THE QUEEN OF BEAUTY.

Thames Star, Volume VI, Issue 1768, 2 September 1874, Page 2

THE QUEEN OF BEAUTY.

I reported on Saturday last that i thought the Queen of; Beauty v Company would in some measure alter their shaft; it was to he done, I heard, at the request of the Inspector of mines. The Qmeenof Beauty shareholders, have just taken the bull by the horns, and. hare resolved-to make a'good job of the required, repairs ; they have started to enlarge their shrift and, where necessary, pack it. The en-, largement will be. for about s one hundred and fifty feet down; #nd it' is proposed that in the now work, there will be three compartments, one especially for a ladder road, so that if by any possibility the cage gets stuck the men below will have free egress from the bottom workings. This is a most wise provision, as so many aeeidents occur in mining, from unforseen causes in jamming in a shaft, that ; the men below have no chance of escape,; other than by a good ladder road to the" surface. lam not yet content with some of our mine arrangements on the Thames; I, want to see- a second shaft, perhaps not in use for winding, but such a oneas men could avail themselves of in case'of the main shaft collapsing. I recollect well being one of seventeen men relieving shift in a mine en Growler's Creek, ab<|ut sixty miles from the Ovens, and awjay towards the Omeo, wiisa the shaft we went down shut in like a knife.. Fortunately we were all in the lower level, #nd nobody was hurt, because we aE made a bolt for another shaft by which we could, get to the surface. Now suppose manymain shafts on the Thames were to cave in, where would the men be ? Some .no doubt would be found, like a witness described it at an inquest after ah Aus-

tralian accident some years since: "I cannot swear to either of the bodies, as we only found a black patch on the'footwall where the men were working;." or, as Marcus Clarke described the remains of a body after a sm^sh, " a crumpled up raspberry tart." ; i. ' i ■■;., }