DISASTER AT BRUNNER

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1683, 1 June 1904, Page 20

DISASTER AT BRUNNER

TERRIBLE LAND-SLIP.

EIGHT LIVES LOST.

SEVEN CHILDREN KILLED. Special to the “Mail.” GREYMOUTH, May 25. It is .my painful duty to record one of the most distressing calamities that has - visited this district since the Brunner mine disaster. The town was thiown into great* excitement this morning when it became known that a slip had occurred at Brunnerton, burying a house and its occupants. News eventually came to hand that Mr 'Cosgrove’s house had been buried, and seven of his children were under the ruins; also that Mr Harry Jones, of the Terminus Hotel, was buried under the debris. The slip occurred about 2.30 a.m./ with very little warning. As soon as the news was circulated hundreds of miners set to work to remove the debris and try to rescue the unfortunate inmates. The wind was howling, and the rain coming down m torrents,- and lights could not be keot burning. Every now and then a vivid flash of lightning lit up the dismal surroundings. Cosgrove managed to get clear before the house toppled over, and was in a pitiful state. Mrs Cosgrove was found buried to her neck With mud near a telegraph pole. Efforts were made to release her. Her cries for her children were heartrending. When the debris had been cleared away it was found that she had clasped to her breast her little infant, and the little girl Nellie was close by. Hopes of rescuing tlie other five children alive were now abandoned, Iput the miners did not relax their efforts one bit until one after the other the bodies of the children were got out. The five were found all together, apparently having been suffocated in their sleep. The scene held all spell-bound with sorrow.' With one sweep the whole family , had been taken away. Mrs Cosgrove was at once taken to Mrs Alison’s residence and attended to. The poor woman is demented by the great shock. She appears to have suffered no bodily injuries. The good women of Brunner did all that was necessary in washing and dressing the bodies. It was a most pitiful, heartrending scene. The bodies of the seveu children were removed to the Courthouse. The children, were nearly all badly bruised and, cut about the faces. The little one of eighteen months was the least disfigured, and looked as if in a sleep. The names and ages of the Cosgrove children were —Bessie, 13 years; Maggie, 12 years; Mary, 10 years; Thomas, 8 years; John, syears; . Nellie, 4 years; Nora, 18 months. All day the miners have been working at removing the debris of the hotel, in the hope of reaching the body of Mr Jones, but up to a iate hour to-night they ■ had not succeeded. In the death of Mr Jones we have lost an honest and straightforward man. He was respected by all, and won many friends by his quiet, unassuming manner. The scene of the accident presented a very deplorable sight, and was visited by a great number of people. The place is situated just a little above the Brunner railway station, and on the opposite side to the Presbyterian Church. Cosgrove’s cottage was built on the brow of the hill, next to Jones’s Hotel'. The hill sloped away to the back. Just between the hotel and Cosgrove’s there was a well-defined gully, and a slip from the side of the hill gaining access to the gully, rushed with full force on to Cosgrove’s house, * just catching the corner of the hotel. That corner was the part occupied by Mr Jones as a bedroom. Cosgrove’s house was on a rise about ten feet from the road, and the house was carried right over the drop and then buried up. GREYMOTJTH. May 25. It appears that at 2 o’clock this morning Mr Walter Cosgrove was awakened by a heavy crash at the hack of his ’house. He at once hurried his wife out, and they took their two youngest children in their arms. Mi- Cosgrove tried to get into the back rooms, where five of their other children were sleeping, hnt as it was in pieces he could not do go. As the house was gradually collapsing, he could not get out through the door, and had to jump through the window. Before Mrs Cosgrove had time to get clear, another fall came down, smashing the house to atoms, and burying the five children,- and crashing through . Jones’s Hotel, burying Mr Henry Jones underneath, and knocking Mrs Cosgrove down, killing the two youngest children, partially covering them, and knocking and bruising the mother very severely. - removing the debris. _ AN ARDUOUS WORK. . GREYMOUTH, May 26. A large number of Grey mouth people went to Brunner yesterday afternoon to witness the scone of the disaster. Workmen are steadily at work removing the earth and broken- timber. A general view’ of the position gave many an idea of the maffiiitudc. the

