DEATH OF A MINER AT THE DUNSTAN BY THE COLAPSING OF A SHAFT.

Colonist, Volume VI, Issue 597, 14 July 1863, Page 5

DEATH OF A MINER AT THE DUNSTAN BY THE COLAPSING OF A SHAFT.

The correspondent of the Otago Daily Times, of Ist July, gives an account of the death of a miner named Thomas Mains while .«• drawing slabs" from a prospecting shaft sunk by Government about a mile from the camp, in order to discover the lead of a flat believed to be highly auriferous. A depth of 80 feet -had been attained, but the influx of water compelled the abandonment of the project. A contract was given out for drawing the slabs, which was accepted by the unfortunate deceased and his mates. About one half of the slabbing had been successfully withdrawn, the plan of doing which was the one in general use—that of lowering a man down, who removes as many slabs as he can reach, standing on his feet, and then hauling him up, and filling in the space by throwing dirt down the shaft from the heap, which has accumulated during its being sunk; afterwards lowering the man down again and vice versa till the top is reached. The deceased was below sending up the slabs by means of the bucket, but seeing the shaft shifting, he jumped into the bucket and called out to his mates on the top to hoist away instantly, which they at once did. But, scarcely had they made three revolutions of the windlass, when the whole shaft suddenly collapsed—the ground caving in from the very surface, windlass and all sinking down into one frightful ruin. Of course the poor fellow below was instantly enveloped in the debris and passed all human help, and it is sincerely to be hoped he was quickly out, of pain. One of the men.on the top was severely hurt about the head and *body by the windlass falling upon him; but the other, fortunately, escaped. The soil, vit seems, was loose and gravelly, and, it is believed, had run away from behind the slabs, leaving hollows at the sides of the shaft, so that while the process of filling up was taking place from the top, it was also going on below from the sides ; and the nature of the ground being so loose, when once it began to run rapidly it soon went altogether, the weight of the windlass naturally assisting, on account of the shortness of the logs which supported it, nil the pressure coming directly on the top of the shaft. As far as ih& timbering of the shaft was concerned, no fault could be found, it being perfectly perpendicular. The size of the shaft was six feet by three. Men are now employed endeavoring to extricate the body. The unfortunate deceased had come to this province from New South "Wales, and leaveaa wife and four children in Sydney to deplore his loss. /.,..-•