WESTPORT.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3657, 15 September 1880, Page 2

WESTPORT.

Tuesday.

At the Magistrate'! Court, Slim, Inspector of Mines, prosecuted Mr Fer« gusson, manager of the Wellington Colliery, and Young, contractor, for getting out coal and not first providing sufficient ventilation in the mine, and others for not appointing competent persons to examine with Bafety lamps each morning. A,similar charge to that against Youug was also brought against Fergussou. The prosecutions were the result of au explosion of fire damp which occurred in the Wellington mine, whereby four men named William, Daniel, and Robert Young, father and two sons, and Con Collingham, their brother-in-law, w*re burnt to such an extent as to lay them up for eight days. The evidence given before the Court as reported in the Westport Timesi shows that the explosion was caused by a tail of some 20 tons of coal liberating the gas, and the air current not beiug sufficiently strong to carry it off, the gas was ignited by a naked light carried by Wm. Young. Witnesses for the prosecution, including the injured men, aver that the mine is not and never was properly ventilated, whilst witnesses for the other side say the ventilation is sufficient, and never was better than at the time of the accident, and that the mishap was caused by a fall of coal and was. not preventable. Fergussou pleaded that the mine was in charge of William Young, and that he was responsible. Young pleaded guilty to the charge aguiost him, but it being an important oase, Revell reserved judgment till the 21st.