THE KAITANGATA MINE ACCIDENT.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1565, 24 February 1879, Page 3

THE KAITANGATA MINE ACCIDENT.

[By Telegraph.) [FROM OHS OWN CORRESPONDENT.] Dunedin, February 22. _ The mine in which the explosion occurred is located in a blind gully about half a mile from the bend of the Molyneux. It has been worked about three and a half years. The affair has caused a terrible excitement, there being scarcely one household in the township which has not lost either a member or friend. Altogether at present, 8 a.xn., thirty-two bodies have been laid out. The cause of the explosion is of course a profound mystery, not a single soul being left to explain it, bat from the appearance and sitnation of many of the bodies, it would seem probable that an explosion of fire-damp took place somewhere about the centre of the mine, and that, becoming aware of the disaster, the coalcutters hastily made for the mouth, but were compelled to cross a belt of black damn, which caused them to drop down as if stupefied with chloroform, and then they were speedily suffocated with the vapor. Of course this is only a hypothesis, but it seems a feasible one, when it is considered that not one corpse was found in the place where the men were working, and that thirteen bodies were found within a radius of twelve yards in a spot where no explosion occurred ; and also that the majority of the corpses were not even blackened or mutilated in the slightest degree, but wore a peaceful appearance, and were only disfigured by the mud and mullock always to be found in woi kings of this nature. Some miraculous escapes are recorded. Tiffin, our light weight wrestler, was absent at the time. Hunter, brother-in-law of Lockheart, over-slept himself yesterday, or he would have been at work in the mine when the explosion occurred. A house that stood within thirty yards of the mine mouth was driven bodily off its foundation several yards, and the end was shattered and two horses killed, but a man who was tipping trucks nearly in front of the shed escaped with his life. He was propelUd like a shot from a gun before the blast, but w-s lucky enough to be forced under the shed, where he stuck and was afterwards extricated without material injury. One corpse was found with a pipe stuck in its mouth William Hodges, the manager, was. when discovered, reclini'g on a ledge of coal with his hand supporting his bead, and with his countenance peaceful as though he had been overtaken while meditating about something His brother Archibald is not yet got out. He is supposed to be in the place where the explosion occurred. Coulter and Buchanan were relations, and both arrived per Taranaki, and only turned to work last Thursday. The brothers Hall came out per the Fasterlai 1 .till more recently. While some of the corpses are little injured, others are hacked frightfully. Poor little Edward Dunn has a hole right through his head, from temple to temple, and is shattered to pieces. The horse he was driving lingered on until late in the evening, when some merciful man knocked its brains out. James Spiers was picked up with a stick embedded in his breast, and mangled otherwise. Some of the other men were badly disfigured, but on the wh >le the sight of the corpses, as they lay in the temporary dead house, was not so revolting as might be imagined, after such awful treatment This morning a dozen t lunteers dug about thirty graves in rows in tbe cemetery. Each corpse is to be buried separately. The funeral takes place to morrow at 12 o’clock. The miners are still working, without success, after the two missing bodies. The place it is suspected th y are in has a small face, and only six men can work at a time in it. '1 hey relieve each other every hour or so. lam afraid it will be to-morrow before they are recovered. Mr Carew formally opened an inquest this morning, which, afUr identification of the bodies to allow of their burial, was adjourned till Monday.

The “ Morning Herald ” special reporter telegraphs to ua as follows; Kaitanqata, February 23.

