The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1881-05-21
Serious and Fatal Accident.

at 81, Louis OOue9e, Beretanla street, NSSlSi'
day afternoon about two o'clock which was
We regret to say, attended with fata
results. The large hall of the College which
is generally in use as a school room had
been cleared out to allow of preparation,
being made for a social evening to celebrate
the anniversary of Mechanic Engine Co.
No. >. Shortly before two O'Clock the Rev.
Father Larkin visited the Hall, being curl
Gus to see what progress had been
made with the decorations and found there
two native boys, Mrs. Henry Long and 4
young native woman, a member of the
Princess Regents household, busily Occu-
pied making leis. He was speaking TO the
latter cOmplimenting" them on their work,
standing at the time in the middle of the
hall, when he was startled by a loud report
which he at first took to be the discharge
of a gun at the fort on PunchbOWl. Look
ing up he discovered that two of the iron
ties which crossed the building one on either
side of him had broken, and were hang
ing down, and at the same time he became
conscious hat the whole building was
about to fall in upon them. He e~ndeavour-
ed TO push the young women out of the hall
telling them of their danger, but they be-
NbAIAC NCIlALoONA Si1N AlclCdu VI SO4A1S odl
with him hung back and ran in another
direction. As Father Larkin escaped the
whole place collapsed, the verandah roof
grazing his heel. He had seen the two
boys escape by another door, but the girls
were left under the fallen ruins Calling
his man O'Neil to help him, and directed
by their cries, he at II ce rescued them from
the place where they lay. Their escape
from death is the most marvellous part of
the whole affair, for every where but where
they were the walls or roof had fallen flat
on the floor and must have killed them in
simultaneously. As Father Larkin had seen
no one else in the building, he hoped that
the only loss was that of the building and
its contents, but it appears that a native
youth named David Paahao, who has been
living with Mr.. Henry Long, had been en-
gagged to assist in the decorations, and that
at the time of the accident he was at the
farther end of the building, concealed from
view by q screen of flags. IIe was miss
ed, and q search to ascertain if he or any
one else were in the building was immedi-
ately commenced. Mr.. Frank Godfrey
searching in the neighborhood of the plat
form and seeing something which looked
like q cushion, went in under q portion of
the fallen roof that was partially raised by
some broken timbers, and discovered that
the object which had attracted his atten-
ton was theb body of the unfortunate youth.
1t was Immediately extracted from the
ruins, but life was already extinct. The
horror inspired by this discovery led Depu-
ty Marshal Dayton with the assistance of q
large number of members of the Fire Com
,o TiaC ap1 nthnr yDln,+aar- TO lr,o IL, ~,
the whole mass of roof and walls as it lay
in order to make sure that no one else was
buried under them. The highest praise is
due to those who engaged in this work
which theyaccompIished with marvellous
rapidity. Their work was none the less
meritorious because it happily revealed the
fact that there were no more victims of this
extraordinary catastrophe. The buildingap-
pears to have collapsed entirely when the
iron tie rods broke, manifesting a weakness
of construction of the most re~prehensibie
character. The wall on the Eva side fell
outward, and the other one inward these
walls and the roof separating from the
gables. The gable at the rear fell out
wards. The front gable remained standing,
supported by a tall tree which stood near it
and by the posts of its verandah, but in a
dangerous condition until pulled down by
members of the Fire Department. 1t was
brought down without damage to anything
except a papaya tree, which broke its fall,
and so prevented it from i%njuring the
house. That the destruction of
this fine hall is the result of inherent faults
of construction cannot, we fear, be doubted
for a moment. The heavy gale which oc-
ono niCht lost uvaal- ShppL- If on1
one of the iron ties gave way,
but his had been repaired. Father Larkin
had, acting on the advice of friends, caused
the building to be strengthened during the
course of its erection. The design seems to
nave been suitable rather to a building that
was to be finished in the lightest possible
manner, and not to be wholly plastered in
.ternally as it was. Even without the plas-
tering it may be doubted whether the walls
were calculated to bear the great weight of
q roof having a clear soft. spanwithOut in
ternal supports. Loud and strong were the
denunciations to be heard on all hands
yesterday against all concerned in the con-
of the hall. Painfully has the
accident furnished an illustration of the
need of building regulations and a building
surveyor Tor tnlS clty-a SUBJECT on WHICH
the ADVERTISER has more than once made
comments. 1t is to be hoped that
this sad affair will direct the attention of
the Government to the necessity of adopt
ing here the ordinary polity of civilized
cities, and abandoning in this and other re-
spects the "happy go lucky" style of
things which has hitherto prevailed here.
The Mechanic Engine Company will be
serious losers by the accident. The furni-
ture of their own hall, their pictures, chan
deliers, etc, had all been emoved into the
building, and those are now in a hOpelessly
wrecked condition. Even the flags Dor
to decorate the room are all torn to
pieces and destroyed. 1t Will take some
like $500 to replace all that has been
destroyed. a very fine piano, the property
of Mr.. f. c.. Williams, was on the stage,
this appears to have sustained only
damage.
Loss of chattels however seems but a
small thing when the horrifying thought
presents itself that if the collapse of the
building had occurred a few hours later, the
members of Mechanic Engine Co. and their