INTO THE DEPTHS

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume XVIII, Issue 8, 1 February 1928, Page 4

INTO THE DEPTHS

(By a New' Zealand girl m EnalandV Having blithely said I would • love to 20 down a mine, when it, came to the day, before, I felt horribly scared, but haidn't the pluck to refused .' This particular mine was half a .mile deep and we went down in.J6() : seconds, thougH the usual time allowe^Vs about 30. , Thank heavens they' treated us gentjy ,. " You climb up ontp r a . stage about SO feet highland the npise of the lifts .ascending and descending is pretty considerable. It reminds.; ( ou- of the shearing shed, if .every. Mawi .banged ' his'.^dopi; at the same mpmeirt. This is caused,, by the gates beiine shot into plape under the lift whe,nit -arrives-.up and .the coal trucks being yanked out. Once oh the way it wasn^so bad. The up-'conii'jis; lift passes you with i an inch tp," .spare. They say you are less likely .to bump, sounded green log|Q to me! You are first conscious of a .rush of air and^qmethina: flashins: pas,t.ybu. There is, ; a,iniost extraordinary" sensation when ;the. lift, starts to slacken, . pace — it feels, as thotigh yon were, gci-.ng up again, .This is. paused by "the; steel rope stretching; :..!. was overjoyed to see thevbottom ! " .. May; I state that .the N.Z. mail had . arrived that mornijife so I stirreptiously. put it^in my overcoat pocket so ithat'l: could read it over and over . again— -if : we got stuck down the-re. However it ; was unkindly exi^laiinei3||b us that' ojf;. lights would soon ; gb ou^,. ifthat should j happen,. f j .s[<& each carried a miners lamp and wore very old shoes and overalls and leather caps with padded! tops, so that we>.iroul<3ti't : 'hurt our heads if we bumped- jthem! I wish 1 had taken some snaps of us. We were escbrted by the.sPnde'rg'rbund Manager/ a very nice littye maVi..' ' He is biding'hii time and 1 will! some day n he the -Mariagiji^; Director, All round! the bottom Jofo-fch'S shaft is. fairly.. high, 15 feet.,and;.bricked and \ concreted and ..lit with electric light, so therfes nothing alarmitig there, On our leyel there were two main haulage roads '-with two sets of :!ines : /in each. S.° m e of* the haulage. is done by machinery...an > d! some by ponies, but the latter areivbeing done away with as the new machinery i s installed. We walked /a'tidul;. a mile albug'ona ; road the ceiling 1 ! aM' walls are kept up by woocien : pvpp|? Ja'nd reinforced with steel girders;.;-; M"this mine, they use 10,000 wooden '.plop's' a week. The timber conies frbiliVN'onvay iriostly. The roofs here are about 6 feet high. After a gooc£ wajk: we, went up a side track to the, rstable.s., which ,. struck me. as.-.be-ing Very" cramped but I must say the poniesr.ldbked< -jolly; fat and 'well and

tlieir coats were quite loose. We wore shown the bins, and the crushed maize and hvan couldn't have looked nicer, m the stables there had been a fall of roof and) I had no wish to stay there long and the two men working on it advised the manager not to come on, but lie was quite unmoved. Our engineer told us that it is necessary for the manager to take a lot of risks to inspire the men. It all struck me as being 1 dreadfully dangerous and I wouldn't be a miiier for a million pounds. AYe got into narrower and narrower passages, some places were not propped at all, which was alarming. At last we reached the coal face where the men were covered m grime and wore nothing but trousers on their lower parts. They had just fired two fuses, and there was a smell all about of gunpowder, and it was as hot as hot, we got very thirsty and' I thought they ought to run a soda fountain down there. After being made to hew some pieces of coal from the seam, we were allowed to go ' aok much to my joy and my companion's disappointment, He thoroughly en j eyed himself. On the top once more, we had a look at 'the coal screens at work, and the winding apparatus -which is truly marvellouSj and ' dynamos and generators and other things and so home. A great experience, but once enough for me!

If ,love should count you . worthy, and should deign One day to seek your door and be your guest. Pause.!. Ere you draw the. bolt and bid him rest, If m your old . content you would . m.- . main; For not alp.no he enters; m his train Are\ angels of the nn'st, the lonely guesc Dreams ol: the unfulfilled and uudossessed, And sorrow, and Life's immemorial pain, lie wakas desires you never may foxg«lV .: ■ ITfi shows you stars you never saw be.lore. Ho makes you share with him. for . evermore, Tlie burden of the world's divine va~ gret. ' „ . ■ How :> wise you were to open not-. And yeu. How poor if you should turn him from „.,rthe dooi'l S. R. LYSAGHT. . ;■ ; ( ' of the TJ nknown Day.' ' )