CAUSE OF BOLTON DISASTER.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1012, 30 December 1910, Page 5

CAUSE OF BOLTON DISASTER.

USE OF ELECTRIC MACHINERY. MINERS' PRESIDENT URGES MORE STRINGENT RULES. MORE BODIES FOUND. By Telegraph--Press Association—Copyright(Ecc. December 29, 9.23 p.m.) London, December 29. : So far 273 of the 350 bodies have been recovered from the Pretoria mine at Bolton.. Tho rescuers believe- that tho explosion occurred close to an electrical coal-cutting machine, as it was there that the heaviest falls wero found. Mr. Robert Smillie, in the course of his presidential address' to the Scottish Miners' Conference, expressed his indignation at the statement that the inadvertent use of a. match had hurled 350 souls into eternity. He characterised the statement as a change against the dead< and declared that it was answered by the inquest, which had shown that gas was accumulating daiiy. Doubtless tho explosion was ' largely, if not wholly, due to coal dust, and it probably did not originate at the coal face, but in the main road. The Pretoria was. a dry and dusty. mine, and the owners ought to remove or water the dust. The lawought to forbid: the use of electric-cutting machinery where gas was present. More inspectors were required. '

COMPLAINTS BY MINERS. . London,. D-eceraber 28. A witness of the resumed inquest on the victims of the Bolton mine disaster testified that his son, who was. killed, had complained of the heated condition of the air and lamps.. ' Another witness testified that a miner had told him it was necessary to use a jacket occasionally: to extinguish gas and got fresh air. . AUSTRALASIAN AID. London,: December 28. The newspapers chronicle New Zealand's donation: of five hundred pounds to the Bolton disaster fund.'. : Melbourne, jDecember 29. Mr. Hughes, Federal 'Acting-Premier, will recommend the Commonwealth to give a contribution to the Bolton disaster fund. . (Rec. December 30,' 0.5 a.m.). v. ■ /Melbourne,. December 29. The Commonwealth. Government has cabled i£2ooo towards .the relief fund for victims of the Pretoria colliery disaster at Bolton.