"
I suppose you all remember about the sad calamity by which so many poor
fellows lost their lives. At this point I feel I must pay a tribute of
respect to the brave men who worked and risked their lives on behalf of
those poor fellows who perished in the disaster. I remember on that sad
occasion, which will never be effaced from my memory, and from the
memories of many who lived in Kimberley at the time—I remember seeing
our respected and able general manager, Mr. Gardner Williams, a
gentleman to whom I believe no person can attach the least blame,
working night and day, and doing all he possibly could for the relief
of the sufferers. That calamity was an act of God, or at least we must
conclude so, for on the very day of the disaster there was an accident
in No. i shaft, which blocked it up to some extent, and the Gem
escape shaft gave way only a week previously. I, therefore, think that
calamity was an act of God, and I hope a similar disaster will never
again be witnessed in Kimberley or elsewhere. In paying a tribute of
respect to Mr. Williams, who worked all through the night when the fire
broke out, and to the brave men who went into the mine, to try and save
their fellows, we must not forget that those men risked their lives,
that they went down into the mine, when millions and millions of loads
of reef were hanging over them, to open up the shaft so that the men
might escape. And the result of their work, we know, was that out of
about seven hundred men in the mine, five hundred escaped. Therefore,
in passing this tribute of respect to Mr. Williams and the men, I feel
sure that it will be universally indorsed by the shareholders.
[Applause.] No more need be said about this matter, except that the
state of the mine after the calamity necessitated a considerable
expenditure of money. I think it took us three months to get the mine
in proper working order, and we lost three months' labor, at a cost of
something like
£250,000. The balance sheet only shows about £30,000,
but by the loss of blue, etc., the loss to the company was, as I have
stated, not much short of a quarter of a million of money."
Providentially, and by the exercise of every feasible precaution,
