Huntly marks lives lost in 1914 tragedy
Dark clouds of rain appeared to drift away from the large crowds who gathered in Huntly on historic Saturday morning to honour and remember 43 local men who perished 100 years ago, in what remains one of New Zealand’s worst mining disaster.
A century ago a single explosion underground carved a swathe through the town of 1000 that would be unmatched for most Kiwi communities even by the horrors of the Great War just then beginning in Europe.
It was Saturday, September 12, 1914 at 7.20am. The blast, caused when methane gas was ignited by a naked flame on a miner’s headlamp, was so powerful it blew the one-tonne lift cage from the bottom of the shaft to the top of the poppet head.
Back then, the main Ralph shaft was in the centre of town, and after the explosion anxious families gathered to learn the fate of their loved ones.
Rescue parties made up of untrained volunteers searched for survivors. A number of men in the 62-strong working party were rescued, but 19 were badly injured.
The entire town turned out to the mass funeral of the 43 men who lost their lives beneath the town.
A service was held in the King’s Hall and the bodies were then interred at a local cemetery. Saturday saw that funeral procession re-enacted, with town people dressed as mourners in traditional dress from 1914.
The procession marched towards the site where the explosion occurred, for the unveiling of a poppet head, a project initiated by the local Lions club, to mark the occasion.
The sacred site was blessed by kaumatua, Pat Kingi, followed by the unveiling of the monument by Waikato Mayor Allan Sanson.
Sanson paid tribute to the work of the Huntly Lions in organising the commemorative event, which also marked the 75th anniversary of the nearby Glen Afton Mine disaster, another Waikato coalfields tragedy that claimed 11 men, asphyxiated in the mine on September 24, 1939.
Lions member Graham Gunn said the project cost $160,000 to complete and had been seven years in the making.
Former Waikato mayor and project supporter Peter Harris said marking the spot of the disaster with the monument ‘‘symbolised Huntly as a thriving and proud community’’.
Also on Saturday, 43 black and white balloons were released, one for each miner killed.
And a memorial was placed over the pithead at Lake Puketirini.
Alf Stubbs, Janice Allen and Greg Allen march down Main Street as part of the remembrance service at Huntly.