DIVER HUGHES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2083, 18 May 1907, Page 1

DIVER HUGHES.

Diver Hughes, wlio made himself famous by the heroic part lie' played in the rescue of the Italian Varischotti from the flooded IBonuL (Yale mine in West Australia, received quite an ovation on landing in Melbourne. He was welcomed on the steamer by loading Welshmen of the city, and directly ho set loot on shore he was seized by the wharf laborers, who carried him shoulder high to the neighboring street amidst much cheering. The Cambrians then recovered possession of their distinguished countrymen, and drove him in a drag by four horsesi t|o (the Grand Hotel, where he was introduced to Sir John Forrest, the Acting-Pre-mier, and Lady Forrest, and compelled to toll the story of the frescoe ovor again for the benefit of the company. “I tvent down thex*o, along this dry drive, down again here through water for 100 feet,” ho explained, with the aid of a colored plan, “along the other drive, still in water, and, up hero, where Varisclietti lay.” Lady Forrest: “Was there not much danger of your air tube getting injured or fouled?” Diver Hughes: “Oh, yes, of course, A* tangle might have been fatal. Once it was a case of another minute and I would have been dead.” Lady Forrest: “And the poor minor—how did you find him?” Diver Hughes: “Ho was there and. alive, and I took him food every day in soldered tins, also two bottles of wine a day and tobacco.” Lady Forrest: “And light?” Diver Hughes: “Yes, I took him candles, too, and he burned them two at a time.”/ Lady Forrest: “Bad economy!” Diver Hughes: “Yes, that was very silly of him.” Sir John Forrest: “You kept us on tenterhooks for a few days, but it all came out right!.' l Lady Forrest: “What could the man have thought when ho saw you rising out of the water in your diving dress surmounted by an electric light? (Diver Hughes: “He did not look alarmed. I carried the light in m\ hand.” Sir John Forrest: “I should have thought that Old Nick had come for me after all.” Lady Forrest: “I would have thought that it was the Bunyip.” Hughes is described as a small, well-knit man, “a Welsh nugget,” who receives the compliments that are heaped upon him very modestly, and with the simple protest that‘he only did his duty as a Britisher.