TRAPPED IN MINE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22400, 22 April 1936, Page 13

TRAPPED IN MINE

THKEE CANADIANS ONE MAN SUCCUMBS FRANTIC RESCUE EFFORTS By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received April 21, 5.5 p.m.) VANCOUVER. April SO A message from Moose River, Nova Scotia, states that when a hole made by a diamond drill revealed flood noises, the three Toronto men entombed by the cave-in in the Moose River gold mine since Easter Sunday were believed to have been drowned, but they 'startled the rescuers by shouting up the five-inch opening. The Premier, Mr. Angus MacDonald, knelt in the mud to ask through the tube what was needed. The men, who had been without food, water and light for eight days, begged soup, coffee, food, flashlights, candles and a pocket microphone, and these were lowered to them. The wires of Dr. E. D. Robertson and Mr. Herman Magill talked to them. Both said they could hold out for 10 hours more. Their wives shouted: "We will soon reach you.'.' The third buried man is Mr. Alfred Scadding. An hour later Dr. Robertson communicated the news that Mr. Magill was dead. Defying death, and without sleep for 48 hours, 100 workers led by skilled rock miners brought by aeroplane from Ontario, frantically continued digging, after the cave-in had led the Minister of Mines to order them out, within five feet of the 140 foot level where the men were entombed. The direction was miscalculated and they had to drive a crosscut.

In the meanwhile the food sent down was not taken. Dr. Robertson explained that he and Mr. Scadding had been forced aloft on ladders by the flood and were too weak to descend to the tube. The rescuers are redoubling their efforts. Dr. Robertson is famed for his surgery in the Toronto Children's Hospital. Mr. Magill was a barrister and Mr. Scadding is an accountant. The three men had purchased the abandoned mine.