FATAL MINING ACCIDENT.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1207, 11 June 1872, Page 2

FATAL MINING ACCIDENT.

The following are the particulars of the recent accident at Collingwood :— "One of those startling and painful occurrences which seem sent to remind us'of that solemn truth that ' in the midst of life we are in death," took place in our community on Wednesday last. AMr Ernest, a native , of America, and long a resident and miner at the head of Appo's Gully, a married man/ but fortunately without children, went to bis work as usual on Wednesday. Now this work consisted of the very dangerous system of sluicing inside a tunnel, the tunnel' being on the claim of which he was sole proprietor, and in which he worked alone. On this morning in question, a little before dinner time, Mrs Ernest sent a little girl who was staying with her to call him to .dinner. She came back and said "he was not there, and the hole was all blocked up." Mrs Ernest then 'started to see what wag the matter, and found what the little girl said was true. She then turned off the- water, but at the same time saw a man whom she supposed to be Ernest coming up from > Grlengyle which rUns due north from Ernest's claim, so she went back home and waited for him to come, but all in vain, so she once more made her way to the workings where she found the supposed Ernest to be a man from the Glengyle claim. Alarm was at once given. Mrs Ernest went for her neighbors, Messrs Diiggan and Haines, and the man went for his mates at the Glengyle, and after incessant work of about nine hours, by sluicing away all the debris that had fallen in; they, came upon the body of Mr Ernest, dreadfully crushed and bruised ; bhe back and neck were broken, and one leg and one arm twisted Qiit of the sockets, and otherwise much cut abojit. On the Friday, the inquest was held, and the body was then carried in its coffin to the. mouth of the gull}, and- from then it was taken in Mr Brace's waggon to the Collingwqod cemetery, where he was buried."