STARTLING FIND

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIX, 28 January 1936, Page 6

STARTLING FIND

GELIGNITE UNDER SMITHY FLOOR (By Telegraph—Press Association) INVERCARGILL, 27th January. A startling find was made during operations on a Tay street site, on which for some years the blacksmith premises of Messrs Kirkland and Jlcad have stood. Underneath the floor were discovered 109 plugs of o-eligmte, two inches beneath the clay surface, ’which was stamped hard. Whoever was working the bellows must have stood right on top of the explosive. which was about three feet away from the anvil. It must have been there for at least ten years, since the recent owners have no knowledge of it. Age makes no difference to the potency of gelignite, and that which was found to-day is said to he as “alive” as when it was first placed there. It is usually lived with a fuse and cap, but may be set off by a direct blow, so that the work of excavation might have resulted in an accident had it not been done carefully. The gelignite has been handed over to the "police. Fortunately the plugs were wrapped up in brown paper and the man who made the discovery this morning came upon it without sti iking it with sufficient force to explode it.