BOMB TRAGEDY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIII, Issue 1516, 23 April 1919, Page 7

BOMB TRAGEDY.

FINDING BY THE CORONER

(Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, April 23

I The inquest on Kenneth Waugh was held at Trentham yesterday. The Coroner delivered his finding as follows; — “I find that deceased died at the Trentham Camp, April 20th, the cause of death being injuries to the brain due to the explosion of a bomb constructed by deceased from explosives and a bomb- ■ case found in or near a dug-out in the | camp. At the time of the explosion 'deceased was one of a party of Boy Scouts encamped at Trentham Military Camp. Considering the construction of ithe dug-out and the nature of the fastening of the door I am of opinion that the dug-outs should be inspected immediately prior to Boy Scouts being pedmitted to make use of the camp, and that the scout master should have been informed of the locality of stores of explosives, and instructed to keep the boys away from them. The evidence does not show when or by whom the dug-out was broken into. It appears to me that while the dug-out may have been a sufficiently secure place of storI age for guncotton and bombs during I the period when the camp was in mili'tary occupation, and visitors were more or less under supervision, it was not sufficiently secure at the time when the (camp was no longer in the same active military occupation, and parties of boys were allowed to have unrestricted use for a number of days of the portion of the camp grounds where the dug-out was situated, unless the safeguards I have mentioned had been made use of. In view of tho possibility of a. full inquiry being held by tho Defence Department into tho matter, it is not necessary or desirable that I should make a more detailed finding,’V