MRS HANSMANN'S STATEMENT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5098, 4 September 1884, Page 2

MRS HANSMANN'S STATEMENT.

Mrs Hausman states that her husband is absent in Timaru, whither he went by the express yesterday, promising to return this evening. There were two boarders in the hotel, a man named Smith, and a Jew hawker. These men slept upstairs in rooms opposite to each other, about the centre of the house. Mrs Hansmann, with a little child and a servant girl, slept in an apartment over the dining-room. Between 12 and 1 a.m. she locked np the house, and then saw the Jew in the kitchen, apparently about to go to bed. The servant girl and the child had gone to bed about 10 p.m. Mrs Hansmann believed that Levitt went to his room, though she did not see him do so. When she retired there was a little block of wood smouldering in the grate of the dining room. She wa3 awakened by the servant and the boarder. Smith, who pulled her out of bed, and she made her escape in her nightgown with the child. The passage was then full of smoke. The hotel was insured, but she did uot know for what amount, orin what office. The servant girl, Eliza Qalway, states that she was awakened by hearing a crackling noise, and also hearing the boardei Smith shouting " fire." Smith iminedately afterwards burst open the door of the bedroom, and Mrs Hansmann, the child, and herself escaped in their night dresses.