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Fire at Coraki
Palace Hotel Burned Down
AT 1.10 p.m. on Tuesday last the town of Coraki
was thrown into a state of excitement by the break
ing out of a fire in the upper rooms of Livingstone's
Palace Hotel, which stood adjacent to the ferry up.
proaches. The proprietor, Mr. Alex. Livingstone,
had just been making an inspection of the race-
horse Remus, who was located in his stables, and
and had stepped into the bar when the smell of some-
thing attracted his attention, and almost
simultaneously Mrs. Livingstone rushed in with the
announcement that the building was on fire, and the
findings proved only too true. The fire apparently
originated in the linen room upstairs, and the win-
dows being all open at the time, it had gained a
firm hold of the building. The seat of the fire was
also situated immediately over the stairs, and this
not only strengthened the devouring element, but
rendered the passage upwards difficult and danger-
ous. At the time of the outbreak Mr. Living-
stone's two children were playing on the balcony,
And to reach them ands return in safety was a matter
Involving a deal of risk, but Mr Livingstone, fol-
lowed by Senior-Constable Rodgers and Mr. 'At j
Homer, ran the gauntlet, and succeeded in drop-
ping the children safety over the balcony to
someone below. The fire meantime had been
spreading with remarkable rapidity, and returning
by the stairs was a hazardous proceeding, on ac-
count of the combined smoke and flames. The two
latter, however, again faced the ordeal, and
managed to reach the basement by the stairs in the
l room at the expense of a little singeing,
but Mr. Livingstone, who was more familiar with
the building, slippped through one of the windows on
to the roof of a lower room, and thus effected his
escape. By this time the greater part of the popu-
lation of the town was on the spot, and as it was
impossible to stay the flumes, attention was directed
to save as much as possible of the contents of the
building. A strong south-east wind was blowing
at the time, and the hotel being a wooden structure
The fire made rapid progress, and in an almost
incredibly short space of time, the whole upper
storey was one sheet of flames which had burst
through the roof, and the falling pieces of timber
and debris drove the rescuers from their labors, thus
comparatively little of the aowUiit« of ti)« buitdingj
could be got out in time. - Tho heat -wa» aUti in-i
tense, as ann bj gatheiod from the fact that at the
'Oourtrbou&e, which is separated by the whole width
'of 'tlie"sír¿aí, en army of volunteers hud 'to be
8'tii'tfono"d"{o,pitevoät"any wood about the building
taking tirb. » Hid''it 'bien" 'k'WpoAça struoture it
could not'have bean fiavad.' The'mlw anil At Mr.
V/absley'a mill, nearly d quurti r qf a''inil6 distant, J
wa» united by flying apuras, und stump's1 all'around j
?bo yipiulty wore fired. It was ext .iin.ely fortuuäto j
¿hal p>Q >V,iua wa| iu. ti;o .quarter it was, us had it.
¿lown from trie north-^tjf;, onp-lmjf the tiiwn!
jyuuld haye been laid in' iiáliei. As it woe," it was !
with Gonsiderab.l.e ' disunity" that1 Mr«,' ÄobbV
Hotel was Uapt fflom. búftuiig. Withi¿ un hoar and
u half the Puluca HvQW, and mast of jits ^oiiteuts,
«a-, a he'ip of smouldering fuinV Much syin'piVthy
is expressed for tho owner, Alp- ff. ^lyfug^one,
who had expended £1700 in the budding, lH'ñfQF
the lessee, Mr. Alex. Livingstone, who hil suc-
ceeded in building up u good trade, and now lusoa
furniture and stook-iu-trude, uuithur being insured.
Tfuu building itself was iu-U'od in the United In-
surance Cloiupituy, Ltd. oifiuo for £1200, but the
nmo(iulb "(C^l uofc sorer the loss. It is not known
fcoV tbo fire prlglrtated, but it is surmisod that a
spark wus carried frórp Hi#R¡irn,hen oblmuoy through
one of the upper window«, an 1 'ig'iiitod' t'io curtains.
Mr. E W Unauoii, Fire Loss AdjuUo'r 'and I
Valuator, will arrive by an emly steamer from'
Sydney, whoii nn enquiry into tho uuuse of the fire
will bo held_R. R. Jleruld.
JOHN MAUKII'S dairy Herd constat of
good, Bound, bonost dairy oattlo Dou'r misa the
ohauoe of seeming some of them on Monday, loth
February.
LADIES' silver watches fiom £1 OH to
Jb4 10a.-vViuka.se Co.
$