THE WEST COAST MINING DISASTER.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 226, 27 March 1896, Page 2

THE WEST COAST MINING DISASTER.

HEROIC CONDUCT OF THE MINERS. DESPERATE STRUGGLES TO RESCUE THE ENTOMBED MINERS. ALL HOPE OF RESCUE ABANDONED. (Per Press Association.) Brunnerton, March 26. Four de»d bodies have been recovered. The last body that of David Hall, was very much charred and hardly recognisable. Drs Mcßrearty, Morice, and Murphy are at the pit's mouth. Inspector Govern, of Greymouth, is also on the scene. Scott, manager of the Blackball Mine, was brought here by special train, and is superintending the rescue party. The air is very gaseous, and hundreds of tons of earth haye fastened the miners in. No hope is held out of their being rescued alive. Bishop is Beriously ill. The catasrophe is said to be the greatest yet recorded in the annals of New Zealand mining. 10.30 p.m. The crowd still remain at the pit's mouth. More bodies have been recovered. Rescuers arc working heroically, many being brought out in a distressed condition. Some were carried nearly exhausted. The doctors have their hands full attending. The ground through which they are now going is torn and difficult, while the foul air is again getting bad. Scott has been pulled out twice, but immediately returns, working and directing. There is now no hope of I getting anyone out of the pit alive. Distressing scenes occur. This Day, (1.45 a.m.) No more bodies have been recovered yet. The men are still working energetically and experiencing greater difficulties. Owing to the foul air progress is very much slower, the relief parties getting knocked up quickly. (2. a.m.) The relief parties have driven into the mine about a mile, and are now about 10 chains from where the men were working. Mr Seddon is on the scene at the pit's mouth, and has expressed his willingness to work on a shift if wanted. Mr Limdof, manager of the Westport Mines, is expected by sepcial boat with a batch of men to assist. Several of those engaged in rescuing are brought out almost dead. Hundreds of worneu are still waiting at the pit's mouth. (3.15. a.m.) Shifts of 16 men are now working, fighting their way foot by foot. The shifts are each lhour, and the men on being brought into the fresh air become unconscious. The ground gained is very slow. The relief parties have got in about a mile and a half into the mine. Mr Bishop is still confined in his bed in. a serious condition. Telegrams are being received from all parts of the colony expressing sympathy. The hope of saving the entombed grows fainter as fragments of trucks are met with. Business on the whole Coast is at a standstill. The Premier headed a relief party, and is now down the mine. Some proof of the heroic manner in which the men are working may be gathered from the fact that some twenty or more have had to be taken to the surface overcome with the noxious choke-damp gasses, and shift after shift has gone bravely to the front, and they are toiling under circumstances which stamp them as heroes. Six men are kept at the face, and six men behind to relieve every few minutes.