Accident at the Caledonian Mile.

Thames Star, Volume IIII, Issue 1708, 24 June 1874, Page 2

Accident at the Caledonian Mile.

„ A miner named Charles Mporcifaft was seriously injured irirthe ;Caletioniai| mine .this morning; He .was working'lin the 'chamber, at the> 200 feet levels a big *«lab of stone Ml "from the robf crushing Moorcraft to tHe ground. It would appear that this stone was noticed yesterday as being: 7loose, and- Captain [Richards, the mine manager,'gave orders I J;o have it taken down. The fpremaßLand. -Moorcraft aifd his son tried, to take it ■down but couldn't. On going down iW day, Captain Eichards jtold Moorcraft to Jsound thckstone while'he put his hand to it, when the manager found the stone m&ch looser th'an.on'the former occasion. Heathen gay« Moorcraft ;brderi to^piit a temporary .prop under-it, while h,e r wlent *ojind and found the foreman of the shift to put a permanent one in. The foreman was on the bottom level, and was taken to No. 2 and requested to put in a permanent prop.. He went to the place to carry out his orders and was standing ready to take out some slabs when the temporary prop should' be removed. Moorcraft went to. knock down the temporary ] prop with a. pick, and.it came away very easily. He '..fell;., slightly, forward,; and the stone fell without any '.warning. It struck Moorcraffc on the back—shoulder high, and of coui*se: knocked him down. "Bad fort, with.superhuman strength removed the stone at once,-'..and' Moorcraft was;bfought to the surface. Dr Lethbridge was called and on examination found that one if not more of the man's ribs had been broken. There was a large lump in the back and a contused,.wound in the face, besides other bruises. Moorcraft was sensible and complained of his spine, but as; he could move his feet it is hoped that jthe spine has not been affected. He was con-. vey.ed.to his residence in \ Upper Albertstreet r arid- there further I attended to! by Dr Lethbridge. The accident happened about half-past ten o'clock this morning. We have /Jeatnecl this afternoon that Moorcraft fs progressing as favorably as could be expected. The sjtone which fell is over a ton in weight. ;