Disasters and why the mines closed

Disasters

In 1942 a coal mine flooded and 43 people died. 
In 1968 a mine collapsed. The people were trapped, they died from starvation and thirst. Another tragedy that is known, tells the tale about three brothers who were mining. They dug a hole in a spring. The first brother went down and never came back up. The second brother went down and he didn’t come back up either. The third brother went down and he never came out because the coal made a gas, called black damp and it killed them.

Why the mines closed

Wilson Colliery Coal Tip closed in 1933 on a Thursday at 2:24pm. It was most likely shut down because like most mines in Hikurangi, it would always flood which made it difficult to mine.
Ruff and Nesbitt’s Mine closed on September 23rd, 1929. They were not making enough money to keep their mine going so they had to close it down.
Phoenix and Dunn’s mine was able to keep going longer because their mine only flooded sometimes. It shut down in the nineteen-hundreds.
The coal mines closed because of the problem with flooding and it became very dangerous. The first big flood was in July 1926. The 2nd flood was on 20th of May 1927. The men that were working there had to swim for their lives.