AWFUL COLLIERY EXPLOSION. [From the "Times," May 14.]

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 675, 2 October 1852, Page 4

AWFUL COLLIERY EXPLOSION. [From the "Times," May 14.]

Our paper this morning contains an account of another awful colliery explosion in South Wales, nor is the more complete intelligence from Newport calculated to remove any of the painful feeling with which the first news of that colliery explosion had been received. The calamity has even exceeded anticipation. !No fewer than sixty-four persons, for the most part in the prime of life, with wives an families dependent upon their exertions,

li lye been hurried pieniaturely to the grave. Twentj'-cight men were brought up alive, ami their escape appears to have been miraculous. ] t lias been more than once our painful duty to comment upon these mining accidents, and we have generally been able to iix the blame somewhere. "Sometimes it was the penuriousnos* of the proprietor — sometimes the carelessness of his agent *, which was found to be ;il fault. There is, however, another class of accidents for which no blame is in fairness to be imputed either to propiietor or agent. The perilous vocation of the miner begeis a familiarity with danger, and that familial ity in turn generates a contempt for the precautions which the progress of science has placed within the miner's reach. It is idle to indulge in declamation against the spirit of indifference in the minds of the men. "We may call it fool-hardiness — we may call it what we will — but there it exists — a reality with which we ha\ eto grapple as really as with the " fire-damp 11 or its yet more fatal attendant, the " after-damp." The moral problem must be dealt with as well as tbo phjsieal difficulty. It is in accordance with all we know of tha laws of the human mind that men who live in constant presence of a danger which is indicated only by a vague apprehension will in time forget iln imminency, and act as though it had no existence. We condemn the poor miner who in the m'dst of his tedium and his darkness removes the safety screen from the Davy lamp. We are apt 'o say complacently, " his blood be upon his own head if he will not avail himself of the safeguards provided to his hands." Death, however, is a somewhat surer contingency to us all than (ire-damp to the miner. Do we always act as if we were in constant presence of this certain termination to our most cherished projects ? It is well to recognize facts for what they are. In dealing with the case of colliery explosions, we should take into account amongst other considerations the exceeding difficulty, not |to say the impuv>ibility, of compelling all the workmen in a mine to keep the guard down upon their lamps. If one hundred men are working in a pit, it is not sufficient that ninety-nine men adhere to the rule. Nor will it avail if the single defaulter should exercise ordinary prudence for three hundred and sixty-four days out of the year, nor for twenty-three hours out of the remaining day. One momentary slip committed by .i single individual may sweep a multitude of poor creatures to destruction, as in the melancholy case on which we are now engaged. We would not anticipate the revelations of the inquest, but from the intelligence we publish to-dajr, it is difficult to suppose that this Aberdare tragedy is not rather due to the carelessness of a single miner than to any criminal neglect in a more responsible quarter. At four o'clock on Monday morning, the day of the explosion, a very careful investigation a ppcais to have taken place, and the mine was reported free from gas. A few hours afterwards another fireman was sent down. This scout discovered symptoms of an approaching fall in a certain section of the mine. When the intelligence was conveyed to the agent above, orders were immediately given to a party to descend and use the necessary means to prevent the anticipated fall. This was about seven o'clock, and two hows afterwards the agent, and some persons who were standing with him, heard the report which gave token of the terrible tragedy which had occurred below. Nothing could be more energetic or praiseworthy than the conduct of Mr. Skipley appears to have been. He descended at once by the winding shaft, and passed some poor wretches who had just escaped from the terrors of the explosion. At the bottom of the snafu eight of the men who had been despatched to prop up the roof were found dead. What followed appears to us to exceed in horror well-nigh any calamity of which a record has been preserved. As Mr. Skipley proceeded to grope his way he next encountered a few halisuhbedted men who were staggering to the mouth of the pit, if it might be found. The next spectacle that mot his eyes was a heap of dead bodies, the one piled upon the other, scarcely at a hundred yards' distance from the pit. To account for the mass of corpses congregated at this point it is suggested that borne of those who were not instantly stricken down by the noxious vapour had rushed in a body towards the well-known point of egress. The strength of one failed and he fell. The second fell upon the fir c t, and so on in succession. To fall once was to rise no more. The remaining strength of the poor fellows was not sufficient to enable them to clear themselves from the superincumbent mass. When a certain number had fallen the entrance was effectually choked up, and no hope remained for the miserable creatures behind, who were thus impounded as it were within the influence of the ratal gas by the dead bodies of their fellow labourers. A little further on — about fifty yards — Mr. Skipley and his companions came upon just such another pile as the first. The two together contained the bodies of about sixty men and children. We copy here a few lines from our report : — "A father and his two sons were found among one of the heaps of the dead. The poor man in his frantic eagerness and anxiety to save himself and his two sons had clutched one under each arm, and thus he sought to escape, but death seized them in the terrible entrance, and all three fell together clasped in each other's arms amongst the ghastly dead." Sixtyfour persons have perished altogether, according to the list which has been forwarded to ns. As may be supposed, the scenes that occurred at the pitmouth as the bodies were drawn up to the surface appear to have been of the most terrible description. The whole valley is covered with gloom. Even those of the population who are not connected by ties of blood or affection to the poor creatures who are gone feel that the same fate may await them to-morrow unless some more | effectual precaution be devised. Now, what is to be done in a case of this kind] The only in the report which strikes us as affecting tiie management of the mine is that the coal which is excavated from it is described as being of a peculiarly gaseous totality. How far it is safe to work a mine of this description without most extraordinary precaution, we will not venture to say, for it is a question only within the competence of practical men. We simply take the facts before us. Here is a history of one dreadful explosion — another occurred in the same place aboutnfteen months ago. Cargoes of thiscoal which had been placed on board ship at Cardiff have exploded frequently, and destroyed the vessels in which they were stored. The excavation of the coal in this pit appeal's to be attended with unusual danger. We will not say that the case occurs here, but it is easy enough to suppose cases in which it would be* the duty of Government to interfere and absolutely prohibit the working of a mine until it could be shown that extraordinary precautions had been taken commensurate with the extraordinary danger. What remedy, then, can be proposed as a check against this tendency of the miners to underrate the perils to whicn they are exposed — simply because they are exposed to them every clay ? Inspection and supervision have done what they could, and we see the result. Who is to look after the supervisors and inspectors? On the Avhole is it not time to give ear to the suggestions of those who tell us that by a judicious system of ventilation the main perils connected with fire-damp may be materially reduced, if not prevented altogether ? In our impression of yesterday we printed a letter from Mr. Goldsworthy Gurney, who strenuously maintains this opinion. He numbers up the dead of the last fortnight in consequence of these colliery explosions. Twenty-two men were killed in Durham ; ten near Wigan ; and now this hecatomb in Wales — in all, upwards of 100 lives in the course of the fortnight. This gentleman states : — " I give this as my opinion, from pel sonal experience and communication with practical men. . . At the same time I would state that it is not in the power of any one man, or any set of men, no matter what their qualifications, to grapple effectually with this subject ; but it can be done by a combination of talent — a coml in..-

, tion of the knowledge of the clay properly brought together." Surely, if this be so, no time should he lost in arriving — or, at least, in aiming at so desirable a consummation . The ghastly vritnesses of its necessity are yet lying unbuvied in the Welsh valley. Hundreds and thousands of women and children who are now living in decent comfort under the protecting care of their husbands and their fathers may — nay, inevitably will — be reduced to the condition of widows and of orphans if we delay all remedy. At least let the thing be tried. Here we have competent people coming forward to tell us that the thing can be accomplished ; let us not turn a deaf ear to their remonstrances.