"LIVE SHELLS."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 173, 23 July 1936, Page 7

"LIVE SHELLS."

BOUGHT IN THE CITY.

PERTURBING DISCOVERY. SURPRISE FOR PURCHASER. For two shillings a resident of Glenfield Road, Birkenhead, bought four shells in the city. They had evidently been war trophies, and he securcd them to obtain possession of the brass casings. Wrapped in a brown paper parcel, the shells, which weighed about 81b each were taken by ferry to Birkenhead, and then by bus. The next day children handled them. The following day the purchaser, who is a returned soldier, began to examine them with the aid of a cold chisel, and he discovered that they were "alive." The shells were handed to the police at Birkenhead, and yesterday they were taken possession of by officers of the Defence Department. "We found that they were very much alive," said one of the officers yesterday. He added that they were German shells of the wliiz-bang kind, and that a man who tried to open one with a cold chisel was very lucky to be alive. He said that the Department was always ready to examine shells which people had got possession of, and if necessary have them destroyed. This find at Birkenhead recalls that quite recently an appeal was made at North Shore for people to give up any shells which they had. A few days later an explosion occurred at the destructor at Takapuna, and when search was made two small "live" shells were found amid some rubbish that had been collected.