The Mount Kembla Disaster.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 32, 7 August 1902, Page 18

The Mount Kembla Disaster.

The number who have perished in the Mount Kembla mine by the explosion of a few days ago may never be known, because the books which recorded their names were destroyed. Upwards of ninety bodies have been recovered, however, bo that the disaster, in point of magnitude, ranks very high among such occurrences. And it will also be memorable among the tragedies that darken the history of coal mining, from the fact that it was totally unexpected, for almost at the very moment that the explosion occurred the manager was testifying to the Arbitration Court that the mine was the safeßt in the world. In reality so it was. The aoal mined there is of most excellent quality for Bteam purposes. It ia not so suitable for gas-making, and for this reason there is not so much explosive gts generated in the process of mining. In addition to this, the coal measure is found in a high ihill, which makes it accessible by meana of a tunnel instead of the usual shaft, and consequently the meam of ventilation are more easily provided for. Practical men say that the explosion was due to the accumulation of inflammable gas in some cavities caused by falls in the roofs of some of the adits This will probably be found to be the oase, and it is not without ita lesson to coal miners everywhere. The lesson ia especially valuable to New Zealand, where in many districts, from Auckland to the Bluff, coal of a quality that is regarded as inferior from what may be called the ' carboniferous ' point of view is found. The ' lignite ' ■o mined has now been followed in many instaneesjmilea and miles below the ground. It is mined on the principles which regulate coal mining proper, and the operations are subject to proper Government control. Yet even in this harmless lignite mining there are developed gases, and damps, and fires that call for the utmost vigilance on the part of those concerned.

Every tragedy has its heroes. The spirit of chivalry is not extinct, and let there be a shipwreck, an explosion, or any convulsion of nature that places human lives in peril, there are found heroes ready to give their lives, if necessary, to the rescue of others.

Almost every calamity of the kind produoes its heroes. Let it be a ■hipwreok— some will be found plunging into the waves to rescue their fellow-creatures. Let it be a mine accident — eager volunteers are ready to plunge into mepb.it ic darkness to snatch their comrades from death. These heroes may win no crosses. As in this case, they die in the attempt to save life. But, to adopt Tennyson's line—' When shall their glory fade ? ' Alas I industrial history is too full of deeds snoh as those whioh have adorned the Mount Kembla disaster,, and ranked it amongst the incidents that redeem human nature from the imputation of selfishness. The divine instinct of love for others is not yet extinot. And if there were a Victoria Orosß (as there should be) for bravery in such oases as that of Mount Kembla, the men who dared and died, as well as the men who dared and lived should be fittingly honored.