SERIOUS ACCIDENT IN THE CALE DONIAN CLAIM.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 108, 13 February 1872, Page 3

SERIOUS ACCIDENT IN THE CALE DONIAN CLAIM.

We regret to have to chronicle another serious accident, which took place in the Caledonian Company’s mine yesterday morning. It appears that about 4 o’clock a.tn. several shots were fired, one of which did not go off as it should have done. The men waited some time before returning to the spot, having something to eat in the meantime. A man named Jeffett and his mate then went in and picked out tho tamping from the hole. Jewett then picked up a steel drill and put it into the hole, and turned it two or three tunes. He then asked his mate to take a hammer and strike it lightly, at the same time he must have known the powder was near. At the first blow the powder exploded, and Jewett was knocked away some distance, his mate being comparatively unhurt. When Jewett was picked up, it was seen that his face was burnt as hlaclc as a coal, and he could only see with one eye. His right arm from the elbow down is also badly burnt. He lias suffered a fracture of the skull on the back prrt of the head, caused by his being tiirown violently down after tho explosion. A large portion of the burden of the hole was blown right on to his side and chest, and the surgeon at the hospital, to which he was carried immediately after the accident, is afraid that the lungs are presned on very heavily. Altogether the accident is of a very serious nature, and it seems quite providential that Jewett was not killed on the spot. Had tho large piece of stone hit him on the head in place of the side, he would most likely nevor have moved again. This ought to be a warning to men to be careful when picking out an old hole. So many accidents of the same sort have happened already on this field that we wonder men will not learn to have more regard for their own safety-. Another thing that presents itself for our consideration is this: How is it that there is no such thing as an accident fund amongst the miners on this field ? Accidents frequently happen, and in a day or two a subscription list is carried round for the benefit of the sufferer, and he has to depend, perhaps, for sustenance during a long convalescence on what the public may choose to subscribe for him. This is not ns it should he. A fund ought to he raised, every man who wished to enjoy its benefits, in case of accident, should subscribe so much per week, and then there would be a certainty of the injured ones not being left, perhaps, in a half-starving condition with a family, for whom he is unable to work. Tho raising of such a fund has been mooted several times before on the field, hut nothing lias coma of it. It is a pity that such should be the case.