Boys uncover deadly poison

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33783, 4 March 1975, Page 2

Boys uncover deadly poison

GVeux Zealand Press Association) NEW PLYMOUTH, March 3. The Taumarunui police were today seeking information on nine unopened containers of deadly sodium cyanide poison found in the Ongarue River at the week-end.

Six of the 500 gramme elastic containers were found >y boys playing near the •iver at Okahukura. eight niles north of Taumarunui. >n Saturday. Thev were wrapped in a plastic bag.

The same bovs found another three different containers of cyanide in the Ongarue area yesterday. Two local women told the police that these containers had been dumped about ? month ago after being taken from a demolished house. Anyone who opened such a container would risk being poisoned. The cyanide is of a highlyconcentrated type for industrial use, about 40 to 60 per cent pure, and much stronger than the type used for opossum poisoning. Senior-sergeant J. O. Downes said today that a police diving team might be called from Wellington to | search the river. The police have no idea i where the containers came from or where they were going to, but thev know the cyanide was manufactured ■ for commercial use. Shakedown. — The New Zealand Navy’s’fisheries protection vessels Pukaki and Rotoiti left Auckland on their first shakedown cruise. They will then voyage around the South Island.—(P.A?