The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-09-12
HART'S
DAMAGING
TALE
Confesses Forging the
Substituted Oil
Orders.

Admissions of a most damaging char
acter were made at a secret session of
the inquest looking into the govern
ment kerosene warehouse fire last night,
the session being held in the office of
Sheriff Iaukea behind closed doors.
Lionel Hart. who has been the clerk
in the office of the Standard Oil Com
pany here, confessed that the orders
substituted among those found intact
after the fire, ordering Standard Oil oil
from the warehouse, had been prepared
by him, substituted among the orders
and the ones taken out destroyed. This
he did, he stated, at the orders of his
superior, George II. Mayer, manager
of the local Standard Oil agency.
As a result of the confessions made
Hart was placed under arrest and is
now in detention at the police station
under investigation. After he had
made his confession before the jurors
he broke down and was in pitiable
state of funk after being placed be-
hind the bars in his cell for the night.
He denied strenuously, however, that
he had had any hand in setting fire
to the warehouse. His statements as
to his doings on the morning of the
fire are contradictory, however, at one
time stating that ne had spent the night
at Waikiki and last night stating that
he had been at his home in Nuuanu.
r. w. Breckons, United States Dis
trict Attorney, conducted the case last
night before the jury on behalf of the
Territory and it was at his request
that the session was held in secret and
the representatives of the press ex-
cluded In addition to the members
of the jury there were present at the
snquest Deputy Attorney General Whit
ney, = w Sutton, the newly appointed
crinftnol ogist, Superintendent of Public
works Holloway, Sheriff Iaukea, Chief
Taylor and Detective Reeves. c. B.
Reynolds, the scaretaker of the ware
house, was also present as a witness
but was excluded from the hearing.
Hart was taken in before the jury
as soon as the session opened and was
put through a searching course of
ufes<soning at the hands of Breckons.
Much Of the evidence secured was not
given ont after the session adjourned.
What was learned was that Hart had
confessed his share in the substitution
of orders, substituted at the direct or
ders of Mayer. He stated that he |
had thought that such orders were rath-
er strange but had in no way ques-
toned them. No reasons were given
Aim by Mayer and he had asked none.
He knew, he said, that there was
shortage df oil at the warehouse, the
oil seeming to be going out without
my orders being issued by either HIM
self or Mayer, cor at least through
any orders of mine,'' he said as If
correcting himself.
Since the fire inquest began Hart
las been under suspension, explaining
asst night that he was in the office
My to finish of the work of the month.
It has been definitely learned by the
of Public Works that the
hortage of oil at the warehouse
mounts to seventeen hundred cases.
Reynolds, the caretaker, stated last
ight that he wished to give some evil
ence at the inquest, being especially
esirous of putting on record his denial
f the statement made at the last ses-
ion of the inquest by Juror Berry, who
adj stated that oil had been delivered
, Nav & Co. on the firms order, con-
rary to the rules of the warehouse.
eynolds states that at the time this
smark was made he had regarded 1t
S 9. joke, not realizing that it reflect
l on him so seriously until he read
in the Advertiser the next morning.