Flare Bomb Tragedy

Manawatu Times, Volume 68, Issue 51, 2 March 1943, Page 4

Flare Bomb Tragedy

FIVE CHILDREN DIE OF BURNS SYDNEY, Mar. 1. Five children died in the Newcastle hospital from burns received when an explosive powder which they had extracted from a flare bomb was ignited. The children, who were aged‘seven to 15, had found the bomb iu shallow water at the edge of a lake. They were standing in a group examining the contents, when it is beleived one of them struck a match and threw it on a heap of powder. The father of one of the children said lie heard a dull roar and saw the children, who were all wearing bathing trunks, enveloped in flame. The grass around them was alight. The bare bodies of the children had received the full force of the blast and were extensively burned from the waist up. Three families, friends for many years, have been bereaved, each family being left with only one child. The families were spending the week-end together at a holiday resort. This was Australia’s second tragedy during tlie week, caused through children tampering with military material which they had found. At Brisbane, a schoolboy, aged 12, was killed and seven other children injured, three critically, when a shell exploded. The boy had discovered the shell and is believed to havo dropped it while showing it to the other children. A warning has been given by the military authorities that people must not I ‘ souvenir’’ or tamper with any military apparatus they may discover. “Father of the Conference” The proud title of “father” of tho Dominion Conference of Methodists at Christfchurcli was awarded to Mr. P. W. Goldsmith, the former Mayor of Levin. Mr. Goldsmith, who is now 87 years old, attended his first conference in Dunedin in 1885. The following year he was present at a conference in Christchurch under the presidency of Rev. Henry Bull. Ho arrived in New Zealand from England in 1880, and for a time farmed in the Ellersmere district. Por many years, however, Mr. Goldsmith was identified with Levin, where he was first town clerk and subsequently Mayor. Ho retired from the latter position last year. For some years he also had tho distinction of being “father” of the annual conference ot , local body representatives of New Zea-