A day or two before Australia cole. brated the Coronation, New South Wales and the Commonwealth as a whole was shocked by a terrible explosion in the Mount Kembla mine. This colliery, located in the Wollongong district of New South Wales, had always been ro-garded ax one of the safest coal mines in the world. Tt had always been worked with naked lights.
A dispute as to hewing rates was at that time being discussed in the arbitration Court sitting in the adjoining township of Wollongong. The manager bim-self was giving evidence before the Court as to the safety of the mine, when a blast like the roar of an earth upheaval almost shook the foundations of the Court house from underneath them. In an instant a huge rent was made in the side of the hill, and the engine house and other buildings at the entrance to the tunnel turned into 2 heap of ruins. 300 miners were at work at the time, and of these 90 perished, the large majority being victims to the effect of the afterdamp.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.