FULLEST PARTICULARS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 636, 26 February 1879, Page 2

FULLEST PARTICULARS.

As soon as the news of the explosion reached them, Mr. Samson and his brother, of Green Island, left for Knitangata with a gang of about thirty men, and, assisted by volunteers from the neighboring districts, these gentlemen and their brave followers, devoted their energies unremittingly all night to the task of searching for the remains of the entrapped miners in the mine. They were provided with four Davy lamps, and this morning they started to hunt about some of the more remote workings, a task involving so much danger from the probable re-accumulation of the fire damp that no strangers are permitted to enter the mine. The cause of the explosion is and must necessarily remain a mystery, not a simile soul being left to explain it, but from the appearance and situation of many of the bodies, it would seem probable that an explosion of the fire damp took place somewhere about the centre of the mine, and that, becoming aware of the disaster, the coal cutters hastily made for the mouth, but were compelled to cross a belt of black damp, which caused them to drop down as if stupified with chloroform, and then they were speedily suffocated by the pestilent vapour. Of course this is only the hypothesis, but it seems a feasible one when it is considered that not one corpse was found in the place where the men were working, that thirteen bodies wore found within a radius of 12 yards, in a spot where no explosion had occurred, and that the majority of the corpses were not even blackened or mutilated in the slightest, but wore a peaceful appearance, and were only disfigured by the mud and mullock always to be found in workings of this nature. Some miraculous escapes are recorded by the men. Tiffen, our ■ light-weight wrestler, was an employe, but was absent at the time. A brother-in-law of Lochart overslept himself yesterday or he would have been at work in the mine when the explosion occurred. A house that stood within thirty yards of the mine was driven bodily off its foundation several yards, and the end was shattered, and two horses killed, but, strange to say, a man who was tipping the trucks immediately in front of the shed escaped with his life. He was propelled like a shot from a gun before the blast, but was lucky enough to be forced under the shed where he struck, and was afterwards extricated without material injury. One corpse was found with a pipe in its mouth, and looking, in the ghastly glare of the safety lamp, quite natural and lifelike. William Hodge (the manager) was, when discovered, reclining on a ledge of coal, with his hands supporting his head, and with his countenance as peaceful as though lie had been overtaken while meditating about something. His brother Archie has not been got out yet, and is supposed to be placed where the explosion occurred. Coulter and Buchanan were relatives ; both arrived by the Taranaki, and only turned to

