INQUEST AT WINCHESTER.

Temuka Leader, Volume 2, Issue 148, 24 May 1879, Page 2

INQUEST AT WINCHESTER.

An inquest was held at Winchester on Thursday last to enquire into the cause of the burning' of a thrashing machine near the Winchester railway station on the night of Sunday. 27th nit., or between 12 and 1 o’clock on Monday morning, 28th ultimo, under the charge of F. Guinness, Esq., coroner. Mr J. W. White and Mr Sims wore present to watch the interests of the insurance company. A jury was formed, of which Mr J. A. Young was chosen foremen. The witnesses examined were Messrs W. James, a railway employee, who was awoke by his wife, am! went to the scene of the fire, and saw the machine burning. James Northam, a blacksmith, gave evidence as to the shoeing of a certain horse with shoes which corresponded with that of a horse which had visited the machine and left prints of its fore feet such as those shoes would leave ; but this witness said many horses would snake such marks. The marks of the hind Act did not correspond. He was not sure if he said to the sergeant that the machine was worthless. He might have said so, or he might not ; he did not recollect. George Taylor : I am a storekeeper, residing at Winchester. Betwc'cn twelve and one o’clock on the night of Sunday, the 27th April last, I heard sound of a horse travelling at a sharp trot along the road from the direction of Kakahu. On nearing my place it pulled up. My dog began to bark, and the horse then went on towards the railway station. About twenty minutes afterwards I heard some men run past the front of the house in the same direction as the horse had gone. I heard no alarm of fire. I then fell asleep again. Next morning I and Wilhelm Klee traced fresh horse-tracks from the corner near my house to the engine, and also traced the same track back towards the corner again, but by another way. I have just examined Mr Mein’s.horse now outside. I cannot say whether the slices on this horse would make such tracks as we traced, but they would make very similar tracks. 1 showed, the tracks to Sergeant Carlyon on the 29th. Wilhelm Klee ; I am a shoemaker, living at Winchester. Early on the morning of the 23th April I traced some footprints of a horse from Mr Taylor’s corner towards where the machine had stood. I lost tiro traces across the street in front of the new building near the engine, and recovered them near the engine. About a bridle’s length from the engine there were numerous prints similar to those traced 'down the road, as if the horse had been tied up to the engine. I found similar tracks, about a chain from the engine, of a horse returning to Taylor’s corner. .These returning tracks were in such a direction as one going from the engine to Kakahu would take. Percy F. Carlyon : I am sergeant' of police, stationed at Temuka. On the 28th instant I visited the scene of a fire outside the Winchester railway station._ I saw an engine there, and the remains of a burned combine and a partially burnt dray. Among the remains of the combine were those of a weighing machine and an oil can. 1 noticed marks as of a horse having been standing near the engine. On the morning of the 28th I met Mr Mein at Temuka, an d asked him whether he had any enemies, and whether he suspected anyone. He said he had no enemies, and suspected no one. He had bought the machine seven years ago. It was'an old one then, but ho had spent a lot of money ou it, and made it a good one. Ho said ho had been working it during the season at Albnry, and had brought the machine down by rail to Winchester and left it there rill lie could get horses to remove it. lie said the oil can and weighing machine ought to have been left on the dray, and then they would not have boon burnt. Ho estimated bis loss at .•£3OO, and said be was insured in the Victoria Company for £350 for six months.

: .v i... i.ii-,-.: 50■.,l ( rmm mre elea away from the mai liiuo vwvo ■ ■is. overahie. some having been obliterated by tr iflie. Mr Mein's horse, the one now out-ide ••■as oil the ground, and I cumpar d tbe lumpriuts with the snoes on the horse, and tumid thorn Vo (•i-ri-espuiid exactly. I then caused the burse to move over a fresh niece of sm-'oth ground, ami compared the tracks so made with those pointed out to me by the witnesses Taylor and Klee, and found that they corresponded exactly, both as to ; measurements and as to a peculiarity of the stepping, by which the hind feet cut off the prints of the heels of the fore feet. The trucks I examined were on one of the two roads that a person might take on going from the machine towards Kakabu. I obtained a slice from the witness Kurthara’s shop, and applied it to the footprints, and it fitted them, except that it was- longer in the heels. There was nothing,'around the scene of the lire that could have caused the lire. It could not have been caused by accident. To the Foreman : I measured the footprints in all directions, and in each case found them to correspond with the horse’s feet, except in one instance, where the print was about an eighth of an inch wider at the heel. W. M. Sims : I am the Tiniarn Agent for the Tctoria Fire and Marine Insurance Company. Mr Alexander Mein, the owner of the machine that was burnt, insured the engine, combine and elevators, in the Victoria a Office, for £350 ; the Engine for £IOO, the combine for £2OO, and the elevators for £so_ The insurance was effected in March. The cheque drawn by Mr Mein, to pay the premium, was dishonored on its first presentation. Mr Mein was informed of this, and in reply ho wrote declining the insurance. In the meantime, however, the cheque had been paid on a second presentation, and the policy was prepared for issue Mr Mein accepted the policy by furnishing the number of the engine. (Letters putin and read.) The Coroner, in going over the evidence, said there was evidence to show that a horse with shoes similar to that of a horse belonging to Mr Mein had apparently been tied up to the machine, but who that horse belonged /to, ,pr who rode that horse, or whether it li'ad a rider at all, there was no evidence to’show. The jury declined to lot the counsel for the insurance address them. They also declined calling Mr Mein to give evidence. The jury, after retiring for ten minutes, returned a verdict that the machine had baen maliciously set fire to, but by whom there is no evidence to show.