THE WEST COAST TRAGEDY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19965, 6 December 1926, Page 8

THE WEST COAST TRAGEDY.

The disaster at the Dobson mine on the West Coast is one of those tragedies that stir feelings in the community which are beyond its powers of adequate expression. The suddenness of the disaster and the irrevocable character of its immediate results have served only to accentuate the painfulness of the impression which it has created. The calamity, fortunately, does not rank with the very worst colliery disasters which this country has known, but it is a sad and terrible tale that has been told of events as a result of which nine njiners have lost their lives. Had it not been that the fateful explosions which wrought such havoc occurred at a time when a minimum number of men were engaged underground, the record must have been considerably worse. The cause of the disaster remains, and no doubt will remain, a mystery. Only two of the miners who were, in the workings when the explosion occurred were brought to the surface alive. Both have since died and neither of them

■was capable of the effort of throwing any light on the cause of the occurrence, The mine had been inspected only a fortnight previously, and at that time there does not seem to have been anything amiss such as might reasonably have excited apprehension. But there is always the danger in coal mining operations of the generation of explosive gases, and all the experience and all the precautions which it has been possible to adopt have not served to eliminate the element of risk that is due to that circumstance. The hazards attaching to the miner’s calling are illustrated in the history of some of the victims of this tragedy on the West Coast. To the members of the families of the men whose lives have been lost at the Dobson mine the sympathy of the whole community will be extended. The disaster, in its nature calculated to make mankind feel small and impotent, has evoked a deep and widespread sorrow. For the exertions of the rescue party which laboured heroically, though in vain, to bring out the, entombed miners, warm admiration must be expressed. The investigation which is to be held into the circumstances of the tragedy is, for the reason we have given, not at all likely to penetrate the mystery of its cause. It must necessarily, however, be as searching and thorough as possible.