CAR EXPLODES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 13 April 1928, Page 4

CAR EXPLODES

A "DRY" RADIATOR ENGINE SHAKEN TO PIECES STARTLING HOLIDAY EXPERIENCE (By Telegraph.—Special to "The Mail") AUCKLAND. 12th April. It is not the conventional and expected events of a holiday which remain in the memory but the circumstances which are unexpected and bizarre. dud god by this criterion three young men from Taihape will never forget a holiday trip they had last Easter.. It-is j 53 miles from Taihape to Tokcnann, but the old and dilapidated car in which the three men set out covered the distance in good time. It was with no ungenerous doubts, therefore, that, the tourists, having tasted the delights of a holiday at Lake Taupo. set. out on the return journey. What had been dona once could he done again. The day was fine and they discussed the prospects of the All Blacks, argued about the merits of their catches at the lake, and deplored the necessity of returning to work. The engine, too. was not. silent —indeed, it was hot and garrulous, but its masters, recognising that its life had been long and its vicissitudes many, were prepared to overlook its eccentricity. And so the party rattled along over the Waiouru plain until something happened. A great, many things happened, but the one most obvious to the driver, Mr J. Harding, was his discovery of himself lying in the tussocks, with the steering wheel still in his bands. The car, it was presently discovered, was well distributed. Paris of the engine, sbattered by the. explosion, lay in all directions, and the body looked fit for the morgue. Presently it occurred to the three men—the other two were Messrs Frank Sexton and L. Spooner—that they, too, might easily have qualified for admittance to the morgue. As it was they were scarcely scratched.

Tramping along the road afterwards on a. six-mile journey to catch a train at. Waiouru, it appeared likely to the tourists that the car's behaviour was due to a lack of water in the radiator.