SERIOUS GUNPOWDER EXPLOSION IS MELBOURNE. Melbourne, Juno 18.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 210, 9 July 1887, Page 2

SERIOUS GUNPOWDER EXPLOSION IS MELBOURNE. Melbourne, Juno 18.

Shortly before midnight the .sound of a loud explosion re\erbeinted throughout the city. The shock A\as .so great that the windows of .shops and houses rattled as though they had been .shaken by an eaithquake. The police and those -who were in the .streets rushed to the place from which the noise proceeded, and found the explosion had occurred at the shop of Mo=ssrs Wragg and Sons, gunsmiths, Bourke-slveet West, a few doors from Elizabcih-htreet. A feaiful scene of wreckage pi evented itself. The whole of the front of the shop occupied by Messrs Wragg and Sons, as well as that of Mr Peace, a f tinier, adjoining, was completely blown out, and the goods forming the stooks-in-trade were .strewn about in confusion in the street, many thing.-* being blown to atom 1 -. The counters ami shop fittings were broken up and piled together in inextiicable confusion. The front of the buildings above the shop windows was rent into huge fissures, parts bulging out. ]n the bar of the New York Hotel adjoining a number of customers were thrown violently against the walls, two being &o seriously injured that they had to be removed to the Hospital. Nearly all the windows of the buildings in the neighbourhood were shattered to atoms. In regard to the cause of the explosion, nothing' authentic can be obtained. People who were passing assert that there were several small explosions after the first loud shock, and that ilames shot into the air twice as high as the Post-office. The flames, however, were merely momentary, and the assistance of the lire brigades was not required. There can be no doubt that the explosion was due to the ignition of gunpowder, but as the owners of the shop could not be communicated with, nothing could be learnt as to the amount of powder on the premises. The two injured men taken to the hospital have sufficiently recovered to allow of their removal tojtheir homes. No further casualtie* have been reported.

Alex. Taylor, the Man ton trainer, has been in great form in England up to the present fcimo. With o boron he won the Lincolnshire Handicap, The Cob won the Great Metropolitan Stakes 'at Epsom, Carlton won the Cheater Cup and the Manchester Cup, Hove dOr won the One Thousand Guineas and the Oaks ; ant), besides these important events, several minor races have fallen to his lot.