FATAL EXPLOSION

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 289, 3 June 1912, Page 5

FATAL EXPLOSION

A WELLINGTON TRAGEDY. By Telegraph—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. Many people heard a very loud explosion about 10.40 this morning. It was the second of two explosions, by the first of which a single man aged thirty-six, named John Melville, thought to be a native of Queensland, was killed. Deceased was foreman of the quarry at Northland, and had formerly been foreman for the Karori Borough Council. He occupied an office about a quarter of a mile north of the wireless station and about half a mile from the quarry. The building measured about 8 x 10, and about six feet from it was a combined stable and blacksmith's shop. In this seven, or eight horses were usually kept. There is no information as to how many horses were there to-day. It lias been customary to store gelignite and gunpowder in the office. At 10 a.m. the first explosion occurred. The noise brought to the scene two men from the wireless station, David l Crossley, of Karori, and , hia son Arthur. They found that the office had heen blown completely away. Beside the site of the office they found Neville's l)ody, on its side, the top of the head having been blown ofT. The remnants of the shed were burning, and the farher and a man named Phillips, of Ngaio, removed the body about a chain. Forty minutes later a second explosion occurred, Mowing the stable ivnd smithy to pieet>. 'So violent was t'lie explosion that debris and sheets of galvanised iron were found from a quarter to half a mile away. Two kegs of powder having been exploded as the result of the first outburst were considered to be the cause of the second.