MINE FATALITIES.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 May 1921, Page 5

MINE FATALITIES.

TWO MEN CRUSHED.

VERDICTS OF ACCIDENTAL DEATH.

Westport, May 14. The inquests were concluded to-day touching the deaths of James McDonald,

who died in the Westport Hospital on Friday, May 6, as the result of a fall of stone in the Stockton mine, and Percy Reveis, who also died in the Westport hospital on Thursday, May 12, following an accident in the Stockton mine.

McDonald was a miner who came oat from the Old Country, and was working his first shift in the mine, laying rails to the working face, and in consequence of a creep, some distance away, was ordered, with the two men of the face and a companion laying rails with him, to withdraw from that section of the mine. McDonald and his mate were just about’ to come away, when a fall of stone occurred, burying McDonald and also striking his companion. McDonald was rescued, but subsequently died in the hospital. The coroner’s verdict was accidental death, and a recommendation was made, in view of the allegations that some of the timber where the fall occurred showed signs of decay, “That, owing to the extraction of the pillars, a special examination should be made of the timber in the locality.” Reveis was a trucker, and apparently got jammed between tubs whilst lie was driving a horse attached to a rake of tubs in the mine. A verdict was returned of accidental death, no blame being attachable to anyons.