KILLED BY A MINE

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10284, 20 May 1919, Page 6

KILLED BY A MINE

THE TRIPLE FATALITY ON WAIKORIA BEACH. Press Association. j AUCKLAND. May 19. I An inquest into the circumstances of the deaths of three Maoris who were killed by an explosion on tho Waikoria Beach, noar Woodleigh, last month, was concluded at Glenmurray last week bofore Mr Dynes Fulton, J.P. (actingcoroner) and a jury of four. A report by Captain Hall-Thompson, Naval Adviser to the Now Zealand Government, was submitted by the police. Captain Hall-Thompson said that after inspecting a. piece of metal which .was recovered at the spot where the explosion took place, ho had no hesitation in stating that the accident was due to a German mine which probably was one which had broken away from the minefield near Farewell Spit, as recent tests made by the Navy and tho Marine Departments indicated the probability of mines drifting in that direction under certain conditions. There seemed to him to be little doubt that the men were tampering with the mine, perhaps endeavouring to secure some trophy, such as a horn, by either unscrewing or knocking off or perhaps loosening the screw by tapping it with a stone or stick. Tho result would bo to crack the glass cylinder enclosed in the lead horn and cause an immediate violent explosion. The jury returned; a verdict that ->ne decoased'met their deaths cm tho Waikoria Beach on Aipril 21st. 1919, by ''he nlosion of ft German mine, there being no evidence to show how the mine was ex!)loded. -