POTENTIAL DANGER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26782, 27 May 1948, Page 4

POTENTIAL DANGER

WAR SOUVENIRS EXPERT TESTING ADVISED INQUEST INTO YOUNG BOY’S DEATH P.A. AUCKLAND, May 26. People who had shells or ammunition in their possession as war souvenirs would be well advised to take them to an expert or arms office, where the shells could be destroyed or tested and certified as harmless, said the coroner, Mr A. Addison, at the inquest into the death of William Howard Fry, aged six, a son of Petty Officer H. J. Fry, of Te Papapa. The child received fatal injuries when a shell with which he and six other children were playing exploded in a tool shed at the back of a State house on March 22. The coroner said that the distressing and unfortunate accident that had happened served to bring to the notice of the conimunity the very grave danger of people having shells in their possession as souvenirs. If the souvenirs were tested by experts, accidents would not happen and children would not be exposed to danger from explosives. One of the children who was injured in the explosion, Malcolm John Clewett, aged eight, said he was “ playing cowboys ” with a group of children amongst whom was the deceased. A girl Lohna Garvie, had said she knew where there, were some bombs and bullets, and she went to a shed at the back of her home and returned with a small leather bag. This contained two bombs and some bullets. The deceased picked up one of the bombs and carried it into the shed. The children were sitting about in the shed when the bomb slipped from the deceased’s hands on to the floor. Witness added that he did not remember anything after that. Clifford John Garvie, a manufacturing jeweller, said he was interested in souvenirs and collected shell cases of all types. After service with the R.N.Z.A.F. in the Pacific as an air observer during the war, witness said, he brought back to New Zealand a .37 millimetre American all-steel armourpiercing spent shell which he picked up on the battlefield. The shell had definitely been fired, and bore rifling marks, and there was a small hole in the. base. He also had a similar unfired shell which he had taken to an armourer in the Solomons, who had taken the charge out. Witness said he also brought back some .25 calibre Japanese small-arms ammunition, but he did not have any bombs. Before he was separted from his wife about 15 months ago, witness said, he placed the ammunition in a bag which was kept in the washhouse of their home at Avondale. The shells were kept as ornaments round the house. Since he last saw the

shells his wife shifted to Te Papapa and had apparently taken the shells with her. He saw his wife on March 14 and asked her for his belongings, including the shells, but he was not given them. To Mr Kingston, who appeared for the parents of the deceased boy, witness said he thought the shells were harmless. He had never lived at Te Papapa. Evelyn 'Julia Garvie said she put a tin containing the shells in a shed at the rear of her house on March 14. Children used to play in the shed at times, and there was no lock on the door. Witness added that she thought the shells were dead or harmless. Howard James Fry, father of the deceased, said he was a petty officer gunnery instructor in the Royal New Zealand Navy. He heard an explosion and then screams. “ I went to the back of the house and I saw smoke coming from the tool shed,” continued witness. “ There were two small children running about screaming. They were covered with blood.” Witness said he went into the shed, where about six other children were scrambling about in a dazed condition. His son William was then alive but unconscious. He had died shortly afterward. Witness said the shell which had been fired was more dangerous than an unfired shell. Returning a verdict that death was caused from shock and haemorrhage from multiple severe injuries, the coroner said the shell had apparently been aimed. In this case he believed that Garvie thought the shell had been made harmless, but the evidence showed that a hole in the base of the shc> had nothing to do with removing the danger.