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Mangaore Village at the foot of the Tararua Ranges is the residential township (5 km east) for the nearby Mangahao hydro-electric power station, which 10 km east of Shannon and was the second power station to be built in New Zealand and the first to be built by the government. The power station is the oldest still supplying power to New Zealand grid.The Manawatu River lies to the west of the town. After being delayed by war, access road construction and foundation testing was started by late 1919 and the station opened on 3 November 1924 under the Engineer-in-Chief Frederick William Furkert. It makes use of the Mangahao River, through a series of tunnels and pipelines totalling 4.8 kilometers in the Tararua Ranges. It is jointly owned and operated by Todd Energy and King Country Energy.
Shannon which lies between the Mangahao Power Station and the Manawatu River, was named after George Vance Shannon (1842–1920), a director of the WMR (Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company). It was constituted a borough in 1917.
Mangahao Power Station tragedy
On 2 July 1922 seven workers were poisoned by carbon monoxide while digging the tunnels for the Mangahao Power Station.
When the extractor fan broke down, Bernard Butler and foreman Alfred Maxwell were killed by suffocation from the fumes being emitted by their oil engines. A subsequent search party of five of their colleagues also suffocated and perished in the tunnel.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300626374/a-century-of-loss-for-fa...
On a bitter winter’s night 100 years ago the lives of seven men, working to extend the reach of electricity in the lower North Island, were extinguished in the dark, writes Conor Knell.
It was the Pike River Mine disaster of its time.
Deep in the Tararua Range a massive public works project was under way in 1922, constructing the Arapeti Dam and Mangahao Power Station.
The working and living conditions were onerous. Almost five kilometres of tunnels and pipes were required to capture the energy of the Mangahao River.
It was inside the 1.5km Arapeti tunnel No.2 where tragedy struck late at night on July 2.
Men hard at work building the tunnels for the Mangahao Hydro Electric Power Station.
HOROWHENUA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Men hard at work building the tunnels for the Mangahao Hydro Electric Power Station.
Shannon man Bernard Butler, 22, was manning a water pump while foreman Alfred Maxwell, 54, was conducting a routine inspection at the face of the tunnel.
An induction fan failed, causing fumes from the oil engines used to dig out the tunnel to cumulate. The tunnel became a gas chamber.
When Bulter and Maxwell failed to return to the Arapeti camp, fellow workers became uneasy.
A search party was formed, consisting of Arapeti section engineer William Miller, father and son tunnellers Frederick and William Birss, and tunnelling brothers Philip and Frederick Graham.
They made it 400 metres into the tunnel before collapsing. They were 60 metres from the bodies of Maxwell and Butler.
Carrying out an end of shift inspection, sub station attendant Arthur Trigg found the camp and work site unusually quiet. He, too, entered the tunnel, and after sighting the collapsed men, barely escaped the fumes with his life.
A professional rescue team attempted to recover and revive the seven men but to no avail.
A Shannon News article on July 4 reported that the location of Maxwell and Butler’s bodies indicated a valiant attempt to escape.
They had made their way 80m up the tunnel before succumbing to the poisonous carbon monoxide gas.
Construction of the Arapeti Dam.
HOROWHENUA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Construction of the Arapeti Dam.
Hard work in dank conditions
The disaster happened at a worksite notorious for worker dissatisfaction. The three sites were all in narrow gorges of rain forest where the damp, cold, and mud were constant companions.
Workers were housed in floorless tents and clothes were perpetually dank.
There was at least one case of a truck driver falling off the edge of the steep narrow track between the power house and the dam.
That track is still drivable, and just as perilous.
The site had also been wracked by industrial action in the months prior to the tragedy.
Workers had gone on strike in February, 1922, when the Government reduced the rates of pay.
HOROWHENUA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Workers had gone on strike in February, 1922, when the Government reduced the rates of pay.
Workers had downed tools in February for three months over proposed pay reductions for all Public Works Department employees, and concerns about safety were rife.
