THE MINE DISASTER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8060, 14 March 1906, Page 2

THE MINE DISASTER.

THE USE OF NAKED LIGHTS. DEEDS OF HEROISM, AN UNDERGROUND BATTLEFIELD. * Pabis, March 12. M. Leon, chief engineer, declares tho firo occurred in an adjoining pit on Wednesday. Walls were built iu order to extinguish any conflagration, but it was possible for some tissues to remain, ad. initting the products of combustion into other pits and forming an explosive mixture which came in contact with the miners'naked lights. Fire damp had been heretofore unknown. Batches were rescued until falls of dobris suspended tho work. There were many deeds of heroism. One explorer desconded fourteen times, bringing back a body on each occasion. On the fifteenth journey he succumbcd noar tho foot of the shaft. Of sixty bodies recovered thirty have been identified. The others are unre. cognisable. Though signals were lizard from one of the galleries yesterday, they ceased in the afternoon, It is hoped some few will still be rescued alive, as two living horses have been found in the vicinity. * A great number of corpses, headless, and as blackened as cinders, arc lying in heaps like tho dead and wounded on a battlefield. One woman lost four sons and all 1 her brothers. The entire press express deop sympathy in respect to the disaster. RELIEF FROM THE COLONY. Auckland, March 13. On henring of the mining disaster at Courrieres, several residents of this city have spontaneously forwarded to M. Boeufve, French Cousul for New Zealand, contributions for the relief of the families of the victims. A list of donations will be published, and any further contributions towards the fund will be gratefully received ut the Cou* sulate for transmission to Paris,

OPERATIONS SUSPENDED. SEVENTEEN RESCUERS PERISH. RELIEF FOR THE SUFFERERS. Received 13, 10.0 p.m. Pekix, March 13. Fire is again raging at the Couricres' mines, and operations have been sus. pended. Seventeen of the rescuers have perished, The Chamber voted twenty thousand sterling for the sufferers, aud mining companies sent eight thousand, as afirst instalment of relief. The Popo telegraphed to the Bishop. of Arras his condolence. English, Welsh, and Scottish miners,, tho Lord Mayor, and many other messages of sympathy were sent. WONDERFUL WORK BX GERMAN, MINERS. Received U, HG a.m, Westphulian uuam, • " Bh U Kaiser's ins. lMW £ . ,ent •" ; ,h T m T iug tho dead. , •" ll Work ' 0! f n galleries. e,f »> r , froiu . SO, " C ° f lU ° .at tourners mines.