Mine Sealed For Fire May Not Be Re-opened

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29749, 16 February 1962, Page 8

Mine Sealed For Fire May Not Be Re-opened

( KZ. Press Association) AUCKLAND, February 15. The Benneydale mine, 20 miles from Te Kuiti, has been sealed off and will be flooded to control a widespread fire 900 ft underground.

The mine will remain sealed for at least two months, and according to the Minister of Mines (Mr Shand) it may never be re-opened.

With the closing of the mine, possibly for all time, the 560 residents of Benneydale are facing an uncertain future. The majority of them are dependent on coal either directly or indirectly for their livelihood. The only other industry in the district is a sawmill and the Pureora State forest has only a limited life.

My Shand, at a conference with mineworkers’ union officials in Benneydale tonight, said that even if it was re-opened, there would be only work for 30 of the 71 miners at present employed.

The last of the four entrances to the mine was sealed by the mine rescue brigade tonight. Mr Shand said it would be impossible to get below the level of the fire again. This part of the mine would have to be sealed off anyway. This would leave only two to three years’ ordinary supply of coal in the road-side pillars, work for only 30 men. Even to do this would be expensive and would depend on getting orders for the coal. particularly Forest Products’ Kinleith order. The 14 single men employed at the mine would be put on notice immediately, said Mr Shand. Those who were fit to work underground could be placed in other mines.

The married men would be placed on a minimum wage in the meantime. Even if the

mine re-opened all of them could not be employed. Fit married men could be placed in other mines too, but there was no accommodation for them. The life of most of the mines would not justify the building of bouses.

Mr Shand said that the manager of the mine, Mr D. F. Brown, and his men had done all they could to save the mine. The mine rescue brigade had done a magnificent job. Mr P. Gunn, the national union delegate of the King Country; said that they had come expecting to hear much worse news. They would cooperate as far as they could, but they had rules and one of them was the “first on, last off” rule. He asked Mr Shand to try to find work for some of the men now without jobs in the nearby State forests. Mr Brown said the mine produced 17,000 tons of coal a year. If it was re-opened it would continue to produce three-quarters of this amount, but as the coal was nearer the surface it would not require, in proportion, so many men to work.