COLLIERY DISASTER.

Press, Volume XLVI, Issue 7346, 26 June 1889, Page 3

COLLIERY DISASTER.

The following Sydney telegram, dated Jane 6th, appeared in the Melbourne Telegraph of Jane 7th :— For some time past something has been amiss with the working of the Stockton colliery, and consequently many men have been afraid to go to work. Some people Hying near the mine state that every night they hear strange rumblings as if a slight shock of earthquake had visited the district. On Monday it leaked oat that part of the mine was supposed to be subsiding. Inquiries from the men elicited the fact that the alarm among the miners began some nine days ago, when some men who were working in the top heading of the seam running in a north-easterly direction heard strange crunching sounds, accompanied at intervals by a rumbling noise. They reported the circumstance, which for a time was thought nothing of, but as day after day the same sounds were heard a feeling of uneasiness gradually stole over the men, and this became greatly intensified during the latter part of last week by many similar sounds being heard by both their own men and other people whose houses were directly over the drive in question. At a meeting of the miners held last night a resolution was passed chat the manager be asked to allow men to watch the rock on behalf of the miners. The manager readily consented. Many of the men advocated the closing of the mine until the suspicious part of the rock had fallen or had been proved safe by Government officials. Many miners hold the opinion that the sounds are caused by the giving way of the shale which divides the top and bottom drives, there being two seams of coal in the north-east workings. The dividing part is said to be all shale, and is very liable to give way with undue pressure. The miners employed at the mine maintain that no headings to the eastward of the shaft should be worked, as in the event of the body of rock slipping, they say that the men to the eastward would be imprisoned, as it would block up No. 2 drive, and very probably other communications to the southward. There are 240 miners in the pit, bat many of them are on the point of leaving for fear a " creep " should take place.