THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. MONDAY, MARCH 22, 1880.

Grey River Argus, Volume XXIII, Issue 3611, 22 March 1880, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. MONDAY, MARCH 22, 1880.

The report of the inquest on the late John Broadfoot is important in several respects, and the most important of these is that the accident would not have occurred if an ordinary amount of care had been exercised. Ib is true the jury made no comment upon the cause of the accident', or added any rider, to their their verdict, because they, and rightly so too, were not called upon to do so. The inquiry was into the cause of the death of John Broadfoot, and they returned, and very properly, that the cause of death was injuries received from an explosion of fire damp in the Brunner mice. If the inquiry had been into the causes that led to the accident, a different verdict might have been returned. That the deceased met hia death through negligence, no one can dispute — negligence on his pare, and also great negligence on the part of the manager. Broadfoot was a carpenter, and perhaps was not aware of the danger of working with naked lights, but the same excuse cannot be urged on the part of the working manager, who had had 41 years experience in the working of coal mines, and during some years has held the position of underground manager, not only in New Zalannd but also in Newcastle, New South Wales. It is no excuse for the general manager, Mr Kennedy, to say that ten days previously he had held a naked light in a similar position to deceased for observing the action of the fan. It only shows that it was a foolhardy experiment, and that the underground manager, Mr Elliott, was highly culpable in allowing him to act in that manner. It was fortunate — extremely fortunate for Mr Kennedy — that he did not meet with the same fate as the uufortuate deceased. The evidence given shows that the miners themselves believed there was danger when the fan was started, and stated they would not have remained in the mine if they had kuown it, and Mr Binnß, the Government Inspector of Mineß, stated that he had cautioned Mr Kennnedy that he had better mind that he did not have another Kaitangata affair, and also that he had ordered that special rule 30 -should be put in force, but this was not done, because the under ground manager considered there was no danger — the only danger to be appre hended was from "the wastes," which he examined weekly. The evidence of the foreman, also showed that he was lax in the performance of his duty, as men were often at work before he made his examination as to the working of the mine. It was also stated that special rule 29 was not observed for the simple reason it was considered there was no danger, and so because wilful men consider there is no danger, not only may the labor of years and the expenditure of 'hundreds of thousands of pounds be rendered useless, but many a family rendered destitute and valuable lives sacrificed. If the special rules had been observed, there would have been comparatively little danger. The evidence showed that the mine was well ventilated; that a turbine and fan were the proper

means to be employed to ventilate the mine ; that there were plenty ot safety lamps ; and that if anything was requisite for the safe working of the mine, it was only necessary for the underground manager, who.had sole control of the workings and of the men employed, to apply to the general manager, and his requests were complied with, and yet notwithstanding all this, nothwithstanding the caution of the Government Inspectorand the letter from that gentleman, which was allowed to remain unanswered because it was considered unnecessary to reply to il, we now find that, to put the mildest expression on it, great carelessness prevailed, and if the inquiry had been into the cause of the accident instead of into the. death of John Broadfoot, a different verdict would in all probability have been returned. It is evident that "some one had blundered," — poor Broadfoot blundered through ignorance and has paid the penalty, but was he the only man that blundered ? We draw attention to the matter because the residenss of this district are particularly interested in preventing, if possible, any more sacrifice of life.