DEATH IN FIRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 February 1939, Page 6

DEATH IN FIRE

INVESTIGATION BY POLICE AT PIHA VICTIM HEAVILY INSURED. SYDNEY BUSINESS MAN. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND. February 20. The Auckland police are investigating the circumstances of the death of George Thomas McKay, aged 43. hide and skin merchant, of Seibourne Street. Burwood, Sydney, the victim of a fire in a shack in Pina early in the morning of Sunday. February 12. Interest in the fatality has been heightened since it was learned last week that the dead man was insured for sums totalling about £40.000. Information received privately from Australia resulted in the engagement of two prominent Auckland barristers and in the dispatch to Piha of DetectiveSergeant Aplin and Constable Pollard. A routine inquiry had already been made as a preliminary to the opening of the inquest, but the importance attached by the police to information regarding insurances is indicated by the fact that a police party remained at Piha from Thursday morning till midday Saturday. During this time they sifted the ashes and debris of the ruined shack in a search for further evidence. Inspector Ward, in charge of the detective division at police headquarters, personally visited the scene on Thursday. It Is learned that the insurance is held by two companies and there is a reinsurance with a third. All three are prominent companies doing business in Australia and New Zealand. The insurance, it is understood, is £30,000 with one company and £lO,OOO with another. An inquest was opened on Monday last by Mr F. H. Levien, S.M., in the absence of the coroner, Mr F. K. Hunt. James Arthur Talbot, companion of the dead man who had come to Auckland from Sydney with him and accompanied him to Piha in a hire rental ear for a holiday, gave evidence. He stated that McKay had been engaged in the hide and skin business in Burwood. The inquest was adjourned sine die to give the police an opportunity of continuing inquiries and consulting relatives as to the burial of the remains. The funeral took place on Wednesday and was attended by only three people.