C—l 3

9

to the engine-station and after some delay the fan was started. The condition of the mine can be estimated from the statement of witnesses to the effect that in fifteen minutes from the time the fan started the heat so affected the bearings that it would not work. Some minutes elapsed, and more fresh men came into the mine Then Frame, who appears at this time to have taken control of affairs, said that a door in the old lay-by should be opened. Frame says he intended to open the door across the lay-by, quite close to the engine-station, but Lloyd and Dixon, who went to carry out this direction, opened a door leading westward from the lay-by to the fan-shaft. This would have a tendency to draw the air from that portion of the mine where Carson and Welsh were, and to some extent cause a back current. The moment the door was opened there was a slight explosion of firedamp, and a tongue of flame ran along the roof over the men's heads. The door shut as the men fled, and all the men who were at the enginestation, fearing a general explosion, ran back to the drum-points. Some time elapsed—it is estimated at forty-five minutes—and then Todd, Moncrieff, and McDowell, fresh men, who had just come into the mine, learning that Jardine and the three other men were down the dip, made a rush and brought back Jardine unconscious, but alive, and Duncan, who was then dead. Jardine ultimately recovered. When found, Jardine's lamp was burning brightly, thus negativing the presence of black-damp in quantity. Nothing could then be immediately done to rescue Carson and Welsh, who were almost certainly dead, but Moncrieff and a Mr. A. R. Jackson, a storekeeper, but an experienced miner, who had formerly worked in the mine, obtained brattice and other kinds of cloth or sheeting, and blocked off all the openings in the road as far as the enginestation, and also blocked one opening a little beyond that point. They withdrew from the mine for some hours, and then they, with the assistance of others, at about 7.30 p.m., found Carson and Welsh quite dead, at the places marked on the plan. Moncrieff and Jackson, with the assistance of other men, worked all Saturday up to 1 a.m. on Sunday morning, and by that' time efficiently blocked off the fire by stoppings across the main haulage-road. 11. As compensation to the relatives of the men who lost their lives the company has paid the sum of £2,200, with £225 costs.. The Personal Character of the Mine-manager, John Lloyd, his Conduct at the Time of the Disaster, and his General Competency. 12. Lloyd is a man of intemperate habits, who has several times during the past few years had prohibition orders made against him. It is said, however, that since the disaster he has been a total abstainer, and his employers retain their confidence in him. He has passed no examination in mine-management, but obtained his certificate because he was actually in charge of a mine when the Act of 1886, providing for the issue of mine-managers' certificates, came into force. He is, however, a man of considerable intelligence, who has risen from the position of a working-miner to that of mine-manager. His employers evidently value his services highly. They have retained him in their employ for twenty-six years, and in June last were paying him £30 a month. Up to this disaster he had been very successful in winning all available coal at a minimum cost, and in making the mine remunerative to the owners. 13. On the evening of the 20th June he went to the house occupied by the Carsons, and before 10 p.m. had consumed the greater part of a bottle of whisky. He then went to sleep on a sofa in Carson's kitchen until about 3 a.m., when he left, and was proceeding to his own home when he met Dixon. Instead of going at once into the mine, he occupied from three-quarters of an hour to an hour in calling up three or four men. After five hours' sleep he was probably in appearance sober, but he would hardly be in the best condition to grapple with such an emergency as he was called on to meet. 14. The Actual Disaster. —When Lloyd entered the mine at 4.20 on Friday morning he should have withdrawn all men, made a careful and cautious examination, and only sent men to work when it had been ascertained that they could do so with safety, After sending Carson and Welsh down the dip, he

2—C. 13.