A Gunpowder Explosion

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 212, 23 July 1887, Page 2

A Gunpowder Explosion

occurred in Bourke-street, near Eldzabethstrcet, at half-past 11 o'clock on Friday night, Which, had it happened oai'tthe night of the Jubilee illuminations, would ippobably have occasioned very semous loss of life. Tke explosion occurred on the premises of Messrs T. Wragge and Sons, gunsmiths, where a quantity of gun,po\vder, said to be only SOlb or 901b, was .stored. There were very few people about, 'but a policeman, a cabman, and a cofiee-stall keeper, saw all that happened. A groat pillar of red flame suddenly shot through the roof of the shop, ascending higher than the clock tower of the post-office, and accompanied by a vast quantity of •debris from the wrecked buildings. The noise, which was terrific, was heard all over the city, and the reverberation rattled the windows to far off as the Town Hall, The windows of the piolic houso and shops near to Wragge and Sons werecmabhed, and the gunsmith's plr.co of business was left a hollow shell. The origin of the explosion is involved in mystery. Mr Wragge ami his son (the latter just out from England to take charge of the business), leached the shop, from Adelaide, on Satuwdiy morning, und then became acquainted for the iirrft time with their misfortune. The force of the concussion blew the roof of MetMS Wraggo's two-btoried shop high into the air, wrecked the back of the house and the adjacent out-buildings, ruined the lespfotivo premises of Messrs S. Pearl, furrier, and Hunter, saddler, injuied the Mainon Francaise, and greatly damaged the New York Hotel and Looney's saddler's .shop. In other directions dangers of a minor kind were inflicted. Owing to the lucky circumstances that no one was living in either of the- two buildings in the midst ot the explosion, no 10.5.s of lifi losulted, but many persons had very nanow escapes.