CADIA MINE DISASTER.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 March 1921, Page 7

CADIA MINE DISASTER.

FURTHER DETAILS. By Tefegrapli.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Sydney, March 12. Further details of the Cadia mine accident relate the euddenness of the explosion and the work of rescue. William Taylor' ‘’powder monkey,” who has experienced a number of previous disasters, once being the sole survivor when seven killed, said he had thirty years’ experience. He . was most careful with explosives. He fired on. an average 250 holes daily. He had damped the bore and when testing it found it quite cold. When he placed the blasting powder in the bore he heard a hiss and cried out “Look out!” Simultaneously he was knocked backwards and singed about the face and handp. He endeavored to warn the men underneath, but the thing happened so suddenly it was useless. The quarry was situated on a high hill divided into fades, resembling terraces, each thirty feet high, ranging ofle above the others. The top face was blown away, completely overwhelming the men immediately below. S.ergeant Clark gives a graphic account of the work of the rescuers. He said some bodies were buried six feet. Men with ropes were pulling for their lives at huge rocks and immovable boulders, some were on their fingers and undermining them. Then they had to crawl underneath and remove tons of debris with shovels. A sad feature was that most of the deceased were married. Johnson had a wife and seven children; Bight a wife and four children. _ Mr. Dooley sent a telegram expressing the sympathy of th© Cabinet. The Mayor of Orange is visiting the scene to.day.