Five tunnellers trapped

Tunnellers work at the collapsed face of No 2 tunnel at the Lake Coleridge hydro-electric project in which five workers were trapped; air pipe (left) and larger pipe used for delivering food to the trapped workers. — Otago Witness, 13.10.1925

Christchurch, October 2: Five men were entombed by a fall of earth at the outlet end of a tunnel in the course of excavation work at Lake Coleridge at 6.45am to-day.Two men, Gordon Archer and Hugh Daly, are known to be alive, and the Public Works Engineer has every reason to be hopeful of the safety of the other three, who are thought to be Archie Macdonald, Archie Macfarlane, and Richard Green. The men are trapped about 30 feet in from the surge chamber. Communication has been established by a pipe driven through. A gang of men is now engaged putting through a small drive to release the men.

Selection denied

Though members of the Labour Party are, as a general rule, not particularly reticent, especially on the eve of an election campaign, they were by no means keen yesterday to tell of the latest move of the Otago Representation Committee which met on Thursday evening and decided that it did not want Mr C.M. Moss to stand for the Dunedin West electorate in the Labour interests. Officially nothing is known of Thursday’s meeting, but it has been ascertained that a majority of about 40 to one voted in favour of asking Mr Moss to stand down. As the Labour Party is a party militant so far as its candidates are concerned, it is more likely that the request has taken the form of a demand.

The national secretary of the New Zealand Labour Party, Mr W. Nash, who "happened" to be in Dunedin on Thursday evening, attended the meeting, and yesterday left for Wellington, where the National Executive will be told by him of Otago’s action and will be asked to confirm such action. By Monday definite news should be received of the executive’s decision, and it is likely then that the Otago Committee and Mr Moss will have something to say about the matter.

In the meantime, however, a certain amount has leaked out. It appears to be a question of party discipline and platform that decided the Otago delegates to countermand the vote of confidence that only a month or so ago they accorded Mr Moss when they selected him as an official candidate. His interpretation of Labour’s land policy, which raised quite a controversy in the columns of the Otago Daily Times in June last, has not found favour among his "comrades" and "fellow-workers," who, by their decision on Thursday, have proved to be his "bosses," and as such have taken advantage of their prerogative and have "sacked" him.

Mr Moss himself would say little yesterday. He admitted that a motion had been passed regarding his candidature. Official news would have to come from Wellington, he said, and when he heard from headquarters he would be prepared to speak. He intimated, however, that he would not be the official Labour candidate for Dunedin West. — ODT, 3.10.1925

Compiled by Peter Dowden