Headline was “Sensational Mining Accident” - Try getting that printed these days!
“WAIHI, December 7. This afternoon a sensational mining accident occurred at Karangahake. Two men, named Middleton and McColl, engaged in the shaft of the Crown mine, were killed outright. The men were working in the bottom of the shaft, when a truck of quartz from the upper level crashed on top of them. Their bodies, when recovered, were terribly crushed and mutilated.
It appears that the man in the upper level, thinking the cage was in the shaft to receive the loaded truck, wheeled it into the empty shaft.”
Today the poor bugger at the top who made the mistake through a moments carelessness would be charged with manslaughter (a sexist word), the mine would be closed down for a month while an investigation took place, the mine manager would be charged with failing to keep a safe workplace, a ten thousand page report would be published and the mine owners would get away Scott free because they were wealthy bastards, friends of John Key and foreign bankers raping OUR mineral wealth under the watchful eye of the arselicking servants of evil P & M.
That tragic accident is the exact opposite of my great great uncle…the rope in the cage broke and he went half a mile down the mine shaft and stopped rather suddenly suffering the Humpty Dumpty Effect…Lake Superior US of A in 1876.
Waihi Grand Junction Mine, Men going down the No.4 shaft, Double-decked cages - 1910 Period - Unknown Photographer - Photochrome Colour Postcard Format - Ex Bernard Atkinson Estate
In 1876 one of my family members was descending in a cage at a mine at Lake Superior - and the rope broke - he went down half a mile apparently - it wasnt the subterranean skydive that killed him - in fact it was probably quite exhilirating - it was doing a Humpty Dumpty at the bottom that killed him.
Is mudwiggle touring coromandel?
