TELEGRAMS

Horowhenua Chronicle, 16 October 1913, Page 3

TELEGRAMS

[I'KR I'IIKSS ASSOC 1.-VTI ON. 1 EXCAVATOIIS 13 U HIED. (iisborne, Tliis Pay. At 8.3D o'clock this morning, whilst excavation Avas proceeding on the reservoir site at Waingake, twenty miles from (iisborne, a landslide caused the timber work to give way. Three men were caught in tire tunnel. One, named Wyld, was extricated; the other two (I'letcher and Houston) are reported to have been buried in the debris. A gang is working hard endeavouring to elVect a rescue. Later. It is reported from Waingake that the three men who were entombed are dead. Wykes, foreman of the Waiugake works, states that bp heard a thud, and on investigating found tlit' mouth of the tunnel thai was used in bringing spoil from the excavation on the hillside had collapsed. About two tons of spoil had fallen, and if was evident that three men working in the tunnel were just passing below with a truck load of spoil when the fall occurred. . completely burying them. .[{escue operations promptly were commenced, and the bodies of the three men recovered within twenty minutes. lb •ank Wilds had been only three days on the job, and the other two ]). Fctcher and 11. Houston--eight days, (he men having come from the Matawai railway works. The engineer is unable to account for the slip, considering the iimhcr work supporling the tunnel has been substantial.