BURIED ALIVE.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 242, 19 September 1872, Page 5

BURIED ALIVE.

A sad accident occurred at Wanganui lately, by which a son of Mr. P. Ward loßt his life. From the evidence given at the inquest, it appears that Mr Ward and his son were engaged in digging a well. The son was working below, and Mr Ward was at the windlass drawing up the earth from the well at the time of the accident ; the well was about fourteen fret deep, the entire depth being of nothing but sand. Mr. Ward called on the boy to come up, as he wished to leave off; the boy replied that he wanted to Bend up another bucketfull, just to clear up the bottom of the well, and he was engaged in doing so when a portion of the side of the well fell in, covering him up, to the knees. >. Mr Ward at once called for assistance. Mr James Laing, who was making the road' close by, ran with his men to the well, and a man named Joseph Harwood went down and sent up a few buckets of sand ; but finding that it was coming in faster than he could send it up, a rope was passed down and made faßt to the boy.Those on the top began to pull, but the poor boy could not bear the pain, and begged, df them to desist. • All this time the sand continued falling in, but it became -evident to those on the top that; both the boy and Harwood were in extreme: peril Again they tried to pull out the boy, but without' avail. Harwood then requested to be drawn up, which was no sooner .-dene than ' there was another fall of sand which buried the boy up to the chestl By this time a large number of people were present, and the scene was described ' by those who were present as" being terrible in the extreme. A number of people now laid hold of the rope,: determined to pull the boy out if possible. The poor fellow now bore ihe pain, which. mußt have betn excruciating, without a murmur, but all efforts failed to move him, and. at lahtt the rote broke. • The . rope' wm then doubled jwA'taade fast oui and' store and i „ j. .. ft

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T£ore"strengW applied,' when ffiecfoußTe rope broke, ' and° almost at the same moment »n immense fall of . earth > oOvered tin unfortunate boy several feet. Harwood again went down and endeavored to remove sufficient sand to give the boy a chance to breathe, and had actually got down to the boy and removed his cap when there was another fall, and Harwood had another very narrow escape. He was immediately pulled up again, and shortly after nearly the whole of the well fell in. The well was sunk on the side of a hill, and all hands set to work to take down the Bide of the hill ; and after working at it for some time it beoame dark, and as all hopes of gat. ting out the boy alive had ceased, the people le^ff till next morning, when a Urge party set to, and after removing an immense amount of sand, they recovered the body. The deceased was a tine lad about seventeen years of age, and was very much liked by all who knew him.