ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 255, 7 April 1915, Page 4

ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

A CONSTABLE MISSING.

By Telegraph.—Press Association. Napier, April 0.

Constable Donald Shaw, a single man, aged 38, of the local police force, lias been missing since Thursday and f;a;s for his safety are entertained. INJURED AT SPORTS MEETIN',!. Gisborne, Last Night. Whilst A. Agnew was riding in jumping events at Waipiro Bay sports h's horse fell. Agnew was injured internally, and lies in a critical condition. EXPLOSIONS AT ASHBURTON. Ashburton, Yesterday. By a strange coincidence two explosions occurred in Ashburton last evening at the electric light company's works at the north end of the town, and the other at the electric light company's works at the south end. In the latter case an assistant engineer named R. C. Price was starting one of the large coupled engines to generate power for the evening light, at about 5.40 p.m., when the gas expansion chamber at the back of the engine exploded. The concussion blew jjp several of the iron plates surrounding the engines, wrecking the skylight, avhile several pipes were also wrenched loose. Price was knocked over, and later it was •found that he was suffering from shock* and that his right leg was badly injured. At about 8 o'clock, people living near the gasworks were startleed by a loud explosion, and immediately afterwards lurid flames Bhot up to a height of nearly fifty feet from the engine-room at the works. Enquiries made this morning go to show that Belland, a stoker, went into the engincroom to look for a nut on the floor, lie bent low with a light- | ed match in his hand, and it is understood that a quantity of foul gas had accumulated and taken fire. Msg engineroom is a brick building with a tiled roof. Tlie latter was blown off, and the explosion wrecked a good part of the brick work. None of the machinery was damaged, and neither the gas nor the electric light services wire affected. A SHUNTER KILLED.

Christchurch, Last Night. Alfred Henderson, a railway shunter, who had his forearm and thigh fractured this morning whilst engaged in his work in the Linwood station yards, died at the hospital this evening. Wlicn admitted to the hospital he was semieonscious, and he never fully regained consciousness.