Fatal Accident in a Quartz Mine.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 241, 23 June 1874, Page 7

Fatal Accident in a Quartz Mine.

The following narrative of the above disaster is from the Maryborough' Advertiser of the 10th ultimo : —“Advertisements having appeared calling for tenders for reef-driving at the Duke and Timor claim, two miners, .named Joseph Nicholls and Thomas Hocking, were desirous for tendering fo'f the work, and with the object of . seeing the ground descended the shaft and passed into the main drive. Two other men, T. Stubbs and Richard Bennett, were working in the face of a cross-cut off the main drive—about 16ft. or so from it —when the two former men passed .'along the drive, Stubbs, at the moment, being in the act of going towards the balance skip, to skip two skips of dirt. As Stubbs returned to his mate (Bennett), he found the two men, Nicholls and Hocking, in an old cross-cut, looking at the drive going to be let on contract. Stubbs went back to work, and was filling another truck of dirt from the face of the drive, when Nicholls and Hocking came into the crosscut and stood there while Stubbs filled his truck of dirt. Nicholls went out again to look at the main drive, to see, as he said, ‘how it was faced up.’ He presently returned, and said ‘ the water coming in from the drive was very dirty, and making a bit of a noise.’ He (Nicholls) seemed apprehensive of danger, but Stubbs made the remark, “ Oh, it’s all right and safe enough but in the meantime he took a candle and went to look. .Just as he (Stubbs) got on to the flat sheet in the main drive out of the crosscut, he heard something giving away, and cried out, ‘Come on, hoys.’ Stubs saw Nicholls following, but he is not able to say whether the other two men came out of the crosscut or not. Nicholls ran up against Stubbs as he (Stubbs) ran along the main-drive towards the jump-in, and Stubbs said, * Take your time; don’t be in a hurry, old man,* and. made way to the balance-skip neit the chamber, looking back at the same time to see if Nicholls and Bennett were following, but he did not see them. Stubbs then jumped on to the chain and slid down it, and just wa% in the act of getting out at the bottom of the skip when Nicholls fell on. him .and knocked him down. He fell about five feet, gathered himself up, got the light, which was at the bottom of the chamber, and held it to Nicholls, saying, ‘Are you all right,- old man]’ Ho-got no answer, and.-seeing that the man was senseless or dead, he went albng the main drive the best way he could; and met the trucker at the cross drive. The trucker asked him ‘What was up f and Stubbs told him ; and he (the trucker) said, ‘ Come on, and I’ll send you up on top.’ He was taken at once to the surface, and from thence to the hospital. It is suppled that Nicholls, in his eagerness to escape, and not having a light, ran right into the jurap-in, and so fell on Stubbs, Nicholls was conveyed to the surface as speedily as possible, his own brother (the engineer at the Duke and Timor) lowering him alive, and raising his corpse shortly afterwards. He' never spoke, and life was extinct when he was raised. The back of his head was shattered, and his ribs were stove in, but the flesh was not abraded on the chest. The damage done to the mine is not bo great as was at first supposed. Great exertions are being made to clear out the drives, as it is not yet known whether the other men have been crushed to death or mmured in a living tomb. . , „