TERRIBLE ACCIDENT IN A COLLIERY.

Lyell Times and Central Buller Gazette, Volume VI, Issue 274, 22 May 1886, Page 4

TERRIBLE ACCIDENT IN A COLLIERY.

FIVE MEN KILLED BY FOUL AIR. A terrible accident occurred in the Lithgow Valley colliery near Sydney, on Monday 19th instant, when five men, named Isaiah Hyde, Thomas Rowe, Joseph Buzze, Lancelot Allison and Thomas Mantle, were killed. All are married with families. Five other men were working in the pit at the time, and were more or less injured, but they are expected to recover. The first intimation of the accident was a body of smoke and debris, which was observed issuing from the two air shafts almost simultaneously. Mr Campbell, the manager, feared that something was wrong, and immediately ran over to Mr Gell to tell him, In the meantime some one suggested that the set of skips just sent in should be pulled out again, as possibly some of the men might have got in them. This suggestion being acted upon, in the impulse of the moment, the skips were drawn out again, and in one of them was found a miner, named Charles Norwood, who was in semi-conscious state, and had merely sufficient strength at the time to say " Get inside at once and look after the other men," when a cry for help was heard some distance from the tunnel. A party of miners, with Mr Campbell and Mr Morris, the manager of the neighboring brickworks, at once went to the assistance of the men in the mine. They proceeded down just past the first crosscut, when they picked up William Mantle alive, but terribly cut and bruised by his endeavors to keep hold of the wire rope. He must have been dragged a considerable distance before being found. He was at once brought out, and Drs. Gibbons and Asser were sent for, and quickly arrived. The search party proceeded a little further and found Duncan and Jurie alive. They did not appear at the time to be seriously injured, and they were brought out. Returning to the scene, the party found Gilbert Kirkwood, the underground manager, a little further down than where Jurie and Duncan had been found. Two of the party carried him out. He was conscious, but his senses appeared to be leaving him. He, however, recovered shortly after sufficiently to be able to walk home. Although almost suffocated, the search party were able to proceed in search of the five men who were still missing. They first found Joseph Buzza at about the twelfth claim ; he was quite dead. Mr Campbell and his men, although almost overpowered, still went further ahead, battling with the smoke and damp, and found the dead bodies of Allison and Mantle about 19 chains from the entrance, and a chain further in the bodies of Rowe and Hyde were found. The bodies of the five unfortunate men were then carried out, and conveyed to their late residences. From the time when the accident occurred until the last of the unfortunate men was brought out of the pit, only an hour and a-quarter elapsed, a fact which shows how actively the searchers moved on their errand of mercy. Great heroism was displayed by some of the men, and the survivors seemed when rescued to be far more anxious for the safety of those whose fate was doubtful than they were of their own. It is not believed by either the proprietors of the colliery, or the Government officers that the occurrence was due to an explosion of fire-damp. Until the mine has been thoroughly examined, the exact nature of what happened cannot be elicited, but it is the opinion of the Examiner of Coal Fields and of Messrs Cixon and Rowan that, what in reality occurred, was a great fall in a portion of the mine, in some part of the old workings, and that it caused a tremendous concussion, which drove the air with a rush observed by a party of miners in the pit at the time, and enveloped the men in the foul air with which the old workings are known to be highly charged.

Mdme. Sarah Bernhardt's forthcoming tour will include South America, Mexico, Cuba, and the United States; Mr Maurice Grau being her manager. They do some queer things in China. They don't .use any soap to shave with, but simply rub the part to be shaved with warm water, put on a brush like a tooth-brush. The part to be shaved is never the face, but the top of the head. A Committee of French doctors and painters, has met at the Casino of the Goitre, Notre Dame, to examine about 100 infant candidates for the baby show. Many were rejected on account of diseases and ailments. The doctors report that baby shows might become one of the best means of sanitary inspection.