METAL-PIT TRAGEDY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 768, 14 September 1929, Page 9

METAL-PIT TRAGEDY

FORMER MAYOR KILLED ACCIDENT NEAR WANGANUI (From. Our Oxen Correspondent) WANGANUI, Today. ' That death was due to a broken neck caused by a fall from a bank was the verdict returned at the inquest on the death of Mr. John Jones, a former Mayor of Wanganui East, who died as the result of an accident at the Aramoho metal pit on Tuesday. The district coroner Mr. J. H. Salmon, S.M., presided. Evidence was given by Lawrence Edward Barber, a labourer employed at the metal pit, that Mr. Jones and Mr. G. W. Caird visited the pit at about 4.30 p.m. on Tuesday. Work ceased at 5 p.m. and the other men went home. The witness remaining to give Mr. Caird information regarding the work. At about 5.30 p.m. he was standing at the shed and saw Mr. Caird coming down a steep track from the metal pit, followed, at a few paces, by Mr. Jones. Witness said he turned his back and then heard a noise. On looking round he saw Mr. Jones rolling over an Sft bank. Witness was about a chain away, and at once hurried to the spot. He saw Mr. Jones lying on his back. Mr. Caird was standing over him. Witness heard Mr. Caird say, “Are you all right, Uncle?” There was no reply. Thinking that Mr. Jones was seriously hurt witness went to ring for a doctor, but was unable to get one. Mr. Caird subsequently rang up Dr. A. Wilson, who arrived and pronounced life to be extinct. Gavin Wilfred Caird said he and deceased inspected the quarry and works together. They were descending the hill from the pit, and the track was fairly steep and narrow. Witness was a few paces in advance of Mr. Jones, and when about half-way down his attention was attracted by a noise behind him. On looking round he saw Mr. Jones rolling toward the bank. Before witness could reach him he had fallen over it. A few seconds later, when witness reached him, he appeared to be dead. There were a few loose stones on the track and Mr. Jones might have slipped on one.

Dr. Wilson said he was called to the metal pit. He examined deceased and found that life was extinct. The cause of death was a broken neck. He could not say without a post-mor-tem examination whether heart failure supervened.