THAT MYSTERIOUS EXPLOSION

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 264, 4 August 1919, Page 6

THAT MYSTERIOUS EXPLOSION

A TERAWHITI LINESMAN'S DEDUCTIONS. Speculation is still rife in the city and round our nearest coasts as to the solution of the very loud explosion hoard on Inday from tho direction of Cook Strait. It is held that tho explosion referred to must have been the result of a German fuine, which mines are heavily charged with T.N.T. high explosive, and from the evidence of similar occurrences along the coast the explosion made is » very loud one, and quite in keeping with their destructive power. One interesting theory has been given by a telegraph linesman who was standing on a bluff near the sea at Terawhiti on Friday, when ho heard a loud explosion which shook the ground beneath :him. 110 immediately looked seaward to try to discover tho cause, and what met his observant eye were flights of seagulls, flying in <ssnotly the opposite direction from a common centre. As a rule seagulls fly in coveys all in the samo direction, and almost in ordered form, but these birds were (lying wildly, but, generally. one-Jhalf of them wcrfl making west aiul the other half east. Tho oentral point would be Tongue Point, near Oterangi Bay (on this side of Capo Terawhiti), and lie concluded 1 that a floating mine had struck the rocks thereabouts And exploded. Tho" only alternative to this theory is that of a submarine explosion, but this, as a rule, bears fruit in tho form of a harvest of dead fish, floating and- cast ashore, and nothing of tho kind Jias so far been reported, nor has there been discovered any othei evidence of thermal or volcanic activity in the Strait. If the explosion emanated from a mine, tho community may have cause to congratulate iUelf, as tho minefield off Capo Farewell 'has been carefully swept by tho Naval mine-sweepers now in these waters, and the truant mine must have been floating about the Strait for somo little time at least, and it is almost providential flint our shipping hns escaped. At the. same time it means that a sharp look-ont should still be kept for these death-traps of the sea.