A PARENT'S ADMONITIONS CONCERNING EXPLOSIVES.

Kumara Times, Issue 2331, 16 February 1884, Page 3

A PARENT'S ADMONITIONS CONCERNING EXPLOSIVES.

[to the editor.] Sir—l feel it my duty to give the miuers and dealers in explosive materials a friendly warning to be more cautious and careful for the future in keeping dangerous material out of the reach of children. In a short space of time two promising young boys have been injured for life, which has been the result of miners leaving their houses open, with dynamite caps exposed to children only four years old, who have taken them away to play with. I beg the Press, the Government authorities, and in the public in general in this district to assist me to put a stop to this reckless carelessness that is now goin« on in these diggings. I am sorry to say my boy, the only one I have, is injured for life. He was suffering from a sore leg, being scalded with hot water, and consequently could not go to school. He was stting outside my house, under the verandah, when a little boy belonging to Dillman's Town came from a miner's hub not far away with dynamite caps, one of which he gave my boy, he, not knowing the danger. By some means the cap exploded, with the result of blowing off the thumb and three fore fingers of the left hand and badly bruising three fingers on the right hand, and the left eye is so badly burned that it is doubtful whether he ever will recover its si edit. If he had not been a boy with a 6tron« constitution, he would have been dead ere this ; but he lays now in the Kumara Hospital with his constitution broken through fright and loss of blood a cripple for life ! I hope the miners will take warning to be more careful with this dangerous material, and not throw it about, as has been done. A few days ago some youths went down to a claim behind Dillman's Town, took a lot of caps, went into the bush and playfully fired them off by means of fusees, which they also obtained there. Some small boys also picked up a piece of dynamite hi the street, which they threw down on the ground and stamped on with their feet. This is the state of things in Dillman's Town. I hope that this will be altered in the future through some means. As it is now, it U almost the same as walking on a volcano,- we caunot make Sure one moment whether we shall get blown up or not, when children a few years old are found to carry dynamite caps and matches in their pockets, and distribute these nice play-toys to other children, .which was the case with my boy. It is time to put a stop to it. Aa rumours are circulating that my boy was to have obtained the caps himself in the hut, I want the public distinctly to understand this was not the case.' He was a cripple at the time, as already stated when this unfortunate boy came to him and thrust the can into his hand, with the fatal result already mentioned. He was nursing bis little sister at the. time of the accident who stayed near him ; but as Providence wou'd have it, shi; was not hurt. Excuse me, Mr Editor, for trespassing so much on .the space of your valuable paper, but I do this for the

good of the public aud the community in the surrounding district, that they may know the danger of dynamite and caps and be guarded in the handling of the same. lam a victim of these explosives to see my child crippled and in great agony.—l am, sir, yours, Carl Yortt. Dillman's Town, Feb. 13, 1884.