PREVIOUS BIG FIRES IN WELLINGTON.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8269, 24 October 1906, Page 3

PREVIOUS BIG FIRES IN WELLINGTON.

The "fire-fiend," begun his work in Wellington very airly, wheu baokete and the hart our were tho only defensive weapons. Mr Samuel Brees, principal engineer and surveyor to the New Zealand Comofiny from 1841 to 1845, has recorded the extensive fire wbioh signulised the first birthday of Ilia Majesfcv Edward VII. Describing the old kirk (occupying the site of tho Government Money Order and Savings Bank) ho wrote:—"Chero is a projecting point on tho bench just by this church, known bs Windy Point or City Hill" (now Stewart Dawson's corner), "whiob is memorable from having stopped a great Are which occurred in Wellington on the night of the 9th November, 1842, when fiftyeeven houses, extending all along the beach from tim-rott's Hotel to this spot, were consumed, twenty of which were made of wood, and Che reHt made of rnuoo. If tho fire bad succeeded iu tun: ins? this point, all tho bonded stores and warehouses at the mercantile end of the town must have shared the same fate. The total damage was estimated at £16,000; but, disastrous as it was to many, yet it proved benefloial in soma respects, for the old raupn wnares and fcoitni roofs were replaced by substantial brick stores and buildings. It id noteworthy that this first bis; lire stopped within a few yards of the spot where the fire of Monday morning was oleoked. On the 17th of May, 1868, an oxtensive conflagration occurred on Lambton Quay, destroying, among the buildings Mundle's South Sea Hotel, Kane's drapery store, James' furniture factory, and the premises of Unrmont, butcher; Armstrong, saddler; Mofflfc, dentist; Cohen, tobacoonist; Urowop, grocer; and Webo, furniture, dealer.

On' Sunday, 10th Jane. 1879, occurred one of the most memorable flreß io the history of the oity, the one known ns tbe Opera House Are. The alarm was sounded just attor the churches were dismissed, and as tho various congregations were quietly wending their way home ward. Whon first discovered it had a gooi hold of tbe interior of the Opera House, which was soon a furnace of flame. It spread to the Working Men's Club, and the intense heat mfide Mnnuors Street imphssfiblc. Notwithstanding 6tien nous efforts to hbvo the building the whale front of tbe VVesleynn Cnapd od tho opposite side of the sheet, from tbe ground to the apex oil the spire, after giving off a cloud of blue smoke for a few seconds, burst into flame. The church and the eoboolroom attached, with frontage to Dixon Street, were swept away. fire travelled ou tno Opera House side to the Bank of New Zealand traunh at Cuba Sreet comer and on the upposito side to the corner also, and destroyed the old Nag* Head Inn, facing Ouba Street, and swept away the Royal Oak Hotel and tbe old Market Hall, cloaring the entire frontage from Manners Stree to Dixon Street. An area of ten acres was devastated by thin Are, wbioh, in a few hours, swept away three largo blocks of buildings to ashes, causing destruction estimated at nearly £IOO,OOO. On 9th May, 1884, St. John's Presbyterian Church, Willis and Dixon Streets, was destroyed by fire. It had been ereoted only nine year J , and cost £5,000. On Saturday, 18th April, 1885, about 6 p.m., a Are broke out in the To Aro House drapery establishment It origi ated through an accident In lighting a show window, and swept with almost lightning speed through the building, which was completely destroyed, the damage amounting to over £40,000. A painful circumstance associated with this fire was the death of a tradesman of the neighbourhood, who had eone in the help in to salvage of guods. After tbe fire be was missed, and subsequent search resulted in the discovery of his remains among the ruins.

What is generally known as the Panama Street fire, February 27tb, 1887, made a great clearance of business premises aud offices on the reolaimed land, it ravaged the block bounded by JJanibton Quay, Panama Street, Featherston Street, and Brandon Street, leaving more than two-thirds of the area a mass of ruins. A temporary break in the Wainui main reduced the supply of water to such as could be obtained from the Polbill Gully reservoir. The damage was estimated at about £IOO,OOO. Two months later—April 28th, 1887—a very sensational and spectacular fire occurred, when the Post Office and Customhouse building, erected only about three years previously at a cost of £30,000, and including a fine clock with chimes, was completely destroyed. On the Bth Ootober, 1890, the old Government Printing Offine, on Lambton Quay, occupying a considerable portion of the present Hotel Cecil site, was totally destroyed by an outbreak ,of fire from eome unknown cause. The largest fires of recent date in tbe oity ocourred on the night of 24th March, 1904, when the large warehouse of Kempthorne, Prosser and Co., wholesale and menufaoturing chemists, was destroyed —the most SDeotaoular fire Wellington baa known, and on 26th January, 1905, when the Drapery Importing Company's (D.1.0.1 premises, Panama and Brandon Street, were totally destroyed, and the Economic also greatly damaged. The damage on these occasions approximated to £50,000 and £IOO,OOO.