DOWN IN THE BRUNNER MINE
(Anon)

They work in the heat and the coal black dust
Sticks to the skin like a burn'd pie crust
We curse each day that the miner must
Go down in the Brunner mine

Down at the face of the the Brunner mine
Two hundred feet by the survey line
There's never a sign of sun and sky
Down in the Brunner mine

The miner's breath comes short and hot
He's using all the breath he's got
Whether it's good for his lungs or not
Down in the Brunner mine

A sound that'll creep through the miner's soul
Is the shake and rattle and down she'll roll
A hundred feet of rubble and coal
Down in the Brunner mine

A cave-in'll give us a shut down day
But that'll never make a miner gay
For the trembling earth speaks Judgment Day
Down in the Brunner mine

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Note in 'Song of a Young Country':

New Zealand's worst mining disaster occurred at the Brunner Mine in Westland on the morning of 26 March 1896 when an explosion at the coalface rocketed through the whole mine and killed every man, a total of 67. The accident left 186 children fatherless and 14 other aged and invalid persons without a bread winner.

--Stewie.