N.Z. TUNNELLERS IN FRANCE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3088, 19 May 1917, Page 8

N.Z. TUNNELLERS IN FRANCE

SPLENDID MINING WORK

PATIENT EFFORTS REWARDED

(Special from ihe Official New Zealand War Correspondent.)

May J. Now that our victorious armies are far in advance of Arras it may be stated that New Zealand has played a not unimportant part in tho success of the iniliul stages of the great battle. For soma time the Tunnelling Company of the New Zealand Engineers and the Miivns have been burrowing underground in the region of tho old town, yet nothing could Ijn said about their splendid irork. You could wallc for some distance through their drives and tunnels connecting the old caves. Jt was military mining on a vast scale. Tho tunnels wore eighty and ninety feet below tho surface, and there were great caverns and chambers lit from dynamos working underground. The New Zoainnders, and others too, had laid mines that on the fateful morning when tho German lino was broken pent -vast quantities of. earth and trench material, and, wo believe, many Germaa soldiers, hurtling in tho air. . During tho past twelve months tho New Zealand Tunnelling Company did most praiseworthy work. They are mostly coal and gold-miners, but time after time they outwitted tho Gorman miners, mid obtained tho initiative, and gradually blew tho enemy back till tho safety of tho British front trenches was ensured. They worked with great vigour, breaking all records in tunnelling. They havo had little sickness and very few casualties. After long waiting for tho fruition of thoir great work, they well deserve their meed.