MINE FATALITIES

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 959, 30 April 1930, Page 1

MINE FATALITIES

SECOND BODY RECOVERED MEN’S ARDUOUS TASK Special to THE SUE HUNTLY, Today. After 30 hours’ strenuous labour, volunteer workers succeeded in recovering the body of Mr. John Yates from the Rotowaro coalmine, near Huntly, at seven o'clock last evening. With a fellow worker, Mr. Thomas Hart. Mr. Yates was buried by a big fall of earth and stone shortly before one o’clock on Monday afternoon. The body of Mr. Hart was recovered later that afternoon. From the position in which Mr. Hart’s body was found it appeared that he had only a few feet further to go to reach a place of safety. He was almost clear when a heavy beam had fallen and pinned him to the ground. The truck which the two men had been engaged in filling was reached by the search party early yesterday afternoon and in the evening the body of Mr. Yates was found four feet past the spot where the truck had been excavated. The truck, although heavily built of steel, had been torn and twisted by the weight of the fall, as if it had been made of paper. Frequent falls occurred while the search party was tunnelling through the debris and extreme care had to be taken. A tunnel six feet high had been driven into the subsidence and ample provision had to be made to enable the men to rush quickly back to safety at the first warning of further falls. The work was both dangerous and difficult. Mr. J. Watson, superintendent of the mine, Mr. A. Penman, mine manager, Mr. W. Barclay, Government inspector of mines, and Mr. R. Coan, underground manager, remained in the mine practically continuously from the time of the accident until the recovery of the second body. The inquest into the death of Mr. Hart was opened yesterday afternoon, when evidence of identification was taken. The funeral of Mr. Hart was held at Huntly this afternoon.