References
1 'Brunner mine disaster kills 65', Ministry for Culture and Heritage, updated 8-Oct-2020; ‘Fourth Edition. The Bodies Recovered’, Evening Star, 26 March 1896, 3.
2 Joanne Naish, ‘Pike River Recovery Agency reaches rockfall at top of mine tunnel’, Stuff, online, 17 February 2021. For more information on the Pike River mine and tragedy see 'Pike River mine disaster', Ministry for Culture and Heritage, updated 17-Feb-2021, online.
3 ‘NZ's worst mining accidents,’ New Zealand Herald, 19 November 2010, online.
4 See ‘Our advice and evidence,’ He Pou a Rangi – the Climate Change Commission, online.
5 ‘Great Explosion’, New Zealand Herald, 14 September 1914, 9. For further detail on firedamp and three other dangerous mine gases, see ‘The Most Dangerous Gases in Mining: There Must be Something in the Air’, Howden, online, accessed 9 March 2021. This is an article by a commercial mine ventilation company. However, it provides a very clear overview of ‘mine damps … from the German word Dampf meaning “vapour”’. Methane release from the strata can be affected by surface weather conditions. See ‘Mine Gases’, a factsheet available under ‘Mining Machines & Inventions’ on Mining Factsheets, National Coal Mining Museum for England, accessed 9 March 2021.
6 J. McCombie, ‘Danger In Coal Mines’, New Zealand Herald, 20 October 1914, 3; Watch ‘The Davy Lamp’, a short video produced by London’s Royal Institution.
7 ‘Firedamp’, Scientific American, 8, 36, 21 May 1853, 286.
8 ‘Huntly Mining Accident (Report of Royal Commission on the), Together with Minutes of Evidence’, Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1914 Session I, C-14, 12. Full report online; ‘Details of Explosion’, King Country Chronicle, 12 September 1914, 5.
9 ‘Today’s Proceedings’, Auckland Star, 7 October 1914, 7.
10 ‘Details of Explosion’, King Country Chronicle, 12 September 1914, 5.
11 He related his experience to a reporter shortly after he was brought up from the mine on the afternoon of the explosion. ‘A Rescued Man’s Experience’, Hawera & Normanby Star, 14 September 1914, 4.
12 ‘The Huntly Disaster’, New Zealand Herald, 14 September 1914, 6.
13 ‘Local and General News’, New Zealand Herald, 20 September 1915, 4.
14 ‘The Mining Industry’, Evening Star, 16 September 1915, 4.
15 ‘Universal Service,’ Auckland Star, 7 September 1916, 7.
16 ‘New Zealand Forces’, New Zealand Herald, 7 October 1915, 8.
17 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal, accessed on 12 March 2021