ACCIDENTS g FATALITIES

Hokitika Guardian, 1 April 1933, Page 5

ACCIDENTS & FATALITIES

At German Gully, near Ngahere, yesterday a young man, Richard John O’Connell, 28 years of age, an employee of the Brian Boru Gold Dredging Company, Limited, was killed almost instantaneously by a fall of gravel whilst working in a shaft. The scene of the accident is almost half a mile from the present site of the Brian Boru dredge, where a couple of shafts have been sunk, one close to the other, for the purpose of increasing the water supply of the dredge. The one in which O’Connell was working had a depth of about thirty feet, and the deceased had as his mate Edward Mulcare, who was working the windlass at the top of the shaft. The fall cf material came Avith very little warning at about one o’clock. The work of extricating the body took some considerable tine, a large quantity of gravel having to be hauled to the surface, and the bcdy was not reco\ rered till 6 p.m.. Deceased was a single man, a native of Queenstown, Otago. He had for twelve months past been employed by the Brian Boru Dredging Company. His father, Mr John Edward O’Connell, resides at Queenstown, and he is also survived by four sisters and one brother, while Mrs L. F. Casey, of Greymouth, is an aunt.