NEW SOUTH WALES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 14, 20 March 1866, Page 3

NEW SOUTH WALES.

Terrific Explosion. — A tremendous explosion occurred at half-past six o'clock last night, by which the stores occupied by Messrs. Molison and Black, in Bridge-street, were totally destroyed. The noise of the explosion very much resembled the discharge of artillery, and the position of the occurrence -was indicated by a dense column' 6? dust and rubbish, which ascended to the height, of about 150 feet. The concussion of the atmosphere was such, that the glass of all the windows which happened to be closed at the time within a radius of three or four hundred yards was smashed ; indeed, it is said that some of the windows of the Mint, in Macquarie-street, and in other parts of the city at an equal distance, were broken. A good deal of the plate glass in the offices of the Pacific Insurance Co., the Exchange, aud stores in Pitt-street was broken ; while in Bridge-street, between George and Pitt-streets-, there was not a house the windows of which escaped. Lyons' buildings and the Bank of Australasia were also damaged in this particular, and a number of other, houses in George-street and Jamison-street were likewise injured. As to the stores, they were completely demolished, there being literally not one stone left upon another. The destruction of the building was instantaneous. The stores were one story high : they had a frontage of about fifty feet to . the south side of Bridge-street, and extended back for a distance of seventy or eighty feet. They were built of stone, and were divided by a wall of about two feet in thickness. The front consisted of solid blocks of masonry, and several of the stones, which were three feet long and of proportionate breadth and thickness, were thrown into the street. The roadway was strewn with lead guttering and beams of wood of considerable size and strength, which had been split hy the explosion. It is said that a portion of a chair was picked up on Church-hill. There is nothing visible to indicate the origin of the explosion. Many conjectured that gunpowder was the cause of the mischief, but there was only two small canisters, not two pounds in all in the place. A portion of the ' stores were sublet to Mr. Rawack. Mr. Rawack had iv stock some two or three cases of an oil called nitro-glycerine — a combustible fluid intended to supersede the use of blasting powder. It was stated that the cases were samples of the article consigned by the manufacturer to his agent, Mr. Winckler, and that they arrived in the ship Ramsey, from London. It is generally believed these exploded and caused the mischief. — S. M. Herald.