The Kaitangata Colliery Explosion.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3125, 22 February 1879, Page 2

The Kaitangata Colliery Explosion.

FURTHER PARTICULARS.

Thirty-one Dead Bodies Re-

covered.

All the Men in the Mine

Silled.

One Hundred Children left

Fatherless.

(Peb Pbess Agency.)

WELLINGTON.

This day.

Further particulars of the colliery explosion came to hand late last night. Thirty-one bodies have been recovered, and three are still inside. Fire damp is bad ; still the searchers are carried out insensible. In all there are thirty-four dead, and of all the strong men, nearly every one of whom was in his prime, who went into the mine this morning, not one remains alive to tell how the accident occurred, and nearly all were married, and many have left large families. An eye-witness says nearly every one in the township was at mine's mouth, and the air was filled with the lamentations of women and children. It was a sad. sight to see the dead men brought out one by one and laid on stretchers, and then put in the train which took them to the Bridge Hotel. All the faces, excepting two, looked as calm as if they lay asleep, and the two young fellows who had the horses were battered about the head, having been blown some distance. The flight of sticks and stones at the time of the explosion was tremendous, and a thick, green smoke hung like a pall over the tunnel's mouth for about ten minutes. The mine is entered by a main drive or tunnel; the workings rise as they penetrate the hill, and the fall which assists drainage causes foul air to accumulate in the upper end of the mine. The ventilation has to travel all round the mine and come back to the air shaft, which is about 150 yards from the mouth of the tunnel. The workings extend about 600 yards from the entrance. The greater part of the men appear to have escaped the first effects of the fire damp, and were making for the mouth of the mine where they were overpowered by the "after damp." Some of them must have gone from one to two hunderd yards before they fell. At one place 13 bodies were found in a heap. Regarding the cause of the explosion, there is nothing but surmise at present. It is supposed by those who know best that an overseer named Archibald Hodge was in the waste workings in the highest part of the mine inspecting, and that his light caused the explosion. Where his body is found will determine the question. There had been a slight explosion last night in the mine, when the men were on night shift. The matter was reported in the morning to the foreman, who considered, however, that the mine was in good working order. He has paid for his error with his life. The number of children left fatherless is said to be one hundred.