FIRE AT KATIKATI.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 139, 21 April 1879, Page 2

FIRE AT KATIKATI.

On the afternoon of Thursday the 10th instant a house belonging to Mr Vesey Stewart, but occupied by Mr John McAulay, senr., was burnt to the ground. At the time the fire occurred, Mrs and Mrs McAulay were away from home and the only persons in the house were a little girl of eight years old with three younger children, The chimney first caught fire which extended to the woodwork, and in a few minutes the whole place was in a blaze. The little girl first took out her small brothers and sisters and put them in a place of safety, and then ran back to the house, now in flames, and pluckily entering,.saved the first thing she saw, which was a large sow, cowering under the bed, this Bhe dragged out by its fore legs; by that time, Messrs Beatson, Mervyn, Stewart, and Jenkins had come up, and with difficulty restrained the spirited little maiden from risking her life by another entry into the house, which was now on the of falling. Absolutely, nothing was, saved. Mr McAulay had just purchased a farm at the other end of the Block and was, at the time the accident happened, . away working on it. As all his worldly goods were destroyed, arid money honesttywon bytho work of his hands, the greatest sympathy is expressed. for him, "Whilst too much admiration cannot be accorded to the little child who so heroically saved the lives of her brothers and sisters, and (despite the smile it provokes) the life of a valued porker.