RELIEF WORK AT TAUMARUNUI.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17810, 9 July 1923, Page 10

RELIEF WORK AT TAUMARUNUI.

SPLENDID HELP BY RESIDENTS. i.? 3233 ASSOCIATI'I'S TSUUSaAK.) TAOIARUNCI. July 7. The scene at the temporary morgue this morning was a sad one. The bodies were laid out as they came from the train, each one boms labelled with -•the name and address, except two which were unidentified. The two bodies are those of youn<T men, one dark and the other fair. Mr A. S. Laird. District Coroner, made arrangements to have the bodies properly attended to, and shrouded before the relatives arrive. The work or undressing the bodies was entrusted to Constables McCallum. Ehbett, Wolfendale, and the Rev. Father Dairy, who is deserving of great credit for undertaking a task few care to face. Detective Walsh was also present attending to identification. A committee of ladies completed the task of preparing the bodies. These ladies were Mesdames Laird, McNab, Wcrrall, and Reec-e. The Rev. Mr Enticoit, Methodist minister of Taumarunui, was a passenger on the derailed express, and was one of the foremost workers" attending to the injured. Most of the male victims were healthy young men, who were in the smoking carriage _ going south to the Wellington races. Aii were more or less severely injured in the neck, face, and head, some haying deep wounds, irom this it would appear that the debris from the car crushed right across-their heads, as tJiie carnage telescoped. _ A local clergyman suggests that the tlmo has arrived lor an appeal to the pttblie on behalf of the hospital funds, as considerable expense has been incurred. Numerous messages of sympathy have been received locally by the Mayor, and these have been communicated to the relatives of the dead and to the injured. The train service is somewhat disorganised. The tram leaving Wellington at 12.45 p.m. to-day will come en to Taumarunui as the deviation at Xakahi is now complete. If the Ongarue obstruction is clear it will run straight on. If the line is not clear, the train will be held till 8 o'clock tomorrow morning. There was a train from Auckland to-day. Trains from Taumarunui south are running at ordinary times. It is considered probable that the slip at Ongarue will be cleared by midnight to-day. Rails are now being laid' again, and if no hitch occurs the line should soon be clear. A brother of Mr A. G. Saxbv, who died in hospital, arrived in Taumarunui this morning. He was not aware till he got here that his brother was killed or injured. Loui.9 Hill, a fitter from the Newmarket Workshops, address, Gladstone road, Parnell, Auckland, dropped dead at the scene of the Ongarue slip this morning. The body was brought to Taumarunui.

A SINGER IN THE SMASH. (■ficiix. to "txb nun.") WELLINGTON, July 7. Mr Ernest Drake, the singer, who took the tenor solo in the Berlioz 'TTaust" performance in Wellington last Saturday night, was a passenger by the train. He. was .dozing at the time of the accident, and was awakened by a crash and then a blinding flash, like lightning. The carriage in wETch Mr Drake was travelling was very full. "We did not feel more than a bump at the time," he said to a "Post" reporter. "The ladies in the carriage were not over-excited. Everyone realised that something had happened to the train, but no one in the carriage thought the accident was so terrible as it turned out to be. "Walking along the line when the train had come to a standstill 1 saw sights that I hope I may never see again. I will not describe them. The train was travelling at what I thought a steady pace, notning unusually fast, but the impact must have been terrifio from the way the engine was smashed up, the rails „ snapped and twisted, and the sleepers pounded into matchwood. "Everybody helped in getting the wounded out of the wrecked carnages. It was not at the moment of the accident, but now, that the horror of it all is so vivid. "The journey down from Auckland has taken over 30 hours. It has been an unforgettable experience for those who undertook it. Hours were spent in getting down from Taumarunui, and on our way thence to Wellington we saw an engine lying" overturned in the mud. There was mud everywhere, and the weather was bitterly cold, but thankfulness for escaping from so terrible experiences as those in the wrecked carriages went through made all other discomforts of the journey southward from the accident seem light indeed."

THE THROUGH SERVICE. (nasi A«ioaAYio» nuaßiM.) AUCKLAND, Julv 8. The passengers who left Wellington by the Main Trunk train on Friday arrived here at 5.14 pjn. yesterday. The passengers who left Wellington yesterday are ,due here about 5 o'clock this evening. \ SYMPATHY OF COMMERCL4L TRAVELLERS. The United Commercial Travellers' and Warehousemen's Association of New Zealand, now sitting in council at Christchurch, passed the following resolution:—"That this council deeply regrets the appalliug accident to the Auckland-Wellington Main Trunk express, and desires to express its deepest sympathy with the relatives of those who lost their lives, and hopes for a speedy recovery of those injured." At a meeting of tiie committee of the Canterbury Commercial Travellers' and Warehousemen's Association a motion was passed conveying the Association's deepest sympathy to the relatives of those who lost their lives in the Main Trunk railway disaster.

ANGLICAN SYNOD'S RESOLUTION.

(PEIS9 A9SOCIITIOS TELBGBia ) WELLINGTON, July 7. Reference to the railway disaster was made at the Anglican Synod by the . Rev. 0. M. Stent, of Eastbourne, who, before business was proceeded with, , moved th« 'following motion:— 1 "That this Synod; having learned of 1 the serious railway accident on the Main Trunk line this morning, desires to convey to the relatives and those who have lost their lives its deepest sympathy with them in their bereavement,

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and would pray to Almighty God to grant a speedy recovery to those who have been injured or who are suffering from the shock of the accident." The motion was put by Bishop Sprott after a sympathetic reference had been made by his Lordship. The members stood in silence.