LATEST UNPUBLISHED.

Kumara Times, Issue 749, 22 February 1879, Page 2

LATEST UNPUBLISHED.

[press agency.] FURTHER PARTICULARS OP THE COLLIERY EXPLOSION. THIRTY-FOUR LIVES LOST. W Ellington, February 22. Fmther particulars of tbe colliery explosion at Kaitangata (Olutha district, Otago) came to hand late last night. Thirty-one bodies have been recovered, and three more are still inside. The firedamp is bad still; the searchers are carried out insensible. In all, there are 34 men dead, and of all the strong men (nearly every one of whom was in his prime) who went into the mine yesterday morning, not one remains alive to tell how the accident occurred. Nearly all were married, and many ha/e left large families. An eye-witness says nearly evervene in the township was at the mine’s mouth ; it was filled with the lamentations oi women and children. It was a sad sight to see the dead men brought out, one by one, and laid on stretchers, then out on the train, which took them to the Bridge Hotel. All the faces excepting two looked as calm as if they laid in sleep. The two young fellows who had the horses were battered about the head, having been blown some distance. The flight of sticks and stones at the time of the explosion was tremendous, and a thick green smoke hung like a pall over the tunnels month for about ten minutes. The mine, is entered by a main drive or tunnel; the workings rise as they penetrate the hill, and the fall which assists drainage causes foul air to accumulate in the upper end of the mine. The Ventilation has to travel all round the mine, and come back to the air shaft, which is about 100 yards from the mouth of the tunnel. The workings extend about 500 yards from the entrant. Hie greater part of the men appear to have escaped the first effects of the tire, dam)), and weie making for the in uith of the mine, when they were overpower d by the "after clamp.” Some of them must h ive run from one to t«o hundred yards before they fell. \t one place, (hiiteeii bodies were found in a h -ap.

Ivega.rding the earns ■ of lie' explosion, there is nothing but surmise at present, hut i' is suppos'd by 11 j >se who know lies!, that t c air-overseer, mimed Arcin’ 1 > >1(1. was in ihe waste Workings, in the highes l put of the mine, inspecting; and the hi- light emsed the explosion. Where his body is found will determine the fjuestion. There had been a slight explosion at the mine on the pieviotis night when the men were on the night shift. 'The matter was re-

ported in the morning to the foreman, Vrho considered, however, that the mine was in good working order. He has paid for his error with his life. The number of children left fatherless is said to be one hundred.