SAD FATAL ACCIDENT.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 1005, 5 March 1883, Page 3

SAD FATAL ACCIDENT.

A sad accident, attended with fatal results, occurred on the dredge “ Hope of Dunkeld,” at work on Carson’s beach, about four miles below the Beaumont ferry, on Wednesday evening last (says the Tuapeka Times). It appears that shortly after six o’clock, one of the shareholders named Thomas Cairns, who was at work on the shift with Mr Jno. Donaldson noticed that one of the pins belonging to one of the bucketlinks had dropped out of its place; he thereupon threw the machinery out of gear with the intention of disconnecting the link, and replacing the lost pin. Whilst so engaged, and in the act of turning the disconnecting screw, which is about 8ft. in length, it is presumed that he incautiously allowed the projecting end of the screw to get between the spolces of the paddle-wheel, which was revolving with great rapidity at the time. The outcome was that in the down-

ward motion, Cairns received a fearful blow on the chest, hurling him backwards with terrific force against the railing of the dredge, and causing him to fall into the river in close proximity to the paddle-wheel. Donaldson, who was working at the cradle, noticed that the buckets were out of gear, and, while momentarily examining the table, he

heard Cairns cry out, “ Oh, Jack !” Instantly he rushed forward, and made a desperate but ineffectual effort to grasp Cairns, who was at that time just falling into the water. He managed to touch Cairns’s body with his fingers

just before it reached the water, but was unable to save him. It is surmised that the force of the blow from the projecting screw must have rendered Cairns insensible, and that, in falling off the dredge, he must have been struck by the paddlewheel, and, in a few seconds, swept away by the force of the current. Cairns was a native of Aberdeen, Scotland ; was about 80 years of age, and unmarried. The sad occurrence cast quite a gloom over the quiet little township of Dunkeld.