A Serious Fire.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 192, 22 August 1901, Page 3

A Serious Fire.

Wellington, August 20. A fire broke out at 4 a.m. on the top floor of Jacob Joseph's five storey warehouse on Lambton Quay, of which the ground floor is occupied by the Wairarana Farmers' Association, the next two floors by the Government Labour Department, ValuatioL Depart ment, Census offices, and Official Assignee, and the Conciliation Board roouK aud the top floor by the Wairarapu Farmers' Association as storage foe merchandise, chiefly chaff and the like. The two top floors were gutted, but the damage in the lower portions of the building was confined to thau by water. The building was insured for £BOOO, and the Actings and llxfcun-.s for £IOOO. The ttairarapa Farmers' stock was insured for £;>do(J The fire eatails serious loss to two public departments. The Oensis Department had 52 clerks employed o.i details of its work, and all the information usxl by them, that wouid be of va'ue to the Old \ge Pension Office and the Insurance Department, are irreplacoably destroyed. The Valuation Department had from 80 to 40 men engaged on work connected with the valuation of Nos. 2 and 8 districts, extending from New Plymouth on ouo side and East Cape on the other right down to the Marlborough end of the West Coast goldfialds. A large part of their papers, which were set out'in the offices, has been reduced to pulp, and other parts will have to be rewritten at great expense. There was considerable loss also in the Official Assignee's office.