GELIGNITE IN COURT

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28346, 3 August 1957, Page 13

GELIGNITE IN COURT

Coroner Orders Removal

(Rec. 10 p.m.) MILDURA (Victoria), August 2. A Melbourne lawyer, Mr P Opus, was ordered to remove gelilgnite and detonators from the Mildura Courthouse during an inqest hearing today. Mr Opup, appearing for Cedric Kyme Hobson, aged 33, of Cliffside, an< engineer, who was charged with manslaughter after a gelignite) explosion at Redcliffs, had produced a stick of gelignite in Court The charge was later struck out. The Coroner (Mr J. W. Ayes, S.M.), looked surprised and asked: “Is that stuff dangerous?” An inspector of explosives, John Patrick Kilmartin, said it was particularly dangerous if there were any detonators about. “I have some detonators, too,” Mr Opus told the Court. “This just shows that people have no idea of the danger,” said Mr Kilmartin. The Coroner ordered Mr Opus to get the explosives out of the Court immediately. Golf Day “Rag” The Court earlier was told that an lnfantry Forces golf day “rag,” depicting a mock Suez Canal battle led to the death of a 64-year-old former serviceman last month. The Coroner was holding an inquest into the death of Percy Griffiths Stephens, of Redcliffs. Stephens, “dressed as an Arab of Colonel Nasser’s Army,” was fatally injured when a metal drum being used as a brazier blew up, after gelignite was thrown into it.

Hugh Neil Wright, of Redcliffs. a storekeeper, and secretary of the Redcliffs Golf Club, said the Ist A.I.F. golfers represented “Nasser’s people,” while the golfers of the 2nd A.I.F. had to try “to take the canal.”