MINER'S STORY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 138, 12 June 1936, Page 5

MINER'S STORY.

FIRE UNDERGROUND. BROKEN HILL IN 'EIGHTIES. OTAHUHU MAN'S MEMORIES.

'■ Drought, dust storms, a fire underi ground and a big mining strike were i but a portion of the vicissitudes of Mr, ' R. H. Page, aged 74, a resident of Ota- ' liuhu, who was a miner at Broken Hill, . Australia, in the 'eighties and 'nineties. : A South Australian by birth, Mr. Page ' has led a life packed with adventure and incident, not the least thrilling experience being his witness from an actual miner's outlook of the phenomenal J growth of Broken Hill. ! "The railway ran only from Adelaide 1 to Cockburn in those days," said Mr | Page, to a "Star" reporter, 'and to get to Broken Hill from Cockburn the foin I of us who had left our homes in South . Australia to pick up a job in the siivei , and lead mining district 'of Broken Hill ' had to hoof it with swag on back, containing all our earthly goods. The journey took about three days and or the way we camped at The Pinnacles . a small mining village. We reached Broken Hill short of cash and had tc sleep out in the open. It was several days before we got work. We wen down to our last shilling one day, ant that very day we got a job raisinj limestone for a lime kiln. This kepi us going for two or three months, aftei which we picked up odd jobs, such as F carrying hod. At that time, the yeai 5 1887, a great number of miners ant 1 c-melter hands were employed, and 1( ' smelters for smelting the ore were estab " lislied at Broken Hill. These lattei e - were removed to Port Pirie later on. j Water Cost 12/ Per 100 Gallons. "After the job of carrying the hoc 3 we tried a hand at stoking and genera 3 work in the mines," continued Mr. Page K warming to his subject. "About thai i time a bad epidemic of typhus fevei e swept the mines, due to the insanitary surroundings. Water, in those days

cost the miners a pretty penny, fetch ing as much as 12/ per 100 gallons Stephen's Creek, some seven miles out supplied the town with water, which ii the summer time was obtained from th( soakage of the sands deep down in th< dried up bed of the stream. I "Not long after our arrival a big fire broke out in Argent Street, wiping oul a whole block of the town. Broken Hil was now growing rapidly, the populatioi being about 6000 or 7000. By 1898 ' I \vlien I left the mines, the population hac j grown to 33,000! . I "In 1892, or thereabouts, a strike begai ! in all the mines, lasting 18 weeks, dur e ing which time a system of coupon! • representing various sums of money wai - used instead of strike pay. Coupon! [ were issued weekly to every man, e ' married man receiving a coupon repre " senting 12/6, while that of a single mar e represented 5/, the number issued tc 1 each miner being determined by his par -' ticular case. The strike was directec I j against freedom of contract, and coin II eid'ed with the strikes of shearers and o! j maritime workers in Australia. e i "Early in the 'nineties an under- "• j ground fire broke out in block eleven t.! of the mines. No one knew for certain r | how it started. The fire began to eat ii ! up all the woodwork beneath, the mines r j being heavily timbered with Oregon 11! pine. Men volunteered to go dowil tc i-1 combat the flames, but they soon found e I that thev dare not stop down for "more n! than fifteen minutes. Oxygen was 3.! carried in bags, and a temporary hosd ' pital erected, but in spite of these pre p | cautions three men lost their lives. [] Eventually the whole block was sealed o! in by the workers, who made big gal d i vanised iron pipes passing from the 51 smelter above to the shaft. Carbor • dioxide was pumped down these pipes ■r but with no avail. The underground 3 fire burned for years, and was still ;T smouldering when I left Broken Hill. d Three Years' Drought. 6 . k "A drought lasting three years lilsc , r I occurred in the 'nineties," continued i Mr. Page. "Water had to be carted from South Australia by the newlj established train, and was now sold at d 8/ a hundred gallons. il "Terrific dust storms frequently e, swept the mulga-covered plains, and t willy-willies were not uncommon. One ;r Christmas the thermometer averagvd y 104 degrees in the shade for about six s, weeks."

Unfortunately Mr. Page "got a dosa of the lead" and had to leave the mines. For a while he settled in Tas- ! mania at Mount Lyell, and then, coming across to New Zealand, lived in thft Manawatu district before making his home in Otahuliu twenty years ago. "And as for Broken Hill,*' lie added, "well, it was bound to go ahead if tho stuff was there. I wouldn't know it now; it's 38 years since I left."