MAKIKIHI BRICKWORKS

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XXIV, 31 December 1926, Page 5

MAKIKIHI BRICKWORKS

“MYSTERIOUS EXPLOSION” A STARTLING STORY. A mysterious explosion which shattered the kilns and completely demolished a 122 ft brick chimney yesterday at the bricks works of Messrs C. and W. Shiel, at Makikihi. This plant was recently purchased by "Messrs B'hiel from the South Canterbury Brick Company, and it is estimated that the loss will run into some thousands of pounds. The above paragraph appeared in yesterday’s Otago Daily Times, and, as Messrs Shiel’s headquarters are at Dunedin, the stamp of authenticity appeared to be attached to the story It was with feelings of surprise that the news had not reached Waimate, however, that a “Daily Advertiser” reporter set out to investigate the occurrence.

On arrival at the brickworks,, how ever, it seemed at first glance that the news item was well grounded. The two big chimneys, one taller than the Waimate Catholic Church, and which for years have been a prominent landmark to travellers on the railway, were gone; and m their place, strewn over the ground in the vicinity of the big kiln were several tons of shattered brickwork. Nearby were big pits from wher” in the days of activity at the works, the clay for the bricks had been dug; and the whole scene presented ah excellent reproduction of a heavily-shelled village in the wat zone.

The huge kilns where in bygone days many tons of bricks were baked, were, however, still intact, and this is where the reporter began to have his doubts as to the authenticity of the published account of the “explosion.” Certainly, each kiln was a distance of at least two chains from its particular chimney, being connected by a huge flue un derground: and an explosion in a chimney might have taken place — the kiln would not necessarily be damaged. But . . . two chimneys, each a goodly distance apart, were in ruins: had there been two explosions’ The reporter's doubts and queries were communicated to Mr Quinn, e son of the original proprietor of the brickworks, who was working on his farm nearby. “An explosion?'’ Mr Quinn laughed. “Well, hardly. There was nothing mysterious about it, anyway. The men took some of the bricks out of the base of each chimney, chocking them up with bluegum; and then set fire to the bluegum. When the wood burned away, down came the chizn neys. That’s all.”

Mr Quinn was unable to state the intentions of the owners of the brickworks: he did not know whether the kilns were to be demolished or not. The Makikihi brickworks has been an enterprise of some magnitude in its day. Huge sheds on the property show where scores of men worked at moulding the raw clay preparatory to baking it into bricks: disused machinery, including big boilers, showed that the plant was operated by steam power u. its heyday. The bricks foi the old Waimate arcade (now the Arcadia Picture Theatre) came from these works, the arcade being built by Mr Quinn, who- owned the works prior to the formation of a public company which took over the concern a year or two prior to the slump, and later in turn sold it- to the South Canterbury Brick Com panv. of Timaru, An addition was made to the works at the time the Pukeuri freezing works were built.