IN THE NICK OF TIME.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 168, 17 July 1924, Page 8

IN THE NICK OF TIME.

POLICE FIND GELIGNITE. ____ TTr LIVES SAVED. TWO HAULS LN T A WEEK. (From Onr Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, July 12. Startling discoveries have been made by Sydney detectives since last Tuesday, when they arrested two men in Goulbum Street. They have recovered sufficient gelignite to blow up all the safes in the metropolitan area, and on Thursday, when their second haul was made, to their perseverance must be credited the lives of thirty persons. That number at least must have perished had the detectives been half an hour later. Tuesday's haul of gelignite was made at Surry Hills, and consisted of a stick about two feet long. It was only discovered after a careful search of a room in a tenement. Four detectives had participated in the arrests, and they were disappointed that a search of this room seemed to be fruitless. In the course of their probing of its contents they took all tbe drawers out of a chest of drawers, without finding anything incriminating, but one of tlrem, placing his hand under the heading on which the bottom drawer works, foimd the gelignite placed flush with the inside front of the chest. It was hidden from sight by the beading. One of the men arrested on that occasion had in his possession an envelope containing New Zealand stamps, with the figures 16/1 -written on the front, but though they are similar in every way to stamps taken from a safe blown in the city three weeks ago, they are not identifiable. Satisfied that there was more explosive and .safeblowing material to be found in the city somewhere, the four detectives undertook a systematic search of hoarding houses and lodgings. For two days they were making a door to door canvass before their search was crowned with success, and on Thursday they made the second discovery. It -was about 5 pjn. that, tired and footsore and disappointed after repeated failures, they decided to make a canvass of the only street in Miller's Point they had not covered hefore. Some of them were inclined to let the further search stand over for a day, but two swayed the others. Describing a man to the proprietress of a large lodging house catering for thirty lodgers, one of the detectives was overjoyed when she stated that a man of that description had been living in her house, but had not ueen home for two nights. All four made a search of his room, and were not satisfied -until linoleums had been removed, bedding searched, and even the ceiling above scrutinised. All these efforts failed to bring to light any of the material they expected to find. The proprietress was questioned again, and when she said that the only peculiarity of the man -who had the room -was that he asked for a fireplace 'but never had _ ifire, the police had the clue they wanted. la the space of seconds the fireplace ■was s_Ued to pieces, and right- down behind the stonework they found the cache in -which reposed a stick of gelignite six inches long, twelve detonators, lengths of fuse, and papers. I . The proprietress of the lodging-house. •was amazed. She told the -.detectives that the.failure of her.lodger to return made her believe that he had left the place, and she_had re-let his room only that day. The' new lodger asked especially for a fire, and she intended to build one in the grate in half-an-hour after the police came on the scene. She nearly collapsed when; the detectives told her that such a step would -undoubtedly have resulted in the annihilation of the house, for the fuse and detonators would have exploded the gelignite in the confined space in which it was found, and her house, as well as. others in the vicinity—it is a densely populated area —would have been shattere<_ It is thought that a careful examination of the papers found with the cache of explosives will throw some light on the identity of the men who have been blowing many safes in the metropolitan area over a period of three months. Though it is also unidentifiable, the gelignite is thought to be part of a large quantity stolen from a brickyard at Marrickville.