New Zealand's worst mining disaster ocurred at the Brunner mine in Wsstland on the morning of 26th 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. It was 9.30 a.m. when smoke and steam pouring forth from the mine indicated a disaster had occurred.

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 mane.

2. Down at the faceof the Banner mine
Two hundred feet by the survey line
There's never a sign of sun or sky
Down in the Brunner mane.

3. 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.

4. 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 mane.

5. A cave-in'll give us a shut down day
But that'll never make a miner gay
For the trembhng earth speaks Judgement Day,
Down m the Brunner mine.