The Natal Railway Accident.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 237, 11 April 1896, Page 2

The Natal Railway Accident.

HEROISM OF LADY HELYHUTCHINSON. The Durban newspapers contain detailed accounts of the terrible accident on the Natal Railway on the night of Dec 30, when 32 persons lost their lives through the overturning of a train crowded with fugitives, mostly women and children, from Johannesberg. The Natal Witness says that on the arrival of the first relief train at Maritzburg the first person noticeable in the train was Lady Hely-Hutchinson, the wife of the Governor of Natal, who with her sleeves tucked up and her apron spotted with blood, was attending the wounded, who lay all round her in a cattle truck. Her ladyship looked haggard and worn. Throughout the night she attended the sufferers, bathing their wounds, and ministering indefatigably to their feverish wants. A good word is heard everywhere for her ladyship, who so willingly turned nurse, and attended in every possible way to the sufferings of the unfortunate survivors, and her services will long be remembered. A curious incident of the disaster was the destruction of a carriage in which a party of four were playing cards, a sum of i-40, being in the pool. Every person in the carriage was killed, with the exception of the four who were more or less injured. Complaints were generally made of the callous attitude of the Dutch farmers towards the sufferers. Many passengers were robbed ; and others who had left Johannesberg with next to nothing were afterwards in possession of hundreds of pounds, besides valuables.