BOY'S CONFESSION

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 132, 7 June 1939, Page 19

BOY'S CONFESSION

PILEd UP EXPLOSIVES

FORCED LOCK WITH IRON BAR

(By TelegrapiJ— Vidss AWbciatioti.)

■:-'/:;:- '. '■','; . ■■'■■VA^ekE^|ip, : June 5. ' '.".''A'. 12:yearTbia^bOy^ ;who?lives with his parents' in New Lynn, has confessed that ,on Monday: afternoon'he broke the lock: from the explosive, magazine at the local premises of the Amalgamated Brick and Pipe Company, Limited, and made "a pile of gelighite"; arid detonators, aggregating 801fcf in; weight, with the. intention.of Setting;it off;

Experts say that; haid; the boy been successful,, the"; resultant ■'. explosion would have shattered every-window in the district, and-that*.had; the pile been close to the works, extensive dam-1 age would have been done, Two lucky elements in the incident ■are that, when the boy ran away, the wind blowing across the paddock extinguished the candle, that was to ignite the fuse, and that the. explosives were 100 yards.from the factory walls. , Late on Monday ■ everiing Constable Boag learned ;theo identity of the, boy who had given/three- other: boys some detonators while they were at a picture theatre^ '■;■■; He;? went '..'.'to the boy's house, and in a drawer in a chest beside the boy's bed, found five detonators. .. . ' .

■ In the presence of his mother, the boy admitted .his.attempt at touching off the explosives/ arid said that he had given detonators to \he other boys. He said he had used an iron bar to force off the padlock;, from the brick magazine which housed; the gelignite.