COLLIERY EXPLOSION.— 18 PERSONS KILLED.

Patea Mail, Volume III, Issue 210, 14 April 1877, Page 2

COLLIERY EXPLOSION. — 18 PERSONS KILLED.

Exoltsh papers by the last mail report than an explosion occurred at ctonchill, Farmvoith. In the course ol their exploration, Messrs Dickenson . and Martin came across the whole of the eighteen bodies ; fifteen of them wore huddled together in a group ; some were kneeling - on the ground with their hands clasped, as if in prayer ; others were seated on the wagon way, and had apparently awaited death with composure ; while others, again, were lying on their faces, with their fingers deeply embedded in the earth, testifying to the desperate efforts they had made to crawl out of the sulfoeatiug srnoke— The rumour that the bodies had found, spread rapidly through district, and some thousands of persons soon congregated around the pie bank. In order to allay the excitement which prevailed, the police adopted a very pardonable ruse, and informed the crowd that the deceased would not be brought to the surface until midnight—a limb which bad the effect of consider; thinning the numbers of those present. The winding up of the dead bodies commenced at 8 o'clock. The faces of the majority of the dead wore not much swollen, while in not a few instances blood had oozed from their eyes, nose and ears. All had died from asphyxia. By 9 o’clock the whole of the deceased had been placed in the workshop. The scene was most heartrending, sufficient to try the nerves of the strongest present. An explosion also occurred at, a pit in the neighbourhood of Darcy Lever near Bolton at which ten lives were lost.