BOYS AND DYNAMITE.

Feilding Star, Volume VII, Issue 1906, 23 October 1912, Page 2

BOYS AND DYNAMITE.

Two little lads, the sons of Mrs Taylor, of Colyton, sustained_very distressing facial burns, on Saturday, through an explosion of dynamite. The boys, aged six and eight years respectively, had discovered in a shed a tin containing dynamite, and, after the manner of their kind, who so love to set off explosives, one of the little fellows applied a lighted match. It is understood the tin also contained bluestone, and a fearful explosion appears to have occurred. The younger lad stood over the explosive, and received the greater force of the discharge, but both sustained terrible injuries, face, eyes, ears, hair and hands of each lad being burned. On Mrs Taylor's arrival at the scene she found the clothes of one lad on fire and both were blinded and dazed with the shock. The. little sufferers were brought to Feilding to the home of Mrs ._aker, their grandmother, where they are receiving medical attention by Dr. Guthrie. The real extent or ultimate effect of the injuries at this stage, is of course not known, but the eyes of both are so badly injured as to cause much anxiety about the complete restoration of sight, and the lads are suffering intense pain. It appears the hoys had been watching others manipulating with the less dangerous carbide, and tin's possihly caused them to underestimate the terrible force of the new explosive they had become possessed of. A slight improvement is apparent in the case of both lads. Mrs Taylor will have many sympathisers in her anxiety for their recovery.