The Kaitangata mine explosion of 1879

                                     

The "Evening Post,  February 22nd, 1879:

At Kaitangata, at about 9 o'clock, a dull, long report was heard by those working at the place where the coal is loaded outside. The first thing they saw was a cloud of dust which came out of the mines at the mouth of the bay. Edward Dunn, who is supposed to have been outside the entrance of the mine, was blown a distance of about 150 ft. He lived for about five minutes, but was never sensible. The horse was blown nearly the same distance, and though still alive, is, of course, seriously injured. Mr. William Barn was the first to run to the township for hands, but the people, having heard the report, met him on the road. Nearly everyone in the township was at the mine's mouth in a few minutes. Men, women, and children were all gathered at the mine's mouth, and the scene was something awful. The air was filled with lamentations of women. 

Rescue attempts were immediately made.  Men from nearby mines gathered to try and rescue their fellows but found their way hampered by falls of rock and the need to restore ventilation.  "After damp" - the gasses produced by the blast - and fire damp made the mine more dangerous than before the explosion.

By noon the first body had been found - fourteen year old Charles MacDonald, who was so badly burned that identification was made by his clothing.  By that evening 24 bodies had been recovered and 24 Green Island miners arrived by special train to help the tiring Kaitangata men.  Thirty bodies had been recovered by the end of the day and four men were still missing.

Thirty four men were killed by the explosion of the Kaitangata Railway and Coal Company's mine.  The 34 miners left behind them twenty widows and one hundred orphans.  One of the widows was the wife of James Molloy.  As well as her husband, she lost her  sons, John and Edward, who were eighteen and sixteen years old.  She had no one and nothing left.  The Beardsmore family lost five men - between them they left behind four wives and sixteen children.  In all, the grand total of the dependents left by the disaster was 17 wives, 82 children and one elderly man.  A round figure of one hundred bereft people.

Kaitangata Old Cemetery

From a commemorative poster.   Hocken Library photo.                                   

Kaitangata Old Cemetery.  The Cemetery was very run down by 1963 and all legible gravestones were collected and mounted on concrete in one corner.  The rest of the Cemetery is now grass.

With no witnesses to the actual event, the inquest into the disaster had to rely on the evidence of the explosion's effects and the positions and condition of the victims' bodies.  It was concluded that most had survived the explosion but succumbed to what was called the "after damp" - the carbon monoxide and dioxide produced by the blast.  

As to the cause of the explosion, it was found that it began in an abandoned area of the mine and that the body of the mine manager's brother and deputy manager was found in that area carrying a naked flame for light.

As the Bruce Herald put it: "Two hypotheses have been started to account for the act by which poor Archibald Hodge brought death upon himself and others. One is that there were a number of disused rails lying in the old workings, and that, needing them for use elsewhere, he went to see how best they could be removed. Another describes him as an eccentric man, not altogether in his right mind, and tells how he looked upon the old workings as concealing some mystery which he was determined to unravel."

The jury for the inquest into the disaster returned the following verdict: "First, that Archibald Hodge, by entering the old workings with a naked light, caused the explosion and the death of 34 men and boys. Second, that William Hodge did not take the necessary precautions in the management of the mine." 

They added a rider to the effect "that, seeing there is no law for inspection and supervision in the conduct of mining, we express the necessity of measures being adopted whereby mining accidents in future may be averted."

The lessons of Kaitangata were learned hard but slowly.  Mine managers required certification in 1886.  The miners' unions were a main driver of state inspection regimes and safety precautions.  Sadly, as New Zealanders well know, the lessons had to be learned all over again.

Hocken Library photos, from the Kaitangata Borough Council Jubilee publication of 1927. 
The date seems to be a misprint.

From a commemorative poster.   Hocken Library photo.

Mrs Spiers.  Hocken Library photo.