FALL OF ROCK.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18548, 25 November 1925, Page 7

FALL OF ROCK.

TUNNELLER KILLED. (mass ASBOCIATIOH tblsgram.) AUCKLAND, November 21. Owen Ward, forty-five, employed on the railway tunnel construction, near St. Helier's Bay, by the Public Works Department, was killed about 12.30 a.m. by a fall of earth in the tunnel. Ward was got out quickly by his mates, and a doctor was summoned, but life was extinct. . / There were five men in the tunnel when about twenty tons of papa, ,most~ ]y huge boulders, fell, completely burying Ward, who had gone on shift half an hour previously. The other four men working in the tunnel, F. Barrett, shift boss, N._ McDonald, N. Souther, and J. Pric'vicli, heard the cracking of the timber in time to get clear. They immediately set about uncovering Ward, and got him out after twenty minutes' work. He spoke to his rescuers before he died. Ward was an experienced tunnelTer, having worked in four other tunnels previously., It is understood that he has a brother at Tokomaru Bay. The fall of papa which left a huge gap in the roof of the tunnel consisted of a number of big rocks, one weighing about five tons. The centre pole holding up the supporting timbers was caught in the downfall. Apparently Ward had started to run, but was caught on the outside of the fall.