EPIC OF THE GOLDFIELDS : WITHOUT RACIAL FEELING.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20232, 16 February 1934, Page 6

EPIC OF THE GOLDFIELDS : WITHOUT RACIAL FEELING.

To-day’s Special Article.

A British Diver Rescued an Italian From Slow Death in a Flooded Mine ,

Crowds gathered by a mine head on the Western Australian goldfields to cheer an Italian miner; the Italian goldfields community subscribing generously for a testimonial to an AngloSaxon—such a picture forms a sharp contrast to the racial animosity which recently broke out at Kalgoorlie and Boulder. Yet these spontaneous signs of goodwill were manifest twenty-seven years ago, when the epic story of an Italian miner’s courage and his gallant rescue after ten days in a Hooded mine thrilled all Australia.

JN THE middle of March, 1907, heavy rains swept the goldfields area of Bonnievale, near Coolgardie. says an old prospector in the “ Melbourne Herald.”, Without warning, floodwaters descended on the West Australian and East Extension mine. Eight miners escaped as the flood rose rapidly in the workings on March 19, but one man, Modesto Varischetti, a widower with five children, was trapped on Number Ten level, at a vertical depth from the surface of over 650 feet. The water rose past this level to Number Nine, 100 feet On March 20, it was reported that there was “ no chance of rescuing Varischetti alive.” But the next day opinion was modified. It was thought possible that the trapped man, somewhere at the end of a 350-foot tunnel, and with water 100 feet above his level, might still be alive on a ledge where some pocket of compressed air held the water back. A Formidable Task. The hope was a faint one, for it was known that seven or eight days would be required to pump the mine free of water. But two divers were rushed by special train to Coolgardie, and a rescue attempt unique in the history of mining began. Divers Hughes and Hearne faced a formidable task. They had to descend through pitch blackness into water that became more and more viscid with mud the lower they went, and they had to go blind through mine debris along a narrow tunnel for over 100 yards. Diver Hughes, a stalwart Welshman, was the hero of this epic. More than once he nearly lost his life in the black depths. Four times he was hauled back exhausted before, on March 22, he found Varischetti—alive. The miner had been saved by air pressure. On a rise, some ten feet above the water level, he crouched in a pocket of compressed air. With staring eyes he watched the weird form of the diver appear from the black waters beneath him, and make awkward gestures of encouragement. He was almost too terror-stricken to take the packet of food that was passed up to him. After pantomime gestures by the figure in the diving suit, Varischetti was induced to shake hands with his ghostly visitor. He settled down as the diver vanished under the water again, and prepared to wait for rescue. A Long Nightmare. Then ensued a six-day nightmare for the imprisoned Italian, while the miners of the district worked day and night in frantic shifts to get the water down. It was a race against time. Hughes could get food to the imprisoned man, but he could not give him air. How long could the Italian hold out? Every day Diver Hughes made his perilous descent, and crawled through the submerged tunnel with iood. Every day Varischetti became weaker. The torture of living in this terrible cell, not knowing whether life or death would be his at the end of the ordeal, would have been sufficient

to kill most people. But Varischetti hung on. The thought of the sunlight above and those five children gave him strength. To mitigate the darkness, Hughes brought him an electric 'torch. To give him something to occupy his mind, the diver gave him writing materials. The steady throb of the pumps never ceased, but as the water went down, silt began to hamper operations. Hughes volunteered to go down and shift the silt. This was even a more laborious and hazardous task than his daily trip to Varischetti, but he did it. , By March 26, the level of the water had been reduced by seven feet. Hope rose in the hearts of everybody, and the frantic work went on. “My Cheerful Greetings.” By this time the story, ,which had begun as a small paragraph among general news from Western Australia, had caught the imagination of the whole Commonwealth. Its drama was enhanced by the touching messages scribbled by Varischetti and brought to the upper world by Hughes. “ God will give me courage till I see daylight again,” wrote the miner, “ and again my old beautiful country. . . . Please do me a favour by accepting from me my greetings and compliments. My cheerful greetings and thanks.” Two days later, Hughes was able to discard his diving suit, and go down the mine in ordinary clothes. With the water chest-high he waded along the tunnel to the ledge. “ I have come,” he said to the Italian, “ to take you out.” Poor, stricken Varischetti could scarcely believe his ears. Now at the end of the ordeal, when life had been given back to him, he broke down and was helpless. “ Take it steady,” said Hughes. “ Everything is all right now.” In a while he sat on the ledge and talked with the Italian, giving him in simple, direct fashion, encouragement to overcome the Jast obstacle between him and freedom. Foreigner*’ Appreciation. The Italian listened, but he was done, so the big diver picked up the emaciated form, and holding it high up, waded with it along the tunnel and its chest-high water to the cage that was waiting. The two entered and Hughes gave the signal. When Hughes stepped out of the cage with Varischetti in his arms a great roar of cheering that could be heard for miles around went up. They took him away and put him to bed. Nurses hovered about him and ministered to his needs. Throughout the Commonwealth, a whole people gave thanks for the rescue and the great heroism of the diver. The Italian community on the goldfields at once opened a fund for Hughes in recognition of his heroism, deciding that only foreigners on the fields should contribute to this mark of appreciation of a Britisher’s aid. In Melbourne and elsewhere othei funds were opened for the miner and the man who had rescued him, demonstrating by their success an admiration for bravery that took no thought for race or creed.