Chung Chi
As part of the Chinese Historical Wrongs Legacy Initiative, we’ve digitized a small selection of inquests and inquiries from 1872 to 1934, found in series GR-0431. These were chosen to reflect the experiences of early Chinese immigrants to B.C. – their living and working conditions, and their unfortunate accidental or unusual deaths. They range from a woman working in a brothel in Barkerville who died of natural causes to three sawmill workers who died from malnutrition. Learn more.
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Q: Did you see the bodies fax of the Chinamen taken out?
A: Yes. I found the body first. It was burnt all over the exposed, the fleshy parts.
Q: That was the last one taken out?
A: The last I think his name was Mah Lee. I examined him carefully while the undertaker was putting him in the box.
Q: That would indicate the explosion occurred before the cave in?
A: I don’t think so.
Q: Would the Chinaman be burnt if the cave in came first?
A: It might that the explosion and the cave in was simultaneous.
Q: Were you present when the lamp was found at -------?
A: I found the last Chinaman’s lamp “C” ?
Q: In examining the lamp is there anything which would indicate that that was the cause of the explosion?
A: I dismantled that lamp to-day and tested it with my own breath, as it were; but I don’t think that it is a sufficient test. I think if there was a high velocity of air and pressure you could have blown that lamp out. In other words, there is a probability that that lamp would ha e case flame. Had it been properly tested in the damaged and defective statein which we found it, you might have found that that lamp passed flame.
Q: Do you mean to say that the lamp was defective?
A: No, I am speaking of to-day; if a proper test had been made.
Q: Was it locked?
A: Yes.
Q: Locked when you found it?
A: Yes.
Q: Did you find any explosive substance other than gas?
A: Fuse principally.
Q: No dynamite?
A: I didn’t see any dynamite.
Q: Power of any sort?
Q: No.
Q: Other than the matches you found on this Chinaman’s coat, did you find anything else?
A: There were fond whenthe Chinaman’s friend came down to get his watch.
Q: Who was that Chinaman?
A: I don’t know. Some friend of the deceased, I think.
By Mr.:Pooley:- You say that you found this lamp B on the roadway of No.5?
A: Yes, sir.
Q: What is your opinion-------had that anything to do with the explosion.
A: NO, I don’t think so, because the evidences of force were towards that lamp, not from it.
Q: Was this a wet or a dry mine?
A: A wet mine.
Q: How as the ventilation of the mine?
A: Perfectly adequate when I saw it tested by Mr. Morgan on the 16th. He then got 15000 cubic feet, being 4000 to 5000 cubic feet per man.
By a Juror:- How do you account for that lamp B being in that condition?
A: It was simply been opened, detached from the upper portion for the purpose of lighting cigarettes probably.
Q: How could it be detached if it had been locked?
A: It had been tampered with and opened. Men frequently open these lamps.
Q: Could any person open them?
A: They can open them with an American clock key, nails and pieces of wood made for the purpose. Men often open them without any business for doing so.
Q: They could hardly be safety lamps then?
A: They are safe until that are tampered with.
Q: Your opinion is that some Chinaman opened that lamp for the purpose of lighting a cigarette?
A: Not this extra lamp because there were the usual number of lamps at the face for the workers there. This extra lamp was lying there for how long I couldn’t tell, but it had evidently been placed theref or the purpose of making a light.
BC Archives GR-0431 Box 6 File 3 BRITISH COLUMBIA. ATTORNEY GENERAL. Inquisitions/inquests conducted by coroners in British Columbia.