| Show THE GREAT COLLIN COLLIERY DISASTER eighty five bolle bodies taken out of the built pit PIL NEW SOUTH WALES the sydney herald of march 26 gives the following additional details of the C colliery explosion in buthe the balli pit in the latter part of february and of which brief mention was made in the t telegraphic ele I 1 graphic dispatches the ghastly work of searching out and removing the bodies from the awful f ua pit was continued all day crowds were gathered around the mouth of the tunnel whence every now and then four miners would be seen emerging with the remains of their fellow workmen and bearing the corpses on a stretcher to the old shed some good women were in attendance here and busied themselves in preparing the bodies for the coffins it consisted lu in ng placing lacing some straw in the coffin and wrapping the body in coarse linen owing to the decomposed and scorched up state of the remains the clothes that were left on them were not removed and the bodies were thus laid in the coffins lust just as they were discovered in the pit sometimes as many as fifteen could be seen laid out in the sheds in readiness for the coffins which the carpenters car could not supply quickly enough this was a horrible picture the several entrances to the shed were guarded by policemen who strove hard to keep the friends of the dead from getting in these people with others however loitered about the place all day stood round the windows and rushed to the door whenever another of the unfortunates was being brought in this of course impeded the ifie work and the dead were got away slowly one by one at a time throughout th the e day body after body had t tu be ide identified tidied and different persons were called in for this purpose the name was iwas then written on en the coffin in chalk in some two or three in instances the word unknown appeared and the remains were placed in a dray or wagon for interment this ceremony bad enough to witness was rendered most painful by the sobs and walls wails that could be heard on all sides from widows aad orphans and mothers and sisters it is very sad to see the suffering that has been brought about by this terrible explosion and anyone any one who has seen it will surely never forget it nearly all the bodies discovered today to day were very much bruised and broken showing that the shock was most severe at the innermost part of the pit A boy named george robinson whose yvrose occupation was a wheeler was found jammed in between the axle and the bottom of the truck the whole of his being rolled tup jup in the space of one square foot some difficulty was found in securing the identification fi of the mangled remains the body of another lad was brought ia doubled up in a hideous manner with the head and face smashed in his old grandfather tottered over gazed steadfastly at the corpse and then burst burs into tinto tears A young woman dressed in black with a babe in her arms was standing beside a dray containing two coffins and crying out 1 I must see my husband I 1 cannot go away until I 1 see him take him oat and let me see him blin 11 to satisfy the poor creature the lid of the coffin was unscrewed and the scene that followed must be left to the imagination wagons and their cargoes of two or three coffins were now proceeding one after another down the mount the townspeople with num were be seen wending their way from all parts of the district around among these was a poor woman crippled with rheumatism who had crawled up the steep on crutches she was waa ac accompanied com L I 1 nied by her little son who had bad a ce helpless 1 ples little baby in his arms she was Ls hedding r bitter tears at the loss she had bad sustained in fin being ing deprived of her husband she came to sue see him but was disappointed as his bis remains had ad already been removed to the cemetery lim limping pin 9 about again she sherried pried out oh ob my god this is haro the plaintive voice of a young woman who had bad lost he father and two brothers by the catastrophe could be heard for a considerable distance all around the colliery I 1 throwing her arms about abou and taud wildly screaming she was the object of every ones pity her sister too whose expressions of grief were not so demonstrative fainted and with all these sights and horrible sounds a ie fearful arfel gloom was cast over the place meanwhile the bodies were ever being found until the record footed up now s sixty now seventy one and soon the body of a man just recovered was surrounded by some dozen people its james brals remarked a woman his poor wife who has nine children has beer been married three times and this is the second husband killed in the mine A mother with her little girt girl was crying loudly at the side of the cart where the remains of lier her husband were placed she was wailing over her loss joss and throwing wing herself on oil the coffin cried out I 1 my dear good husband the lather father of my childr enoh my dear husband her little daughter too was screaming out these are merely quoted d as instances barrow harrowing ng scenes W which hi ch brought tears to the eyes of even the male ibale por portion mon of the bystanders at the burial ground the spectacle was one ol of a most exceptional kind reminding one af pf p t he 9 devastating effect of some plague or of a bloody battle grave diggers were there in dozens and the coffins were piled in heaps while the clergymen were engaged in reading the burial service solemnizing solemn izing the last Y lites ites another nights hard work in the tunnels brought out a great mr many uy corpses and the people working in the labored incessantly to keep pace with the movements of the hearers gear bearers ers the western tunnel was found to be not so bad ly IF shattered as the hill end there was one serious fall of rock on what is called the flat but the party were not long lone in working over it the western tunnel dips at a slight anle gle from its junction with the hill end ut at about yards lards from the junction in becomes nat flat and runs so to the end the men were found scattered on the flat at about a quarter of a mile from the junction and near nea r the t e big I 1 fall there were several falls at other othe r places but the road was good enough for 0 part t 0 of f the distance to enable a tru truck rr it tto 0 b be e used the party found sixteen human bodies and several horses the smell from the latter was very strong and car carbolic bolle acid had bad to be used the horses cannot be got out and they are being covered with earth to enable the inspection to be made some of the bodies were much broken and their disfigurement was increased by the shocking effects of the decomposition on the cause of the explosion the investigation by the coroner which extended over several weeks threw little light the miners made positive statements to the effect that there were remarkable indications of the presence of gas in the mine and that only a small mall proportion t ion of safety lamps were in n use it being the custom to use these lamps amps in the glas gas district di the immediate cause of the explosion was a naked lighton light of some kind and the men are very emphatic at the absurdity of sending safety lamps into a mine with witha a naked lamp alongside them it has been stated that the men working in the gassy bords bards were using safety lamps that were locked this is contradicted by some of the men and it is said that lamps were taken in unlocked As to the quantity of gas it is reported that ong one of the men lit it with a match on tuesday night the eap exp explosion i ision occurred on n wednesday As to both the quantity of gas and the handling of the lamps mr nicholson the miners union secretary tells us of a conversation he had bad with one of those who were killed it etwas was a fortnight ago tonight when JW J westwood estwood told him and some others that he had struck a blower and could hear her humming yards away nicholson said if that blat is so then its god help you one of these days this blower was in the hill end di district either in the very heading where tire eap exp explosion lo 10 81 is supposed to have occurred occurred d I 1 or 0 r I 1 in close aroxi proximity ity nicholson icholson w was as at t the pit when hen westwoods West esi woods bod body came cam e out he says he got westwood westwoods West woods Is lamp and found it was unlocked H he e very firmly adheres to the statements state en t a frequently made by the miners that t at the inspections are conducted in a perfunctory manner that the government officials are taken only to the good places and that a system of favoritism insures the various employed emp loyes of the company conniving at this practice the theory advanced by the experts was that the explosion was caused by the firing of a shot in a heading beading which ignited the gas there the lury jury rendered a verdict that the explosion was due to disregard of the bull colliery special rules and the coal fields regulation act in allowing men to work where gas existed |
