FATAL ACCIDENT AT THE HARBOR WORKS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume III, Issue 726, 7 August 1878, Page 2

FATAL ACCIDENT AT THE HARBOR WORKS.

A dreadful accident, resulting in the instantaneous death of a man named Matbew Black, occurred shortly after !) o'clock this morning, at the harbor works. The deceased, in company with a number of other men, was working in the quarry, dealing away the stone brought down by a blast the previous evening, when an alarm was raised that a large piece of rock was falling from the top of the quarry, and a rush was made to get out of the way. A man who was working within a yard of the deceased succeeded in getting clear of the falling rock ; but poor Black, who appears to have tripped or to have been retarded in' his flight by the mass of stone with which he was surrounded, was struck by the falling rock, which was about 2 cwt. The stone appears to have hit him on the chest and jammed him against another large stone at his back. As may easily be imagined, the poor fellow was mangled in a frightful manner, death being instantaneous. He was at once picked, up by his mates and placed on : a trolly, and brought up to town. A message was at once despatched by the train, which was at the Breakwater, for medical aid, and Dr. Garland was speedily in attendance, meeting the party on the road up to the station. He at once pronounced life extinct. The body was removed to the Northern Hotel, where it now awaits the Coroner's inquest. Black was a native of the North of Ireland, and had only been in the Colony about six months, having arrived at Port Chalmers in the ship Canterbury. From the time of his arrival in Oamaru he had been engaged in the quarry. He was 157 years of ago and a married man, and leaves a family of four or five children, the youngest of whom is only some three or four montl V*w-d. His wife and family, who reside in 'one of the Benevolent Society's oottages on the Capo, were entirely dependant upon Black's labor for - e means of living, and have consequently "been left destitute. We may mention that this is the first accident of a serious nature that has occurred during the progress of the harbor works.

A oorou'-r's inquiry was held this afternoon at the Northern Hotel, before T. A. Clowes, Esq., acting-coroner. Owing to the late hour at which the inquest was held, we are unable to give a report of the evidence. The jury returned a verdict of Accidental dfiatli.