The Kaitangata Explosion.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3143, 15 March 1879, Page 1

The Kaitangata Explosion.

The Lytteltoi Times is »cry tevere on the directors of the fritangata mine for their negligence in refkrd to it, which indirectly caused the. cataitropbjfcs^'ter reviewing the, evidence given at the inqnest, it points ont that there was no/ ' chairman of directors, and that Hodge/ though confessedly unskilled, was responsible to nobody, and left to do pretty well . as he liked. The Times then says:— " We hare on the one side an incompetent manager, known to many to be incompetent, carrying out a system known to many to be bad and dangerous; directors shirking responsibility and groping about in the dark, and alf drifting on together i towards a tragedy in the bowels of the I earth. What wcnder that an explosion blew the whol* state of things into tho I air ? These directors of the X utan gata Company have one duly b<foie them: it is the duty of exuumi their conscience; and tho Goi" . " * should examine 1 that for them * , c independently. The directors m> 1 i known that Hodge vva-, not i man, but did they bestow sufi in determining the pnntof Li tAn . Mr Holmes, in hia evidence Hodge spoke to him about < ; o School of Mines in Duned 1 i ' some portion of Ins trade, n ' pointment of a Mr Twining Hodge was not believed to ho every way competent Thou < moreover, knew that Hod^o in 'i, of the fire-damp which had bin in i and which they knew to hat o ' i i / burned one man. They tl> v i matter grave enough to orikr 1 >i) , c barometer, and an instrument fur \c ' iring the validity of the a,u- ci." t, m the drives. They"were cage. \o t the second entrance made mlo lI mmo, and generally they were not i i their minds about the fiicc'im,) i o error they made in leaving the uncontrolled management. to llod<;e waa a very serious error in jud^taent. It was an error that men not acquainted with mining technicalities were liable to make. The error is happily one which now ought to be impossible, for the enforcement of the Regulations of Mines Act, 1874, has taken the management of mines entirely out of the hands of ignorance, or ought to do so. The inspector, who now has fall power, should reflect that no Board of Directors is, as such, to be trusted for five minutes together. The history o|the Kaitangata • Board shews that in one'tase a Board of Directors were incapable of judging of the incapacity of a manager who was giving daily proof of his want of experience and skill.- Common"sense teaches, that all Boards which are composed of men unversed in mining, are equally incapable of reading the signs that are thrust under their noses. The first thing for the Government to do is to increase the number of inspectors, the next to send the whole force into the coal districts, and take firm grasp of the management of every mine until the Act is thus enforced to the utmost letter. The mining community of the colony cannot be considered even approximately safe."—Herald wire.