TWO BODIES FOUND.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 37, 13 February 1931, Page 8

TWO BODIES FOUND.

CLERKS AT HOSPITAL "A TERRIBLE TASK." LABOUR M.P.'S EFFORTS. (By Telegraph.—"Star" Special Reporter.) " NAPIER", this day. ; After three days' strenuous work'at the Nurses' Home, > removing, solid slabs of concrete and bricks and finally driving a tunnel 20ft in on one side and 25ft on the other, the bodies of the two young men,; John Stanley Shirley, aged 21 years, and William Thomas Taggart, aged 26 years, clerks of the Hospital Board, were recovered late last night from the ruins of the administrative block.

Too'much praise cannot be given to Mr. J. O'Brien, M.P. for Westland, who directed the operations and swung a 141b hammer almost incessantly. "It was known, the young men were in the building," said Mr. O'Brien last night, "but it.was a terrible task getting to them. I had a gang of 16' men, and all worked like Trojans. As we excavated, and tunnelled we found the bodies close together in what was apparently the .board room, where they had sought, refuge when the shake came. Timber and huge blocks of concrete had crushed them to death." • Concurring with the statement • that remains would continue to be found throughout the. whole cleaning-up process in the fire area, Mr. O'Brien-stated that in one case he came across what had been the bodies of live persons. The whole of. the remains could.be placed in a paper bag. He is of opinion that many bodies lie under the Bluff Ilill' oil the way to' the breakwater, but it will take weeks, of . work to ..dig them out. The remains, of .the two .men were interred this! morning. Among those present were fellow Masonic lodge mem-' •bers.' ' "•' ' 1 Deaths in Hospital. Mrs. Otter, aged 66, who was a patient in the Napier Hospital, died in Wellington Hospital yesterday, and Mr..Ronald Parkinson, aged 31, a Napier Hospital patient, passed away at Wanganui. •