Wales a serious mining disaster has taken place resulting in_ the death of 22 men. It occurred on the same day that the news came through of the Japanese.catastrophe, and consequently public attention Jargely diverted. The accident was one of those unsatisfactory ones, if I may use the term,' which could not be foreseen, and by no known methods guarded against. In occurred in one of the lower levels of the mine, but fortunately when one shift had just gone off, and the other was hardly in its place. All that' is known is that this part of the mine had not been subject to gas, and was regarded as quite safe, so much so that naked lights were used. Probably as in the case of Mount Mulligan in 1921, when 75 lives were lost, there was an ¢escape of gas from some pocket, followed by an explosion which killed all the men nearby. ere were the usual heart-rending scenes, and bravery amongst the rescuers, who eventually succceded in bringing practically all the dead to the surface. One of the mine managers, who had been doing yeoman work, eventually collapsed underground and was brought to the surface dead, while a. brother-manager narrowly escaped a similar tate.
The. name of the mine was the Bellbird No. 1 and! it is now sealed down with a view to suppressing the fires which broke out imiridiately after the explosion. It has transpired that so safe are all the mines in the Maitland district considered that there are actually no respirators on the field, which may he used! by rescue parties.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.