The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Thursday, September 27, 1888. A QUEER WORLD.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 201, 27 September 1888, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning.

Thursday, September 27, 1888. A QUEER WORLD.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim’st at be thy country’s, Thy God's, and truth’s.

T;ie enquiry which is proceeding with regard ho the late fire in upper Gladstone Road has so far been the means of eliciting some very curious facts, which, leading up to the one point for which we assume the enquiry was held, must leave a very strange impression in the minds those who take all the circumstances into consideration. So far there does not seem much likelihood of the cause of the fire being ascertained—that is one of those secrets which are never to be fathomed. But enough has been shown £o prove that the building which was burn‘ down was the medium of some very loose commercial transactions. The building was sold at the instance of Mr R Knox, and by his instructions was bought in by his brother Mr A Knox. The latter tendered a cheque in [payment to the auctioneers, he at the time having no banking account. This was accepted as full payment by the mortgagee, though subsequently he

paid all the rates and incidental expenses sa if the house were his own. Whether or not this is allowed by law we are unable to say, but the way in which the evidence was given indicates an apprehensiveness that things are not as they should be. The evidence does not make things any clearer with regard to the origin of the fire—it indeed only tends to further mystify it, because the evidence does away with certain possibilities, such as loafers, rats, spontaneous combustion, etc. Mr Adam Knox states that at one o’clock everything was safe. The fact that the fire broke out within a day or two before the insurance policy lapsed is very significant. When the enquiry is completed we may have something more to say on the matter.