BOMB EXPLOSION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 204, 29 August 1935, Page 5

BOMB EXPLOSION.

A MADMAN'S CRIME?

SYDNEY HOUSE WRECKED. NO APPARENT MOTIVE. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, August 21. Recently the energies ofthe Criminal Investigation Bureau have been concentrated largely on the task of discovering the source and origin of a terrific explosion which occurred at Maroubra, completely dismantling a dwelling house and threatening the lives of all within. The house was occupied by Mr. R. W. Hall, a well-known public accountant, who has a business at Gloucester, in the northern district, about 200 miles from Sydney. Known throughout the State as "the flying accountant," Mr. Hall regularly makes trips in connection with his professional duties in his own aeroplane, and it is only within the past two months that he has come down to Sydney again and settled in a home at Maroubra. On August 4 Mr. Hall was preparing to go to bed a little before 11 o'clock. His daughter Shirley, nine years old, Was sleeping in a cot in his room, while his wife and a four-year-old son occupied another bedroom a little way off. fclr. Hall had just kissed his sleeping daughter when he remembered that he wanted something from the kitchen. He left the room, when suddenly an explosion of stunning violence shook the house and brought down the roof and portions of the walls of his bedroom about the little girl's cot. Child's Amazing Escape. Half stupefied and fearing the worst. Mr. Hall rushed back into the room and found his way over bricks, plaster and timber to the.'child's bed. To his amaze-.; nieut, she was entirely unhurt, and'j

gathering Jjer up he staggered out to find the other members of the family safe, but his wife in a state of complete collapse and the whole neighbourhood aroused by the terrilie concussion. When the police arrived they found the house quite uninhabitable —part of the verandah and roof blown down and the walls of Mr. Hall's room in ruins. The neighbours testified vehemently to the alarming nature of the explosion. All the houses fronting on that street over a distance of about 200 yards had their windows broken, and the houses on either side were badly damaged. One neighbour who had had some experience of warfare said that the explosion was as loud as a heavy cannon; another could only imagine that the powerhouse at Botany had blown up; and the deafening uproar arousing excited comment and alarm throughout the district for miles around. Charred Fuse Found. There is unfortunately every reason to believe that the explosion was the outcome of a ferocious and deliberately premeditated crime. The police in their investigations found a length of charred fuse, which suggested at once the source of the explosion, and the acrid fumes still hanging about the house explained quite clearly its otigin. Evidently .some miscreant had placed a heavy charge of gelignite against the outside wall of Mr. Hall's room, had attached a fuse at least 20 feet in length, and after lighting it, had made good his escape. The police think that the criminal must have watched the house carefully to locate Mr. Hall's room, and then after seeing him prepare to retire for the night, struck his blow. In that case it was only Mr. Hall's momentary absence from the room that saved his life. For the effects of the explosion i were simply devastating and it seems j indeed miraculous that the little girl escaped. "The room in which the child had been sleeping," says the "Sydney Morning Herald," 'report of the incident, "was littered with the remains of a brick wall, with joists of wood from the verandah, with lumps of plaster and with broken glass from the windows. One wall looked I as if it had been subjected to machine.- j gun lire, being pitted with small holes, i apparently caused by fragments of brick j which had been hurled across the room with the force of bullets."

Door Hurled Thirty Feet

The verandah was unrecognisable—the whole of the flooring torn up and the roof brought down; the door, near which the bomb had apparently been placed, was driven into the back of the house, 30 feet a way; and the police had to find tlioir way stumbling through a chaotic muddle of splintered woodwork, smashed tiles and broken bricks. Xo wonder that (• they describe it as the worst bomb j explosion recorded in Sydney for many J years past. J But what was the reason Tor it? What was the motive <f£ the criminal or i madman,, who so deliberately planned < the destruction of this peaceful family?] Of course, the police have asked questions, but so far without much tangible result. Apparently Mr. Hall knows of no reason, in connection with Jiis business or his personal relations,' for any attack upon his life—especially for a cold-blooded and atrocious crime like this. However, it would appear that the police have "heard something" which has induced them to keep the Halls —now sheltering with neighbours —under protective surveillance, and the C.1.8. I experts are hopeful that the meaning of : this dramatic and terrifying mystery may soon be revealed.