GOAL MINE FLOODED.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 66, 26 March 1913, Page 5

GOAL MINE FLOODED.

WATER ROSE 100 FT. IN THE shaft;. (Per Press Association.) Whangarei, March 26. The Northern Coal Company’s new mine at Hikirangi is flooded. Last week it was found that the ground was getting uneasy, and more water coming in; gradually the water increased till the workings flooded and then overflowed to the main shaft. The pump became submerged, and was thrown out of action. The water has I continued to rise in the main shaft to j the 100 ft. level. Water cages are ! now being used to bail the water out till the miners can get down to the pumps. A reporter who visited the mine at ten o’clock last night found the water 1 decreasing at the rate of eighteen feet in seven hours. The mining engineer states that probably the miners struck a waterpocket in the limestone formation. The the water rose very slowly after reaching 60 feet.. Anxiety was felt at first as it was thought that spring had been tapped, but as the water only rose slowly between 60ft and 100 ft., it was calculated that an underground reservoir had been struck. It is considered unlikely that the flooding will be of a permanent nature. The timbers in the mine broke, Hut this was caused by the weight of water and not by creep, as at first was feared. Fifty-five men were thrown out of emo::'vrner,:.