FATAL ACCIDENT AT A FLAX MILL.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 5, 25 February 1871, Page 2

FATAL ACCIDENT AT A FLAX MILL.

(From the Lyttelton Times.)

Of the many accidents which have yet occurred to flax employes one at the Styx Mill on Saturday is by far the most distressing. Not only is it the first resulting in actual loss of life, hut the immediate circumstances are such as must produce a wide-spread disinclination on the part of parents to let their children work at such places. And serious as the consequences have b?en it is a matter of surprise that more injury to life or limb was not inflicted. It is also noticeable that instead of, as hitherto, being the result of carelessness on the part of the hands, there is, so far as our inquiries can detect, not the slightest blame to be attached to anyone working on the premises. We give the facts as ascertained by examination of the place where the accident occurred and from inquiries made from the medical men.

The Styx Flax Mill is owned and worked by Mr W. L. Hawkins, of Christchurch. The machine room is about 40ft x 30ft, and contains four machines. On Saturday, only two of t l iese —strippers—were at work, and each was being attended to by two boys. The machine at which the accident happened was nearest the door, the other being about twenty feet in rear, and some eight or ten feet to the left. About five feet from the opposite side of the firstnamed machine, and, say twelve feet in rear, the green flax is sorted belore being stripped, and at this spot one man and two boys were working. This makes •even regularly at work in the room, and

as will be seen, all within a very few feet of each other.

The boys attending to the machine, where the accident occurred, were Chas. Schumacker, aged 13 years, a son of a farm laborer residing at Papanui, and William Wright, a youth about 15 years of age, whose father resides on the Ferry Road. The latter served the machine with flax, and the former took away the stripped fibre from underneath, sitting for that purpose on the ground on the left side of the machine. The machine, made by Mr T. Williams, of Oxford Terrace, Christchurch, was an ordinary knife and roller stripper, the drum being about 22 inches in diameter —the largest size but one—and generally revolving at the rate of about 1400 per minute. About 2 o’clock, and without any previous warning, the drum suddenly broke into several pieces, which, as may be readily conceived from the speed at which it was revolving flew in all directions with tremendousforce. The unfortunate Schumacker was struck with portions of the drum in several places, his skull being fatally fractured and his left arm broken; but by a miracle none other of the hands were injured. About a third of the drum, weighing say fifty pounds, took an upward course, struck a rafter at a height of fourteen feet, smashed it like a stick, and passing through the roof in a slightly diverted course, ultimately fell to the ground near the waterwheel by which the mill is worked, some ten or fifteen yards away. A son ot' Mr Hawkins, about five years age, was passing at the time, but, though the falling mass of iron actually grazed his hat, he miraculously escaped unhurt. Had the iron fallen upon him he must assuredly have been killed on the spot. Another portion of the drum, weighing about ten pounds, was driven hard and fast into the woodwork of the wall near the machine. The tin cover of the drum struck the boy White and knocked him back, but, not being a portion of the revolving drum, it inflicted no serious jury. Numerous pieces of iron, weighing eight pounds and upwards,' fell amongst the three hands employed in rear of the machine, sorting flax, but again, by good fortune, all escaped injury, and the boys working at the other stripper were also similarly fortunate. Another most extraordinary escape also occurred to a youth named James Buckley, who, at the time of the accident, was carrying some flax from the rear of the machine to the men working outside, and was at the moment actually within two feet of the hoy Schumacker. The hole made in the roof was fully four feet square, and we should also state that a large portion of the drum was hurled through the window. Immediately on recovering from the shock caused by the accident, the unfortunate lad (Schumacker) was discovered by the boys insensible on his face under the machine. He was at once raised, and a messenger sent to town for medical assistance, and to inform the police of the matter. Dr. Prins, Inspector Pender, and Mr Parkenson, house surgeon at the hospital, arrived almost simultaneously in a very short time afterwards; and the former, on examining the still insensible boy, found his injuries to be a severe fracture of the skull immediately above the left temple; a fracture of the left arm about four inches above the wrist, and a serious mutilation of the left hand. Dr. Prins at once saw that the only hope for the boy was to perform the very difficult operation of trephining—the bone of the skull being pressed on to the brain —a.nd accordingly ordered him to be at once removed to the Hospital. This was successfully accomplished in the police waggonette without any loss of time. Dr. Prins, though almost without hope, then performed the operation in the presence of several other members of the medical profession. This was well achieved, and the pulse of the patient shortly afterwards perceptibly improved, but he still continued insensible, and he remained so until 1 a.m. yesterday, when he died. The wound in the skull, we should say,, was three inches in length, and from the first there was but the faintest hope of life being saved. The fracture and bruises of the left arm were also such that, even had the boy survived, the limb must have been amputated, as there was not the remotest chance of saving it. Coming next to the cause of the

accident, it will at once be seen that such a point must be extremely difficult of solution. We may, however, state that the opinion of the manager of the works and other practical persons is, that one of the bolts by which the drum was secured to the frame must have become loose or broken ; when the drum, being twisted out of its position, struck one of the massive roller uprights, and, being made of cast iron, was at pnce shivered to pieces. The right hand upright certainly shows marks which could only have been caused in some such manner, and in none of the broken pices of the machine is there the slightest sign of a previous fracture.