SHOCKING ACCIDENT.

Evening Star, Issue 4193, 4 August 1876, Page 3

SHOCKING ACCIDENT.

TWO MEN BURIED FOR TWENTY-FOUR HOURS. A shocking accident happened on Thursday to a party of men working in a tunnel at Woodstock, whereby one of the party named James Hill was killed, being suffocated by a fall of earth. The party consisted of three, James and Stewart Hill, brothers, and Joseph Roberts. They were working as usual at eleven o'clock on Thursday morning, when a number of caps in the drive suddenly gave way, in conse quence of which there was an immense fall of earth, filling up the tunnel. Roberts was in at the face, but James and Stewart Hill, who were in the tunnel, were overtaken by the drift. Roberts ran under the face, thus escaping the fall of earth, but he was closed in by it. When the stuff ceased coming down he climbed over the drift as far as he could—about thirty feet—and called out to his mates. Stewart Hill answered him, saying that he was buried by the fall, and that he believed his brother was killed. In this supposition he was unfortunately only too correct. The men remained in this position from the time the accident happened which, as before stated, was 11 a.m., until half-past 6 p.m. As they did not return to their huts at tbe usual hour, some apprehension was excited, and three men went to the tunnel to discover the cause of their delay. These men found the tunnel filled up, and immediately gave an alarm. A number of miners congregated together, and, proceeding cautiously, they came sufficiently near to be heard by two of the imprisoned men. After working hard until eleven that night, Roberts was'got out uninjured, save that he was buffering from a few light bruises. There were this morning about sixty or seventy diggers present, but only six or seven could work at a time at releasing the other two. A framework was made around the two men, and slabbed all round, the stuff being taken out by hand, and all the crevices rilled up Avith ferns. In consequence of the nature of the ground, a sandy drift, the utmost caution had to be observed to prevent another earth fall, and it was not until 1 p.m. yesterday that the brothers were released, one iving and the other dead.—' West Coast Times,' 15th ult.