A DANGEROUS LIFE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19719, 9 December 1926, Page 8

A DANGEROUS LIFE

WORK IN THE MINES THREE SERIOUS DISASTERS. Last week’s disaster at the Dobson mine redaMs several other calamities of a similar nature that have occurred in Ndw Zealand. Records of accidents in mines have been kept since 1878, and up to the present, the total number of lives lost in and about colleries is 387. The greatest mining disaster in the history of New Zealand was that of the Bunner, at Brunncrton, eight miles north-east of Greymouth, close to the scene of the present disaster, which occurred on March 26, 1896. This disaster was caused by an explosion, by which 65 men lost their lives. After the disaster steps were at once taken to get the mine thoroughly examined by competent experts to ascertain the cause of the explosion, land a Royal Commission was appointed to inquire into all the bearings of the case in order to recommend such steps as might be deemed necessary to prevent a like occurrence in the future. The report of that Commission showed that the explosion was caused by a blown-out shot fired by someone on the morning of the disaster, but hs all the men who were in the mine lost their lives, further details could not be ascertained. The evidence of all the experts who were mine managers of high standing, as well as that of the Inspector of Alines, was unanimous, that •a blown-out shot was the cause of the disaster, and that the explosion was not due to an outburst of gas. The report of the ♦Commission showed that no blame was due to the management, and that there was passing through the mine double the quantity of air required by the Act. In connection with that disaster, a relief fund of £29,000 was raised. The Explosion at Huntly. The most recent disaster was that which occurred on September 12, 1914, in Ralph’s Colliery, Huntly, the property of the Taupiri Coal Alines, Ltd., when 43 lives were lost. The cause of this disaster was also investigated by a Royal Commission, who found that it was due to an ignition of fire damp by a nlakcd light carried in the old workings of the mine by a miner when proceeding to his work, the ignition of gas causing a concussion which raised a quantity of fine inflammable lignite dust by which the explosion was intensified and carried to the top of the upcast shaft, a distance of about three-quarters of a mile. The Commission considered the management of the mine, speaking generally, good, but in certain respects, c.g., the prompt carrying out of the inspector’s orders, the precautions taken against danger from gas, the ordering of safety lamps, and the examination of the old workings—it was lax and unsatisfactory. Kaitangata Tragedy. 1 Thirty-four men lost their lives ns I the result of an explosion of gas which occurred in the Kaitangata mine, near Dunedin, on February 17, 1879. Such > wias the force of the explosion that a [boy named Edward Dunn, who was entering the drive with his horse, was . blown about fifty yards clear of the pit mouth, and was instantly killed. When the mine could be entered, it was found that thirty-four incn wore dead. Not. one of those who went into the workings that morning wks alive. To all appearances, the greater number of the miners were not killed by the explosion itself. They had escaped the fire-damp, and were making for the mouth of the mine, when they were overpowered by the after-damp, as the men call the foul (atmosphere which remains after an explosion. Some of them must have run from one to two hundred yards before they fell. At on e point, thirteen bodies were found in a heap. The gas had been increasing in the mine for some time before the disaster. All the men worked with naked lights, but although there had been several small explosions of fire-dtamp, these were liable to happen at any time, and no fear of general danger was apprehended. It was believed, however, among those who best knew the mine, that the light carried by a mtm who was inspecting a portion of the property, where there was a fault, caused the explosion. The Kaitangata disaster was the first grtave colliery explosion in New Zealand.