FIRES, ETC.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1178, 17 May 1884, Page 3

FIRES, ETC.

A fire occurred on Thursday evening in some shops attached to the Terminus Hotel, opposite the Railway Station, Christchurch. Three empty shops and a number of bedrooms above them were gutted. The total loss will probably be not much under £IOOO. The hotel and attached shops belonged to G. S. Marshall, who had insured the building in the Standard for £6OOO, and the furniture in the National for £2OOO. Carpenters had been working in the shop whore the fire broke out until 5.20 p.m., and it is supposed that they might have accidentally set fire to some shavings. Patrick Bourke’s hotel and store at Ngangnru, Auckland, was burnt down last Wednesday night. They were insured for £7so' in the United Fire and Marine Office. On Tuesday, at Kurow, a threshing mill and two stacks of oats were destroyed by fire. The mill was insur <1 for £2OO in the New Zealand offno. and the oats for £SO in the Equitable, Two uninsured ■tacks of oats were destroyed by fire on the plain. The New Zealand Insurance Company offer £IOO reward for the conviction of the person or person who fired Mr Menlove’s stacks on the 7th inst. An enquiry was held at Invercargill, on Thursday, into the fire which destroyed the Theatre Royal, Provincial Hotel, and other buildings, three weeks ago. Evidence was taken at considerable length, and the jury, after deliberation, returned a verdict ‘ That the theatre was wilfully and feloniously set on fire by some person unknown.’ The fire underwriters met the Invercargill Borough Council in a special meeting on Thursday evening re the necessity of getting a temporary water supply for fire purposes, recognising that the town is not in a position to get a gravitation supply at s cost of over £loo,ooO* It was stated that unless something was done in that direction it would be necessary to double the fire premiums.