At 7.20 a.m. an explosion at Ralph's mine on Raynor Rd rocked Huntly. It was caused by a miner's naked acetylene cap-lamp igniting firedamp (methane gas given off by coal)
Mining
Events In History
26 March 1896
At 9.30 a.m., an explosion tore through the Brunner mine in Westland’s Grey Valley. Two men sent underground to investigate were later found unconscious after inhaling black damp, a suffocating mixture of nitrogen and carbon dioxide.
21 February 1879
On the morning of 21 February 1879, an explosion rocked the coal mine at Kaitangata, South Otago.
23 May 1861
Gabriel Read gained fame and fortune when he found gold near the Tuapeka River, a tributary of the Clutha River in Otago.
Articles
British & Irish immigration, 1840-1914
Who were the ancestors of Pākehā New Zealand? Where did they come from and what sort of people were they? These are some of the questions which this feature sets out to answer. Read the full article
Page 4 - English immigrants
Table and graph showing which part of England immigrants to New Zealand came
Pike River mine disaster
On the afternoon of 19 November 2010, an explosion ripped through the remote Pike River mine on the West Coast of the South Island, killing 29 men. Read the full article
Main image: Martha Hill Mine
A bitter strike in 1912 made this the most famous (or infamous) mine in the country.
