The Hutt Explosion.

Opunake Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 2052, 3 April 1914, Page 2

The Hutt Explosion.

ANOTHER VICTIM DIES.

Wellington, March 81. Everard Felling, aged 18, one of those injured in the Upper Hutt explosion, died in the hospital.

PRESENCE OF POWDER KNOWN. A Welling*.-contemporary says I-, is alleged ihj.i a boy named Albert C ooper, employed in the store by Messrs Benge and Praoi, s .id he knew of the presence of explosives in the building, and ;-poke about it to witnesses. The p dice are in possession of evidence to the effect that the boy Cooper, speaking be foe 6 the explosion, io a number of women who were, gathered uodor a sir p va - aid ah, sold : “ There will be a fine scatter when the powder goes off,’ 1 One of the. women there ?” and Cooper, it is stated, replied, “ Yes, there is a barrel.” A Sinking indication of the force of the explosion is to be found in the fast that a piece of wood from the blown up building was driven through a window of the house occupied by Mr Jacob George, which stands about a quarter of a mile away southward from the scene of the explosion.

FUNERALS OP THE VICTIMS.

Wellington, March 81.

Six of the vioiioiß of Sunday’s fire tragedy at Upper Hutt were buried on Tuesday, and the occasion brought out a very large number of local residents and people from Wellington; Four - James Oomeskey (postmaster), Constable Denis Mahoney, Wm. Fiynn (railway guard), and Michael r )[coL'3y—were interred at the Upper Hutt with the fall rites of the Catholic Church conducted by Archbishop Redwood, the Very Eev. Dean Regnault, Rev. Father Daly (parish priest), and others of the clergy. There was a large muster of toe police, under Superintendent Ellison and Inspector Hendry, as well aa a contingent of railwaymen and the Hibernian Society. wrb a big gathering of the general public also. Among those present were the Hons. H. D. Bell, A, L. Herdman and W. Fraser, Mr T. M. Wilford, M.P. fer Hutt, . Mr J. P. Lube, Mayor of R. Fletcher, chairman of the Wellington Harbor Board, and other reprssentatives of public bodies. In the course of the service. Father Daly paid a tribute to the character of the men and the manner in which they had lost their lives, working for the good of others. Though they

knew Mbe risks they ran, be said,* there was no shrinking back. Father D 'y also referred r o the other three dec -ased -Vivian, Taylor and Pel ing —Buying he had known all of them as young man of great pr emise. At the gravooide, the Archbishop assured the relatives and friends of the dead that they would have the sympathy of their countrymen generally. Their actions had been an example to all. In the afternoon John Wesl y Vivian was interred at Taita, <he Rt-v J MoOaw (Presbyterian) oundaotiog the service in the pretence of a large gathering of mourners. The last sad event of the day was enacted at Wailaoevide, where George Taylor, as a member of the Railway Battalion of New Zealand Bngm ere, was accorded a military funeral.