Chap. XH. PIRE AT WELLINGTON. 307 
Point* had been alarmed in time to wet their roofs ; 
and though the fire ran along a dry brush fence on the 
top of the hill, it was thus prevented from spreading to 
the bonded warehouses and large stores at the back of 
Te Aro beach. If this had happened, the damage 
would have been immense, as nothing could have es- 
caped the conflagration of the bonded spirits. As it was, 
the damage was estimated at 16,000/. Twenty-three 
houses of thatch were burnt and three pulled down ; 
and upwards of twenty wooden houses of various sizes 
were also burnt. Some curious escapes were observed. 
In one case, the whole wooden wall was scorched into 
cliarcoal, round the window of a room in which there 
were four-hundred weight of gunpowder in kegs ; and 
all the surrounding houses were burnt to the ground. 
After the fire had ceased, all the young settlers still 
remained till daylight, rolled in blankets on the floors of 
some of the large stores at Te Aro, watching lest some 
new outbreak should threaten that part of the town. 
The greatest humanity and good feeling for the 
sufferers prevailed. Many people willingly put them- 
selves to inconvenience to shelter their houseless 
neighbours ; and very large subscriptions were collected 
at Wellington, Nelson, and New Plymouth, and even 
little Wanganui added its mite, for the relief of those 
really distressed by the event. 
In some respects the fire did good. Many of the 
pedling shopkeepers whom I have described were driven 
into the bush, where they might have gone long 
before ; and these seemed surprised to find how easy it 
was to settle, even with their reduced circumstances. 
Two villages, with cultivations and clearings of mode- 
rate size, soon sprang up along the Porirua bridle-road, 
* Among the illustrations already referred to, is a panoramic 
view of Wellington, taken from this Point before the fire. 
x2 