two slips, and also of the uncertain nature of the sidlings on both sides, slips being seen here, there and everywhere. The body of Mr Henry Jones, of the Terminus Hotel, who was buried under the debris, has not been recovered, although work has been continued by a search party. Bedding and a number of other articles were found in a cellar, but a quantity of earth came down, covering all labours up and causing work to be commenced afresh. All the roads within th© borough are closed. The Council has a number -f hands clearing away, but it will take some considerable time to allow traffic to b 9 renewed. The local members /of the Druids'’ Lodge have started a subscription list for Cosgrove, and money is coming in freely. Doth the papers have opened a list. Later. The body of Harry Jones, one of th© victims of the Brunner disaster, was recovered this evening at half-past seven by a gang of men who had been working all day. -MESSAGES FROM'THE POSTMASTER. The following telegram relating to the disaster was received on Wednesday morning from the Brunnerton postmaster by Mr W. Gray, Secretary to, the Post Office:— “Terrible weather was experienced here yesterday and last night. Several heavy slips occurred in Brunnerton. Jones’s Terminus Hotel 'was demolished aud the proprietor, Henry Jones, buried in the ruins. Walter Cosgrove’s he use adjoining was swept away. Seven children w r ere killed, and Mrs Cosgrove injured. J. W. Parkinson’s (chemist) place was destroyed. Four inmates rescued with difficulty. Parkinson’s leg injured. J. Pitman’s house capsized, and my own place very much damaged. The Brunner mine stables were covered with debris. Two horses injured. Two hundred men digging-out bodies. Railway traffic blocked, but expect all clear in half-an-hour. River flooded.” A later telegram was as follows—‘‘The bodies of the children were recovered at 10.30 a.m., all huddled together under the bedclothes. , Jones’s body has not yet been reached. Cosgrove’s house was reduced to splinters. About 2000 tons of material slipped away from the hillside, shooting the houses on to street below. Part of the Terminus Hotel is intact. Mrs Cosgrove is not seriously injured. Brunner mine is damaged by water —to what extent not known; anticipated not serious. Several mirier slips occurred. The railway line is damaged three-quarters of a mile on the north side of Brunnerton. Thirty feet of bridge carried away, and 40ft of rails displaced at bridge’s approach. A small cottage beneath the bridge, occupied by Glenn, was damaged, but the occupants escaped uninjured. Trains jun.ctioning at break; erecting temporary bridge. River falling now. Intermittent heavy showers.”

Mr Walter Cosgrove, who has suffered so terrible a blow in the loss of his family, is a coke-drawer in the service of the GreymoutliPoint Elizabeth Coal Company at the Brunner mine, and has been so employed for many years. He has been a member of the Brunnerton Brass Band for a long period. Mrs Cosgrove was the widow of Mr Patrick Casey, who was killed in an accident on the Brunner bridge about fourteen or fifteen years ago. ... Mr Henry Jones, killed m the rums of the Terminus Hotel, was proprietor of that hotel for many years, and a well-known identity on the West Coast. He was a native of Lancashire. When he first arrived at the West Coast, about thirty years ago, he worked as a miner, and afterwards went into business as a hotelkeeper. His first hotel was on the Brunner side of the Grey river, but this property being acquired for mining operations, he established himself across the river in the Buck’s Head Hotel. Latei on, this property was purchased for railway purposes, and Mr Jones built at Wallsend the Terminus Hotel, which has now been partly wrecked. This hotel, which stood at the junction of the main Grey Valley road and the road leading to the Brunner railway station, was a building two stories’ high, constructed of wood and iron. Thomas Jones, a brother of Henry Jones, is employed as a miner at the Brunner mine. ■Mr Henry Jones was sixty,years of age, and leaves a family of five, one of whom, a daughter, is married, and lives at Denniston, Thomas H. Jones, a clerk in the employ of the Massey Harris Company, Wellington, is a nephew of the deceased. Thomas Jones, the deceased s brother, was lately practically rumed by the burning of his residence and loss of all his belongings, on which there was no insurance. Telegrams received yesterday by Mr E G. Pilcher, manager of the Grey-mouth-Point Elizabeth. Coal Company, show that severe damage has been done to the Brunner mine through water, and that* operations have' been, temporarily suspended. A late telegram yesterday stated that the rise section in tho mine had been blocked by a slip, and that the manager could not s«y when operations would he resumed.. "Work m tho dip section, it was expected, would he recommenced on Monday.