.A. and form an association of their own. The R.S.A. was advised a week ago as the result of the meeting that thav should define the further status of tubercular soldiers. A RAILWAY MISHAP. Levin, March 22. In order to climb the Pukerua saddle, near Plimmerton, on Saturday, the last train to Palmerston was divided at the bottom, and when the engine was returning for the second section the impact with the carriages was so severe as to cause injuries to several passengers. Two, Stanley Withers, with severe cuts to his face, and W. Steele, with severe pjjoek. were taken to the Ota-ki Hospital. Withers was discharged yesterday, but Steele is still in the institution. Some carriages were damaged and the train delayed two hours.