MINER’S EYE INJURED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 899, 17 February 1930, Page 11

MINER’S EYE INJURED

COMPENSATION AWARDED

Struck in the eye by a flying fragment of coal while he was working in the Waipa Mine on May 15 last, a Glen Massey coalminer, George Wilson Smith, claimed compensation from the Waipa Railway and Collieries, Ltd., in the Arbitration Court today. The claimant-alleged that he had been totally disabled and stated he had been paid compensation at the rate of £2 10s weekly until July 26. He claimed £3 14s weekly for his total incapacity period and thereafter £1 17s a week. Mr. P. J. O’Regan represented the claimant and Mr. C. L. Treadwell appeared for the defendant company. Smith, in evidence, said he had applied for a screening job after his accident, but was refused this position, though he was given an engagement as a trucker. The witness was sharply crossexamined by'Mr. Treadwell concerning the black glasses he wore, and stated they were given to him while in hospital. He confessed he had been able to perform a certain amount of work since the accident. Evidence of Hr. W. G. Borrie was to the effect that claimant was suffering from a congenital defect of the eyes and also photophobia, in addition to the effect of the injury to his right eye. For the defence, -the mine manager, Thomas Thomson, said that after the accident he gave claimant a job as a trucker, but this lasted only one day. The court awarded compensation for total disability for eight weeks and thereafter at the rate of 50 per cent, of full compensation. Mr. Justice Frazer stated that claimant's right eye was useless to see anything at which he looked directly. However, the claimant had been lackadaisical in ascertaining the condition of his eyes from a medical man, and therefore the court, could not say he had been unfit for work longer than eight weeks.