THE TRENTHAM FATALITY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16421, 23 April 1919, Page 6

THE TRENTHAM FATALITY.

EVIDENCE AT INQUEST. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, April 22. Evidence at the inquest on tho boy scout, Kenneth Edwin Waugh, who was killed by a. bomb at Trentham, was .given by William Mason, scoutmaster, who stated that the boy showed him a bomb he had found on Sunday morning (the day of tho accident). Tho bomb was rusty, empty, and had no cap. Scouts gave evidence that in the small system trendies in which they were playing there were a. good many pieces of loeso gun-cotton lying about. Together with deceased, they filled a bomb case with gun-cotton and attempted to fire it. but not till after the fourth attompi was an explosion secured', this ending iatally for Waugh, who, apparently, had been deceived because the other shots had only fizzed. It was further stated that in the dugout in the trenches there had been stored lOOlbs of gun-cotton and a few bombs, some being empty and some full. By some person or persons unknown, this dugout had been broken into, and of the original store only 51bs of gun-cotton remained. There, was a door in the dugout, secured by a padlock but the fastening was rather weak. Thomas Waugh, father of deceased, did not consider the dugout sufficiently secure. The roof could easily have been broken through or tho door forced. Lieut. Moore, of tho engineers, an export in explosives, considered that there must have been a detonator in the bomb, as it was a mystery how gun-cotton could explode without ignition by fulminate of mercury.