MINE TRAGEDY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22819, 28 August 1937, Page 12

MINE TRAGEDY

FALL DOWN A SHAFT WAIHI WORKER KILLED ACCIDENT DURING REPAIRS BODY JAMMED BY SKIP LBV TI'.I.KGnAI'II —OWN CORRESPONDENT! WAIHI, Friday A well-known shaftsman, Mr. Milos F, Zenovich, employed by the Martha Gold Mining Company, was killed this afternoon by falling down No. 6 shaft, 50ft. below No. 9 level, a distance of about 115 ft.

Deceased and his mate, Mr. Kenneth Birchall, were engaged in installing a now steel wire in the shaft. Mr. Zenovich was in tho act of attempting to straighten out a kink in the line and had one foot on a wall plate of tho shaft and the other foot on the centre piece of timber. Noticing another kink in the line farther up ho gave tho signal to the engine-driver on the surface to haul up the skip, which runs between the guides of the shaft, to tho point where ho was standing. The skip, which was only a few feet below Mr. Zenovich, commenced to rise, shortly after which his mate noticed that Mr. Zenovich had been jammed between tho skip and the centre timber of the shaft. The skip continued to rise, thus releasing Mr. Zenovich, who dropped to the sump at the bottom of the shaft, 115 ft. fyelow. When he was picked up- lie was dead, tho skull and several bones in his body being fractured. Mr. Zenovich was a widower with a grown-up family, and was 57 years of age.