A TERRIBLE ACCIDENT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LVIII, Issue 8942, 17 December 1907, Page 6

A TERRIBLE ACCIDENT.

Edward Burnside, the victim of a ghastly accident at Ward Bros', flaxmill at Evaus' Flat, near Lawrence (GO miles from Dunedin) was a single mau, twenty-nine years of age, and a native of Auckland, where most of his people reside. On Wednesday afternoon two brothers named Edward and Fred Burnside, along with A. Churnside and E. Ward (one of the owners of the mill, were at work dry scutching. Edward working merely in his singlet and trousers, was feeding on the left-hand side of the machine, which is driven by steam, and travels at a very high rate of speed; and his brother was on the right-hand side. Almost instantly, and without the slightest warning, Edward's left hand and arm were drawn into the scutcher, followed by his hear! and body, and before the driving belt flew off the pulley the unfortunate man had pretty well passed through the machine. Death, of course, was instantaneous, for not only was his left arm broken in two or three places, and the bone smashed above the elbow, but there was a fearful gash on his head, his face was pretty well an unrecognisable mass, and his back was cut, bruised, and terribly mangled in passing through the machine. It is conjectured that the accident arose through Burnside getting hold of an extra long hank of fibre, and that in stepping back momentarily to give it the required twirl in feeding into the machine, the fibre was caught and drawn well into the mouth of the scutcher, and with it his hand and arm before he could release his hold of the material.