BOTH LEGS LOST

Taranaki Daily News, 28 April 1934, Page 5 (Supplement)

BOTH LEGS LOST

BOY PLAYING AT MINE. CAUGHT BY WIRE ROPE. Whangarei, April 22. While playing at the mine of Wilsons Collieries, Ltd., at Hikurangi, about 6.30 this evening, Edwin Payne, aged 8, son of Mr. and Mrs. E. Payne, of Hikurangi, became entangled in some machinery and lost both his legs.

The boy was playing at the top of the shaft near a wire rope used for the haulage of coal skips. His presence not being known, the machinery was started. He was caught by the rope and dragged into the suspension wheel, where his right leg was severed below the knee and his left leg so badly fractured that it had to be amputated later. The child was attended at the mine by Dr. D. Armstrong, who conveyed him to the Whangarei Hospital. His condition is very serious. Mr. and Mrs. Payne are at present on holiday in Auckland, and their son was staying with relatives.