The Daily News. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1921. THE MULLIGAN DISASTER.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 September 1921, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1921. THE MULLIGAN DISASTER.

That eoaj miners carry their lives in their minds is well known. The nature of theii’ occupation is such that at any moment a disaster may occur. Some mines are less hazardous to work than others on account of the absence of fire damp, the most dangerous of all the evils connected with the industry, but it is the unexpected that happens causing death and destruction. The plight of men working in the bowls of the earth and surrounded by dangers—known and unknown—is so serious that the wonder is men are found to undertake the risks, yet familiarity with the conditions not only makes the miners regard their occupation with complacency, but even makes them careless as to observing the precautions necessary to safety. The worst feature of an explosion in a mine is that it generally involves the death of nearly all the miners on the shift, and that those who escape the effect of the explosion succumb either to the deadly fire damp or an outbreak of fire. Frequently an explosion in a mine brings down a mass of material that blocks up the exit so that there is little, if any, hope of escape, no matter how desperately bands of rescuers may work. The terrible disaster at the Mt. Mulligan mine appears to present features of those of a similar nature elsewhere. Owing to the mine having shown freedom from fire damp, which was supposed not to exist there, the men worked with naked lights, though it was extremely dry and dusty. It would seem that the ventilation and equipment were satisfactory. Yet, without the slightest warning, ruffled, mumbling explosions shook the whole range of the mountains, and notified those far and near that a dire catastrophe had occurred. Naturally there was a rush to the pithead, and the fact that the people were met with a steady stream of gas that drove them back choking must have struck terror into their hearts as to the doom of the men below. Whether the miners had broken into gas hitherto unsuspected, or whether fire damp was created by the dust in the atmosphere, and exploded by contact with the naked lights, there appears to be no doubt that it was the cause of the disaster. Fire damp is light carburetted hydrogen (chemically known as CH4), and appears to be generated by the decomposition of partially carbonised coal, and when it constitutes more than one-thirteenth of the volume of the atmosphere of a mine the whole becomes highly explosive when it comes in contact with fire, such as from a naked light, and few, if any, of those in a mine when an explosion of this kind takes place escape with their lives. The force of the Mulligan explosion was such that it is said to have wrecked the workings throughout the mine, and was ’heard at, a distance of eighteen miles; while the bodies of such of the victims as have been found were charred and unrecognisable. There is no precise information, at the time of writing, as to the number of men that were in the mine, but there is every reason to fear that the loss of life will not be less than seventy, as there appears to be no hope of any of the entombed men being brought out alive. Such a disaster may well create a profound feeling of sorrow throughout Australasia, not only for the loss of so large a number of valuable workers, but especially for the bereaved. A calamity such as this touches the vibrant chords of human sentiment and sets in motion that 'brotherly feeling for the afflicted and distressed that makes all the world akin. The scene at the pithead can readily be imagined by those who have witnessed similar subterranean tragedies. It is a scene that no one cares to dwell upon, except to pay a generous tribute to those indomitable workers who put forth their whole heart and strength into their i' ian " I tie efforts to reach the victims of the catastrophe—alive or dead, I the former unlikely and the latter I only too probable. One more has

been added to the list of serious mining disasters. The dead will pass to their last resting place, but those dependent on them will need all the sympathy and the practical help that the occasion demands.