SERIES OF SHOTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 238, 8 October 1936, Page 3

SERIES OF SHOTS.

HEARD OVER WIDE AREA. BLASTING AT AVONDALE. The greater part of Auckland heard, between 0 a.m. ar.d 8 a.m. to-day a series of heavy explosions. -Some hazarded the guess that a man-of-war was carrying out full-calibre firing practice in the Gulf; others located the sound as coming from the defence works at Kauri Point; many other city dwellers were quite sure that a territorial battery was practising at North Head; and dwellers in Devonport, knowing that the forts were quiet, suggested that heavy blasting was being carried out at the Harbour Board quarry on the far side of Rangitoto. While the guessing was progressing, trained ears had diagnosed and located the origin of the ominous sounds fairly accurately. To to "Star" reporter, who was trying to find out the origin of the disturbance, the foreman of a quarry in Gillies Avenue, Epsom, said: "The noise was not a quarry shot. He thought old iron was being blasted beyond Mount Albert." Although he was at least half a dozen miles away from the seat of the explosion, he was correct. The shots were fired to break up for scrap metal an antiquated stone crusher, which has stood for years in the grounds of the Mental Hospital at Avondale. Massively constructed of steel and weighing between 10 and 12 tons, this cumbersome piece of machinery has proved difficult to crack —or at least to crack into pieces small enough for removal. The shots fired this morning, however, practically completed the demolition, and it is not expected that further explosives will be needed.