TWO MEN KILLED

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 170, 14 April 1932, Page 7

TWO MEN KILLED

Feverish Efforts by Rescue Parties COAL MINE ACCIDENT By Telegraph—Pres* AssociationInvercargill, April 13. A distressing tragedy occurred at the Black Diamond mine, Nightcaps, at about 9.30 this morning, two lives being lost as the result of an extensive fall of coal. The dead are: — ROBERT W. DUNCAN, mine manager, aged 40, married with three children. J. NUTTER, miner, aged 39, married with four children. Rescue parties were recruited from adjoining mines, and the work of digging in search of the victims was commenced immediately. Dr. Wood, of Nightcaps, was summoned, and the ambulance room at the head of the shaft was prepared. After three hours’ desperate work by approximately 60 men, Mr. Nutter’s body was recovered, life being extinct. At that time there was no trace of the mine manager, but shortly afterward his voice was heard, and searchers worked with renewed vigour. About one o’clock Mr. Duncan’s body was found; his voice was heard almost until he was reached, so that he must have died just before he was found. For a few .days past the mine had not been working, but a full start was made at eight o’clock this morning. The men were taking “easy” coal, from around the pillars and must have undermined them. It was pure luck that Mr. Arthur Tinker, a director, who lives at Nightcaps and works at the mine, was not caught in the fall, as he regularly accompanied the mine manager on his visits to the shaft. This morning he happened to be assisting in another part of the mine, and so was not in the danger area. The Black Diamond Mine has always been considered a very safe one. The late Mr. Duncan’s family has been unfortunate in its connection with coal mining, since his brother-in-law, the late Mr. T. Dixon, was killed in an accident in the Wairaki mine last June, and his father was the victim of a mine fatality at Nightcaps in 1907.