HAD DETONATOR FOR FORTNIGHT

Press, Volume C, Issue 29638, 7 October 1961, Page 10

HAD DETONATOR FOR FORTNIGHT

Child Of Three At Kaiapoi The Kaiapoi woman who handed a detonator to a railway ganger on Tuesday had taken it from her three-year-old child who had been playing with it for about a fortnight. This was disclosed yesterday by the Kaiapoi police after the woman had answered newspaper appeals for her to call at the police station so that light could be shed on the disappearance of several detonators from the railway track near Kaiapoi this week.

The child could have been killed or maimed for life had the detonator exploded said Constable I. E. Harris, of Kaiapoi, yesterday. It was not until the child had been playing with it for a fortnight that the woman showed the object to a neighbour and was told that it could be a detonator.

There has been no trace of the detonators reported missing from the railway line on Tuesday, and yesterday’s information indicated that the detonator in the child's possession was not one of these. Constable Harris made a further appeal yesterday for anyone knowing the whereabouts of the detonators to call the police. The police were not concerned in prosecuting children who might' have taken the detonators; the main concern was to prevent children from subjecting themselves to the grave risk involved in handling them, he said.