PROMISCUOUS GELIGNITE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 277, 20 November 1913, Page 7

PROMISCUOUS GELIGNITE.

MAN WHO TOLD THE STORY I OF THE NIGHT EXPKES3' ESCAPE. HIMSELF TAKEN INTO CUSTODY. CHARGED WITH LAYING EXPLOSIVES. The man who on Friday told the rail ■way and police authorities the sensational story about finding five plugs of gelignite on the railway line at. Green Lane, and about snatching it. from the line just before, the night express reached the spot, was himself arrested this afternoon by Detective-sergeant Hollis and Detective Sweeney on a. charge of laying explosives in a public place. The man. whose name is Joseph Davis, is a.bout 75 years of ago, and lie is usually engaged in the ultra-peaceable occupation of hawking soothing ointments from house to house for alleviation of suffering humanity generally. When the story about tin> thriving escape of the express had bet-u told and the explosive given in as an exhibit, the two detectives mentioned were put in charge of inquiries. They at once observed that the live plugs of gelignite submitted by Davis were bound together by a peculiar and unusual <.la>> of string, which they could not got matched in town. Yesterday they got information from a railway employee that a charge. of two plugs of gelignite (capped and fused) had been found in the staff lavatory of the Green Lane railway station. The. lavatory had been locked for two days, and the railway official found the gelignite lying on the floor of the piaco when he went there yesterday, the explosive having evidently been pushed under the door. What struck the detectives particularly about the gelignite was that the two plugs were bound together by the same peculiar kind of string that they had b**eri lining as a cue respecting Friday's reported lind of gelignite. This fitted in with a theory which had been hinted at when the. first ease was reported, and the detectives obtained a search warrant, and to-day searched Davis' house at Green "l-iinc There they found a. quantity of the peculiar siring for which they had been looking, another plug of gelignite, and a length of fuse of colour, quality and general appearance closely corresponding with the fuse found attached to the gelignite taken by Davis to the railway authorities, and to the erflienito found in the lavatory .it Green I.ane station vesteTday. These things, taken in conjunction with replies made hv Davis tn questions put to him in the course of a requested explanation, resulted in the old man being arrested on a charge th.it he laid explosives in the lavatory of the Green Lane station. The accused is an ex-railway employee, and an old age pensioner.