THE EL DORADO ACCIDENT.

Inangahua Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 508, 12 August 1895, Page 2

THE EL DORADO ACCIDENT.

i This dreadful ininiag accident took ' place at the McEvoy gold and tin mine, Eldorade, 162 miles norfcli<east of Melb >urue, early on the morning of July 20. One hundred and thirty men are engaged on the mine, and 29 went on shift at midnight on Friday, to come off at 8 o'clock the next mornir.g. At five minutes to four, the- re was a deafening concussion, fol* t lowed by a great rush of " slum," which came in immense quantities from ooc of the crosscuts, and in a few minutes filled nearly all the crosscuts, find rushed towavds the inaia drive. Five men who were working in a cross-cut near hat from which the ru.rh of liqui'l mul'ock came, were savtd by the readiness and bravery of Joseph Ferguson, who, instead of rushing for the shaft when the concussioii came, ran along the interior and shouted, " Up the drive, for God's .':ako ! Come out ! I don't think thevo i-3 much chance, but com? !" The won working in the cross-cir. hud n t fait tho air rush, being in the crossc.i', but when they reached the dmo fc'iG fnrco of tho air knock' d tho:n down. The mullock soon came pours iti-j do.vn, like a flood, and bcfoi-o they could get to the shaft they were wadding through it up to their necks, Tt carried trucks nnd slabs along with it in indistinguishable confusion, along with mullock and just- Voind the men came rt^lJtigo "lfaftTiT t (if pffJeclay, which had evidently beon car-

tied throiigh with thd first .in Weak. and when it reached the opening into the main drive it siuck fast and blacked the rush of nnillock behind, aud this enabled ibe men to escape. The entombed men whose bodies have beeu found weve :.- John Kneebone, aged 63, married, wife and six children ; Johu Edgar Crane, aged 28, single; Fred Burke, aged 48, wife and eight children ; Charles Dawkins, aged 80, wife and four children; J. Thompson, 41, wife and three children in Eldorado ; James Armstrong, aged 50.