The scenes at the mine’s mouth will not readily be effaced from the memory of those who witnessed them. A woman knew that her husband or son, or perhaps both, were lying dead inside, yet bore herself composedly; but when the body brought out was that of one near and dear to her, her manifestation of anguish was something terrible. The broken wails and prayers and lamentations of the women could not but move the stoutest heart; and it was no wonder, as big strong men slowly carried the dead on the hurriedly made wooden stretchers from the mine to the railway, and from the railway to the hotel, that tbe tears, despite their efforts to control themselves, sometimes sprung to their eyes. The case of IVlrs Malloy was specially a hard one, the poor woman losing her husband and two sons, and being left in her old age without a relative in the country- Each of the brothers Hall, who came out to this colony in the Fasterhill lately arrived, and had not completed a fortnight’s work in the mine, leaves a large family of youug children, Mrs Shore, sen,, was busy all that fatal Friday at the mine’s mouth, the dead as they were brought out, a task which must have been very trying to the nerves of any woman. When not so engaged, she was comforting her griefstricken friends. I think she did not leave the mine till 9 o’clock. For a good two hours after she cheerfully assisted me in getting the names of the men deceased, and exact particulars of the number of their famil es. Yet she was again at the mine not long after daylight on Saturday morning,preparing ma f erial to cover the body of poor Spiers, whose dreadfully mutilated remains had just been discovered Spiers was found at a point where the workings toward* the far end of the tunnel open on to the main dri<-e. He had evidently come down with a loaded truck when the explosion occurred. He was jammed between the wall and a heap of debris, consisting of six or seven broken trucks, piec s of brattices or timber partitions, and a quantity of slack. One of his hands protruded f om the heap, and this was the indication which led t > his discovery. The force of the expl 'sion was such thot one of hie ears was blown off On the other side his head was terribly cut all roun *■ from the eye to the poll A piece of timber was blown into his chest near tbe shoulder, and the “ timber had to bo got away before the body could bo moved. At th« point where Spiers went down with his

boxes there was a wooden trap door for regulating the draft. Every vestige of the tr-ip door has disappeared. It is a significant tbiog that 1 ifore many of the bodies were got out, the belief was universal am ug the practical men that Archibald Hodge’s body would be the la t to come out of the mine, and that the-position in which it was found would determine the cause of the explosion. None of them liked to say anything hard of a dead man, but the opinion • as general among them that he had gone into the old workings with a naked light »,7ju SO caused an explosion ia the fire^ am p. The deadly after damp, which v.'us thereupon driven into the main drive and present workings completing cue work of destruction. Of course remarks made after the event are not to he taken implicitly, but I think it had been an accepted idea among the miners that, if_ the deputy manager thought he could find a bit of timber in the old workings, he would go to get it, candle in hand. He stems certainly to have been credited with a habit of pottering about in unlikely places. The theory formed from the first is now borne out by a careful examination of the mine made by local and Green Island experts. They are all of opinion that the explosion originated in the old workings. It m v here be explained that the main drive or tunnel runs back from the raoulh for a di-tanee of some thing over 400 yards. About half-way in there is a fork, one branch going to the left, and the other to the right, the right hand one being that which is accounted the continuation of the main drive. Both of these branches lead to the present workings. On the right hand side of this right branch, or rather main drive, and tbout half way between tne forks and the present workings, are situate the old workings. L was from these that the explosion came. These old workings are on a very large scale. The principal drive through them is. roughly speaking, nearly! 200 yards long, and was formerly the main drive of the mine. Extensive workings, which have been closed and abandoned, run from it, and from these workings there were no less than six or seven openings into the present main shaft, beside the opening from the old main shaft itself to the new. When I say that they were closed it must not be understood that they would be ncc ount-d sufficiently clo-ed under any system of efficient inspection of coal workings, Tbo were simply closed with coal and with boards, whereas they should have been bricked up, or at least should have been closed off with close boarding and canvas. Kobody had aiy business, or, so far as I can learn, any special reason for entering them, and, if entered, a safety lamp should have been used. It ia usual to have n printed board marked “ Danger," or, “No entrance” at such places, but no such board yras up. These old workings are very lofty, 27Jft. high, and large q antities of gas could gather in them without being noticed. At the same time the existence of gas in them was a circumstance of which the miners were aware, or at least tom--of them. It was considered at the mine that these old workings could not have been ventilated; but the Green I shin i people hold the opinion that they could have been ventilated easily, and that the fire damp and choke damp, as they arose in them could easily and safely have been carried off by a jr perly directed draught, all source of danger thus being obviated. In that respect I have it from practical men that the explosion was preventive. In another respect, assuming the explosion, there is every appearance that, had duo precautions been taken, the lives of twenty-nine out of the thirty-four victims should not have been sacrificed. The mine had not sufficient return air course.