hi Jude,
where did you hear about it?
was it in the 'Waikato Times'?
It will be in the 'North Waikato TImes' pretty soon I would think
These people should know if you contact them

You could ask the Waikato Coalfields Museum in Harlock Place if you live in that area - they will definately know. Pop in and see them, they're open every day

People will be talking about it's upcoming soon, ask around town - if you live there ...

It will be a great occasion I should think. Huntly IS mining, I know it well :)

cool thanks for your information I am actually in Opotiki Bay of Plenty
but yea I will get in touch with the Waikato Times and the Waikato Coalfields Museum thanks

to contact me email hure8@msn.com

you could also try the HUNTLY LIONS CLUB

for those interested ... READ ALSO:
Ralph Mine Disaster HUNTLY, Waikato - Sep 1914
Much has been written about the Ralph Mine Disaster which occurred on 12 September 1914, claiming the lives of 43 men when a miner?s naked light ignited firedamp. It was a Saturday, hence there were only 62 men working instead of the usual 160. Some of them were widowers who left motherless children

* On the 19 April 2009 a memorial board listing all the victims of the Ralph Mine disaster was unveiled at the Huntly Cemetery. The Huntly Lions Club would like to contact with descendants of all the families involved before the centennial in 2014
MINE DISASTER story
Continuing the Rescue Work, 14 September 1814
COMMISSIONERS REPORT, 31 Octobert 1914
c1910 PHOTOS of the
* Ralph Mine at Huntly
* Ralph Mine at Huntly

This is a list of the full names of the victims, some of the ages differ slightly from other sites (mine taken from BDM & research from Papers Past etc)
Some bodies took over a week to recover, the rescuers sometimes spent over 7 hours down the mine searching but their work was being hampered by gas, want of safety lamps and no provision in the way of respirators or patent head gears ...
(short bios at first link)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

DISASTER AT HUNTLY - TERRIBLE MINING EXPLOSION
FIFTY-EIGHT ENTOMBED - EIGHTEEN BODIES RECOVERED
NINETEEN MEN ESCAPE ALIVE - LITTLE HOPE FOR THE OTHERS

Auckland WEEKLY NEWS for Thursday, 17th September 1914
... What will probably prove to be the second greatest mining disaster yet recorded in New Zealand took place on Saturday morning when, as a result of a fearful explosion in Ralph's mine, one of the two Huntly collieries owned by the Taupiri Coal Company Limited, fifty-eight miners were entombed. Of this number nineteen escaped alive, of whom once has since died and at least two others are lying in a serious condition, two at Hamilton Hospital and one in Huntly. The bodies of eighteen of the remaining forty have been recovered, and it is not believed that it is possible to save any of the others alive.
The workings of Ralph's mine extend for miles westward from Huntly, and go under the Waikato River. Experts who had examined it declared it to be one of the safest coal mines in the world, practically free from all forms of dangerous gas. The miners, numbering about 250, habitually worked with naked lights (more at above link)

The Huntly Lions Club would like to contact with descendants of all the families involved before the centennial in 2014 ...

MINERS WHO LOST THEIR LIVES
Name & Age
ALLEN, William 18
BAKER, Thomas 37
BLENKINSOP, William 37
BERRY, Thomas 29
BOWLER, John 23
BROCKLEBANK, William Snr 52
BURT, Hutchinson 19
BURT, William 28
BURTON, William 27
CASSON, Thomas 22
DARBY, James 57
DIXON, John -
GOWANS, William 43
GREENER, John 48
HINCHCO, William 37
HOLDEN, James 58
HOPPER, Fawcett 31
IZATT, Alexander 17
JACKSON, Henry 24
JACKSON, John 26
JACKSON, Samuel 54
JONES, John 49
KELLY, William 36
LYONS, Daniel 62
MALONEY, Charles 21
MARTIN, John 29
MAYLAND, William Jnr 18
MOLESWORTH, Theophilus 29
MUNSEY, Robert 63
PATERSON, David 36
PATTERSON, William 44
PECKHAM, Henry 45
RANSOME, Hugh 39
ROBINSON, John 28
ROPER, William 36
RUSTON, Arthur 28
SKELLERN, John 36
SLAVIN, William 18
SMITH, William 62
STEELE, John 40
TAYLOR, Fred 29
THOMPSON, Jacob 18
WHORSKEY, John 36

MINERS WHO SURVIVED
BROCKLEBANK, William Jnr
BROWNLIE, Joseph
EARBY, Thomas
FLETCHER, Daniel
HEALEY, Bernard
HUGHES, Thomas
McGILL, Patrick
McINTOSH, Alexander
MITCHELL, William
MOTTRAM, Glen
O'BRIEN, Joseph
PECKHAM, Alfred
RICHARDS, James
RITCHIE, Joseph
STEWART, Albert
TALLON, John
WILKIE, John
YOUNG, James