HUNTLY MINE DISASTER

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 26 May 1915, Page 4

HUNTLY MINE DISASTER

APPORTIONMENT OP COMPENSATION. .

BY TELKCfRAPH— PKBSa ASSOCIATION. AUCKLAND, May 25. Ihere was a painful reminder ot the disaster which caused the death of over forty miners at Huntly at the Supreme Court this morning, when more than a score of widows and bereaved relatives appeared, before Mr Justice Cooper, to near his Honor's apS° nmuAK 0f «omP^ation «s agreld I^\-M 1" Coil ¥^« Ltd. -- a- M' J Vi^ord aPPeared. for the orphSr 114 Mr Rv L- Zi^n.for th_

i + cas^ of the children of the ™c Willmm Patterson the plaintiff was the^ Public Trustee, there being no motherliving. His Honor made an or- & Bru,- or .ntlie Payment of £1000 to the irublic lrustee as administrator of the estate, the Public Trustee to have liberty to apply to the Court for direction as to the method of administration.

Alice Jane Jones deposed that by the death of her husband she had been left -a widow. She had no one dependent upon her. • ; ' , '%J?° I^',: Ths Plaintiff is entitled ■£'',?• "hat does she propose to do with the money? .Mr Wilford replied that on his advice the plaintiff had agreed to pay the amount direct to the Public Trustee. It would go the common fund and would hear interest at the rate of 4 per cent. The principal could be drawn upon frpm time to time. His Honor made an order for'the payment of £775 to the plaintiff. .■ ' .'* Janet Burt, for the loss of two sons upon whom: she was dependent, was allowed £775 : Agnes, Ramson, a widow with no children of the marriage, was allowed £775; Emma Mayland and William Robert Mayland were jointly allowed £2.0 foiv. the loss of their son: Charles Allen and his wife were similarly treated in respect of the loss of their son; William Thompson was allotted £200 for himself and his wife .because of the death of their son; Ellen Boler, of Gisborne, was awarded £200 for herself for the loss of her son • Robert Izatt was allowed £200 for himself and his wife in respect cf the loss of their son.

When he came to the allotment of compensation to widows with children his Honor said that he would follow the procedure which .he had adopted in other cases—namely, to allot a third of the compensation to the widow and the remaining two-thirds to the Public Trustee for division among the children.

-°^2 rs for payment of one-third of £775 (£258 6s 8d) to each widow, the remaining two-thirds (£576 13s 4d) to the Public Trustee on behalf of the children in each case, were made as follow: Hannah Taylor, Janet Slavin, Janet Jackson, Janet Paterson, Elizabeth Holden, Florence Robinson, Sarah Ruston, Sarah Greener, Fanny Burton, Bessie Kelly, Susannah Blenkinsop, Ethel Hopper and Margaret Brocklebank.

Mr Wilford informed his Honor that the amount of compensation allowed by the company approximated very closely to the claims originally made. " He felt justified in stating that the settlements were in all respects.generous.