YOUNG BOY'S ORDEAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22231, 4 October 1935, Page 8

YOUNG BOY'S ORDEAL

"*"■ ; * it' TEAPPED IN MINE SHAFT - i FALL WHILE AT PLAY ' '<• NIGHT ON LEDGE ABOVE WATER; j: [FROM OUR OWN* CORRESPONDENT] ' " MELBOURNE, Sept, 28 .' ■ Drenched to the skin, cold gtid hungry, and suffering paiii from a tt , injured back, Eric McCaig, aged nine of Sailor's Gully, near Bendigo, Viol toria, spent a night on a narrow ledge I of stone, 25ft. down an abandoned mine shaft. Just below him was eight feet of water, so that he was too frightened to go to sleep, even if'hii cold and cramped position would have permitted it. The boy was rescued in the morn, ing when bis father, James McCaig ' was lowered down on a rope. • afte:r Eric's cries bad been heard by searchers, who were about to give Tjp'i; after an all-night hunt for him. During the afternoon on which he,; was trapped in the shaft Eric decidsd to catch tadpoles in the puddle holes near his home. He jumped over a mound of earth to what he thought was solid ground; but the earth gave way under him, and he fell down an old mining shaft, which, upon being abandoned, had been covered with timber and earth. The timber had rotted through and Eric's weight was just' sufficient to break the earth's surface, < He struck the side of the shaft with' his back, and sank in eight feet of : water at the bottom. "By taking stones out of the wall," he said, after his rescue, "1 made a ledge to pull myself out of the water.. I was .very tired arid frightened, but I sat down on the ledge and hoped, somebody would find me. I was very, hungry and thirsty, and it was tor-' ribly cold." Seventeen men searched the locality 1 from 7 p.m. until 3.30 a.m., when » halt was called to await daylight. lav that time Eric's father had been lowered down several old shafts without' finding a trace of the boy. The search was resumed at 6.30 in the morning and Leo Twigg, a neighbour, who wag in the search party, heard the boy calling. ' ' Jf v