The dead tell tales
Historian Lyn Williams tells a poignant tale from the Ralph Mine disaster of 1914.
and the damage to his body was gruesome. The coroner’s report stated: ‘‘There was evidence of violence’’ probably from a fall of coal or stone, and his death was deemed instantaneous.
Alice and John had no children. When compensation was agreed upon in 1915, Alice was ‘‘a widow with no dependants’’ and therefore entitled to £775. In reply to the judge asking, ‘‘What does she propose doing with the money,’’ the solicitor stated it was to go directly to the Public Trustee, although the principal could be drawn upon from time to time. The judge commended this decision, remarking ‘‘that a woman was not usually able to deal with large sums of money’’.
Alice became depressed and ‘‘had spoken very despondingly of her lot in life’’ before she committed suicide, by drowning, in November 1916. Her body was found in the Waikato River after she was missing for several days. Two doctors testified at the inquest – one attested he had committed her to an asylum as she was suffering from melancholy, the other that in the three months before her death she was very depressed and worried about her husband. The couple’s graves at Kimihia Cemetery are among those of all the other victims of the disaster.
The Ralph Mine disaster is the second-worst mine disaster in New Zealand, the worst being Brunner Mine in 1896 when 65 miners died. A major difference between the Ralph Mine disaster and the Pike River explosions in 2010, is the recovery of the bodies – in 1914, all of the bodies were retrieved within nine days of the explosion.
Thanks to Heather Maloney and members of the Huntly Main Street memorials team for information. The team have been putting together biographical displays in Huntly’s shop windows to commemorate the centenary of the disaster. The Waikato Coalfields Museum is commemorating the disaster and the Glen Afton Mine disaster (September 24, 1939, 11 killed) with a special exhibition that includes mining artefacts and plans of the mines.