A LENGTHY FUNERAL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIV, Issue 806, 8 September 1923, Page 6

A LENGTHY FUNERAL.

VICTIMS OF MINE DISASTER.

PITIFUL SCENE WITNESSED.

SYDNEY, Sep. 3. Fully 20,000 attended the funeral of the victims of the Bellbird mine disaster All schools and business places in the district were closed, the.latter being draped in mourning. The bodies were collected by hearses at the various homes and taken to the Memorial Hall, where a service was held, after which two motor lorries conveyed the coffins to the cemetery. The scene was the most pitiful ever witness'ed.locally, and the entire.route to the cemetery, a distance of two miles, was thronged. The Government has decided to make available immediately £250 for the relief of the distressed. ' The Sun and Evening News newspapers have both started funds. The lodges in the Cessnock district have decided that all employees shall give one fortnight's shift play to the distress fund. An explosion occurred in the mine today, dislodging some of the seals, which later were reinforced. The men had to work in relays, owing to the fumes which oozed out.' Further explosions are possible. A mass meeting of miners adopted a resolution viewing with horror the appalling- disaster at Bellbird and extending their hearfelt sympathy .with the dependents of their late comrades, also a resolution of appreciation of the noble manner in which the rescuing parties had performed their duties. The meeting also recommended to the lodge that the miners of the district should give their first day's wages, and that the mine owners should give their first day's profits to assist the dependents of the victims. The corrected list of bodies recovered from the mino is: Richards, Griffin, Mills, Locking, Hynes, McLauchlan, Stewart, Graber Morgan, Hyams, Seddon, Roberts, Kelly, Chapman, and Lambert. The bodies still in the mine are those, of Hartley, Fone, Bailey, Moody, and Brown.—Press Association.