FIRE AT AKAROA.

Temuka Leader, Issue 998, 31 August 1882, Page 3

FIRE AT AKAROA.

A diabolical attempt was mads to burn pown th# town of Akarea last Sunday night. Fire was set to Waeckerlo’s |H#tel, Bruc#’» Hotel, and the Criterion Hotel in quick #ucc#ssion. The three hotels are situated one at each end of the town and one in the centre, and from this it is inferred that the object was to burn dowm the town. Gorse was found to have been placed underneath the hotels. The fir# was discovered at 2 p.M. Waeckerlo’e Hotel was burnt to the ground but the others escaped. A man named Dench, who was sleeping at Waeckerle’* actually heard the incendiary engaged in Ins diabolical work, but unfortunately, he imagined that it was the landlord who wae moving about. The escape of Bruce’s Hotel is regarded.as almost miraculous. Mrs Rich of the Criterion who was ill was the first to discover the fire. Waeckerle’s Hotel was insured as follows: —The building for £4OO, and th# furniture for £2OO, in the Liverpool, London, and Globe office. Mr Bayley the pioprietor, estimates his loss at £2OOO over and above the insurance. The alarm created by the fires was intensified by another fire last Tuesday morning , when the Somerset Hotel and outbuildings, situate at the head of the Bay, were burned to the ground. No one, so far as is at present known,, was living on the premises, owing to the fact that th# lessee neglected to obtain a renewel of bis license. It is naturally supposed that this new act of incendiarism ii th# work of the same person who fired the hotels of Akaroa last Monday. The buildings were insured in the Liverpool, London, and Globe office.

We gather the following particulars from the Akaroa Mail On Monday morning some incendiary or incendiaries committed on# of tke most atracious acta ever perpetrated. The fiand, or these fiends, in human shape, heaped a mass of gorse, saturated with kerosene, against the walls of three hotels in the borough, and, regardless of the fact that there were women and children sleeping in the upper storeys, set them on lire. Whoever he or they were, they were thoroughly acquainted with tha place and its customs. Sunday night, or rather Monday morning, was selected —the night of all others when the fewest fpeople are about, amd the time 2 a.m., was the very hour when the constable who retires at 1 a.m., would be off the beat. There is a considerable distance between the hotels, though all are in the main street, and yet it appears they were all sot on fire within a few minutes of each other. This was, no doubt, to so distract attraction that the destruction of one, at least, might be assured. The attempt was but too successful, Mr Baylcy, of Waeckerle’s Hotel, suffering very heavily, though in the other cases the insurance will cover all damage. It is a queer coincidence that in all three cases an invalid stopping in the house gave the alarm. Some peeple hold the idea that it is the work of a fanatic, who, in His blind fury against the liquor traffic, resolved to destroy the hotels, regardless of the consequence*; hut no one brings an atem of proof forward' Jimn McWae, a boarder at Bruce’s Hotsl, was lying awaka, and neard what he thought was the sound of a fire crackling shortly after 2 a.m. He called Mr Grange, who raa out, and seeing the glare, thought tha place could not be saved, it seemed so great, and they at once began to move the furniture oat of the house. Mr Grange, however, determined to try to extinguish the flames, thinking that if the roof were lifted so that watsr could be poured between the weatherboards and lining the place might still be savsd. This was at last accomplished, and the first bucket of water had such an effect that Mr Grange and his son Beverley went to work with a will to get the flames under: The fire was speedily extinguished. It was a most wonderful escape: It was lucky indeed that Mr Garwood’s two tanks, which hold 400 gallons each, were dose at hand, as without the abundant and bandy supply of water nothing could have been done. The baby woke Mrs Rick of the Criterion Hotel about 2.20 a.m , and she noticed smoko in the room. She woke Mr Rick, who weal, downstairs, and heard the fire crackling in the billiard reoin, coming in from the outside. The flames had a good hold, and were reaching up to the second storey, and he thinks that is was the second plate that stopped the draught and saved the house. He raised the house, and with the assistance of the boarders extinguished the flames. He found a mass of gol'S3, saturated with kerosene, had been placed under the house, and it was from that the flames proceeded. The fire at Bay ley’s Hotel was tha most important, and it was in that directi in the police procesded. Mr Henry Dench, a gentleman who was suffering from rheumatism and a dislocated wrist, heard footsteps like people walking on the verandah floor_ Sbortly after he fancied he smelt smoke, and imagined Mr Bayley must be lighting the Are, but the smeke was coming too strong, so he got up to see. He found the seuth end of the house full of smoke. He returned to the room, packed up his things and made for the stairs. The smoke was then so thick ho had a great difficulty in finding the satairs. At last he got partly down, and on doing so found all was clear below, the smoke being confined to the upperpart of the house. During the time this was happening Mr Dench kept calling for Mr Bayley to show him out, fancyitg that he was up all the time. On getting to the back door Mr Dench found it was locked, and unlocked it, and went out. Just outside Mr Dench mot Mr , Bayley with only hii ihirt gad trouser* on,

Mr Dench wa* particularly struck with the admirable way in which thtee Chinamen helped, and also with the conduct of Mr Hahn, who got astride of the roof of the cottage to the south of the house, and by means of wet blankets and untiring exertions managed to keep the row of buildings f'.om going in spite of the flames that occasionally actually licked the sides of the homo on which he was stationed. Though entreated by his wife to come down and save the piano from his own house which is the third from the hotel, he refused to stir, and by his energy and pluck undoubtedly, saved I lie whole row of buildings. The house was set on lire by some person or persons who got off the front verandah into the sitting room. He or they were very clumsy, making as much noise as Mr Bayley does in cleaning out the room on an ordinary morning, chairs being hifted as if there were no necessity for concealment. Mr Dench drew the conclusion that it ■was the work of a madman, for that no sane person would take so few precautions in the execution of such a crime. The Hotel was erected by Mr Waeckerle inTB6O, and was cal'ed by him the Hotel do France. In 1874, he retired in favor of his son-in law, Mr Bayley. It was a quaint pretty-looking building and must hare been noticed by all visitors on entering the town.