Shocking Death at Dunedin

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 10497, 19 November 1901, Page 2

Shocking Death at Dunedin

Battered on a Shafting.

DUNEDIN, November 18. Mr John Wright, a member of the firm of Wright, Stephenson, and Co., and Son, and one of the founders of the firm, met with a shocking death" to-day. He had been worrying for some time about a manure-mixing machine, and Chambers and Son, who supplied the machinery, put on a man -to run it for a week.' TKe elevator had become choked, and tho belt driving it slipped off. The deceased went up the ladder, but whether he tried to replace the belt or intended to wait till the elevator was cleared is not known. Somehow he got caught in the shafting, which was revolving at the rate of 150 revolutions pc rminute, and was carried round with the shafting. As the latter was' less than three feet below' the beams, his lower extremities .struck the beam with every revolution, and the. body was terribly, mangled before the engine could be stopped. Death was probably instantaneous.- At the inquest a,verdict of accidental death was returned, and no -blame was attached to anyone. The deceased was very popular among all classes, and his death caused a great shock. Most of tho business places displayed flags at half-mast. He leaves a widow and several young children.

A box containing explosives used in the' B3etaloo Eoticulation Works, Newcastle, exploded unexpectedly. A workman named Peter Cray had the lower portion of his legs terribly shattered, and Robert Chittleborough had a hole torn :'n ono of his legs. He had sixty splinters removed, and Cray's leg had to be amputated.'.