A MARVELLOUS ESCAPE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 9417, 10 June 1882, Page 3

A MARVELLOUS ESCAPE.

A marvellous escape from a horrible death was experienced by a young miner named John Kehar, aged 21 years, and residing in Eureka street, at the Last Chance claim, Ballarat, recently, says the Courier. It appears that a cage laden with rails had Just been stopped at the lowest level of the mine, some 280 feet down, and giving one knock for the engineer to stop, he got into the cage to unload the rails. He had been unable to reach the cage—such is his statement of the affair—until some time after it had been down, and he had hardly got on the cage when the enginedriver, apparently taking his signal as one to raise the cage, began to haul up. The unexpected movement jerked Kehar to one side of the shaft, and his left ear caught between the cage guide and the skid on one side of the shaft. He managed in some inexplicable manner to make the signal to lower again, or he would inevitably have been rubbed to pieces between the cage and shaft. As it was his ear was torn from its position, and forced round in front of his face, a wound about the size of a man’s hand being made on the left side of his head. His trousers, too, were caught between the cage and tne shaft, and but that he contrived to shed himself, his logs would have been mangled. When the cage lowered he tumbled oat on the plat, and was promptly got out of the mine and sent to the hospital, wher e his injuries were dressed. Dr Owen sewed the ear back into its place and rendered the surgical assistance his condition demanded. Kehar will have to remain in the hospital for some days, but his injuries are not considered dangerous. He attributes no fault to the engine-driver, but concludes that the mishap must have resulted from some error of his own.