work last Thursday. The brothers Hall came out per Easterliill still more recently, While some of the corpses are little injured others are hacked frightfully. Poor little Dunn has a hole right through his head, from temple to temple, and is shattered to pieces. The horae he was driving was hurled off the drive along with him, but lingered on till late in the evening, when some merciful man knocked its brains out. James Spiers was picked up with a stick imbedded in his bre-.vst, and mangled otherwise. Other men were badly disfigured, but on the whole the sight of the corpses as they lay in a temporary dead-house was not so revolting as might be imagined after such awful treatment. The following is a list of the dead : — Samuel Coulter ; Leaves 5 children, 1 boy of 13 able to work and a girl in Dunedin about 12. All the rest are young. He was an aged man and arrived lately from Scotland in the ship Taranaki. David Buchanan, aged about 27 : Leaves a wife and 2 young children. He was a son-in-law of Coulter and was also a new arrival. William Watson, about 40 : Leaves his father-in-law, who is a very old man, and four children, the eldest of whom is about 9 years. James Spiers : Leaves eight children, the oldest ten yeai's, and the youngest 4 months. Andrew Jarvie : Leaves 8 children, 3 of whom are grown up girls at service. Archibald Hodge, deputy manager, unmarried. William Hodge, general manager, was about 35, a single. man. Thomas Smith, between 30 and 50 : Leaves a wife and 5 children, the latter all young and able to work. Barney M'Gee, married, about 40, has a wife and 3 children unable to work. Johd Gaze : Leaves a wife and 3 young children. George Jarvee : Leaves a wife and 2 young children. R. and H. Hall, brothers. Wm. Whinney, a young man : Leaves a wife and two children. Jas. Beardsmore : Leaves a large family, 5 of whom are grown up and unmarried, and 3 of whom are little children. Josheph Beardsmore, brother of the last man, who was acting foreman of the mine. He leaves a wife and a grown up daughter and 2 sons, one of whom are grown up. Edward Beardsmore, a young married man, and sou of Jas. Beardsmore. Leaves a wife and two children. Caleb Beardsmore, son-in-law of Jas. Beardsmore : Leaves a wife and three children and an aged parent. Jas. Beardamore, jun., son of Jas. Beardsmore, a young man was unmarried. Jas. Molloy, and elderly man, and his two sons— John, aged 18, and. Edward, aged 16. Mrs. Molloy, who is about 60, has thus lost husband and 30ns, and has not a relative in the colony. Jas Clining, 25 : Leaves a wife and three children. John Clarke, late of Green Islands, roadsman in the mine: Leaves a wife and large family. John Ferguson : Leaves a wife and 5 young children, the oldest about 7 years of age. Chas. M 'Donald, son of John M 'Donald pony driver, aged 14 years. Edward Dunn, son of G. Dunn, a hawker, aged 15 years. Mr. S. Wilson, late of Green Island, and nephew of Mrs. Simpson of Green Island : Leaves a wife and 4 children all young. Wm. Hay, a young man unmarried, with rio relatives in Kaitangata, but has a sister and brother in the colony ; the married sister, Mrs. Hardie, wife of a baker, late of Green Island. Robert M'Millan, a young man : Leaves a wife and four children, the oldest of whom is about 6 years. Thomas Frew, middle-aged : Leaves wife and five children residing in Dunedin, Two of them grown up daughters. Thomas Black, an elderely man, single, about 55 years old, had no relatives in the district ; he once had a lease of a coal quarry at LovelFs Flat. Daniel Lockhart, unmarried. Josheph Morton : Leaves a wife and child. The body of Spiers has since been recovered. This morning a dozen volunteers dug about 30 graves in rows in the cemetery, each corpse to be buried separately. A special train is to leave town at 8.45 a.m. to-morrow (Sunday) for Kaitangata and back, calling at Green Island and Milton, in time for the funeral of the victims of the catastrophe, which takes place at noon. The miners are still working without succees after the two missing bodies ; the place which it is supposed they are in has a small face, and only six men can work at a time in it. They relieve each other every hour or so. It is, perhaps, scarcely necessary to call the attention of the people of the colony to the urgent need for prompt pecuniary aid being rendered to the widows and orphans of the victims of the calamity. Nothing can fully compensate them for their loss, but practical sympathy with a misfortune such as theirs may be shown by alleviating the physical suffering which must ensue in many Kaitangata families now the heads of the households are gone. Twentyfive of the men were married, and they leave children to the number of about 100, who are left absolutely destitute. A ready writer might easily draw a graphic picture of the wide spread desolution in and about Kaitangata, of the wives and little children lamenting in pitiful tones their irretrievable loss, but such an ad misericordium appeal is scarcely necessary, and it is hoped that some benevolent citizens will come forward with . a feasible proposition to relieve the wants of the sufferers by this great disaster. Directly on hearing of the sad accident at Kaitangata coal mine, Mr. Quin, the secretary of the Dunedin, Benevolent Institute, telegraphed to the manager as follows : — "Relieve by order on storekeepers necessities of families in distress by yesterday's catastrophe." An inquest was opened at the Bridge Hotel, before E. C. Carew, Esq.. Coroner, and a jury of sixteen, Thirty-one of the bodies were identified. There are two more bodies not yet recovered from the mine. The inquest was adjourned to Monday, at 11 a.m. The proceedings were merely for the purpose of identifying the bodies so that they may be interred to-morrow (Sunday.) Each juryman was bound over in his own

recognisance in the sum of £100 to attend on Monday. : The Directors of the Company held a meeting and appointed a committee to consider the best means of affording relief to the widows and orphans. The following telegram was received from the Springsfield Coal Company, Canterbury. "The directors of Springsfield Company offer their sympathy in the sad accident which has occurred in the Kaitanga mine, and if a fund is being raised for the relief of the families of those who have perished beg that they may be allowed to contribute £100 to that object. Cracoft Wilson, Managing Director. " The body of Hodge and Jarvis have not yet been recovered.