Jean Corlett, granddaughter of Alfred Maxwell, says it was known among family he was dissatisfied with the safety standards.
“From our family’s memories, we’d heard it said that Alfred had evidently noticed that the management was not safe and that he had mentioned this.
“I presume it was something to do with the machinery that govern the gases and all the rest of it. He apparently had told the management he was handing in his notice. And they told him to wait until they got a replacement.
“It was during this waiting time that the tragedy happened.”
Workers canvas huts were replaced with more sturdy wooden structures in 1923.
HOROWHENUA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Workers canvas huts were replaced with more sturdy wooden structures in 1923.
Hole left in family
Corlett and her cousin Neil Maxwell met Stuff at Corlett’s home in Carterton.
Growing up, the tunnel disaster was barely spoken of.
Neil Maxwell says, “We never really got my father to talk about it until he wrote his memoirs.”
An enthusiast for family history, and a former employee of the Public Works Department himself, he says his grandfather was not only an experienced engineer and tunneller but a key figure in the development of Whanganui.
Jean Cornett and her cousin Neil Maxwell. Both are grandchildren of Alfred Maxwell who died in the 1922 tunnel tragedy.
WARWICK SMITH/STUFF
Jean Cornett and her cousin Neil Maxwell. Both are grandchildren of Alfred Maxwell who died in the 1922 tunnel tragedy.
Alfred Maxwell’s contracting company with Charles Mann, Maxwell & Mann, developed the Durie Hill subdivision and built its iconic elevator.
When exiting the elevator at its highest terminus, one steps onto Maxwell Rd.
Alfred Maxwell also led the petition to change the name of No.2 Line to Portal St, deeming it a more fitting name for the entrance to the city.
But because of an economic downturn, there were no jobs coming up in Whanganui.
“So that's why he took a position as foreman on this job for the Public Works Department,” says Neil Maxwell.
Alfred Maxwell was a key figure in the development of the Durie Hill subdivision in Whanganui and its famous elevator tower.
KETE HOROWHENUA
Alfred Maxwell was a key figure in the development of the Durie Hill subdivision in Whanganui and its famous elevator tower.
Corlett’s mother was 18, and Neil Maxwell’s father 17, when their father was killed.
The cousins remember while the tragedy was rarely spoken of, their grandfather’s absence was always felt.
“I think there was a lot of grief for my mother,” says Corlett. “But they just had to get on with life.”
Alfred Maxwell’s final resting place is at Aramoho Cemetery beside the Whanganui River.
A young life of promise
The youngest casualty of the tunnel disaster was 22-year-old pump operator Joseph Bernard “Bernie” Butler.
His niece Joan Harrison, who works at the post office in Shannon, says Butler was covering a shift that night so another young man could attend a dance.
“He must’ve seen the opportunity as a way to make some extra money, and unfortunately, he never came back.”
Joseph Bernard Butler of Shannon at 22 was the youngest of the men to perish in the tunnel.
SUPPLIED
Joseph Bernard Butler of Shannon at 22 was the youngest of the men to perish in the tunnel.
Harrison and her wider family are part of Shannon’s sizeable Irish Catholic community.
Her grandfather – Bernie’s father – ran the Miranui Flax Mill, and the Butler plot remains firmly in the Catholic part of the Shannon cemetery.
“My mother always remembered the fact that he wasn’t supposed to be up there. She would take us up here to lay flowers and remember her brother.
“When we’d go to mass on a Sunday, she’d always light a candle for Bernie. She always remembered him.”
Joan Harrison, niece of Joseph Bernard Butler. She says he wasn’t supposed to be working that night.
WARWICK SMITH/STUFF
Joan Harrison, niece of Joseph Bernard Butler. She says he wasn’t supposed to be working that night.
The bodies of the seven men were taken back down from the camp by the same trucks that brought materials up to the site. The coffins were slowly driven to the town with throngs of workers and townspeople behind.
While the other workers’ bodies were transported by train to Palmerston North and then dispersed to families throughout the country, Butler’s body went to the St Joseph’s Catholic Church where the small community gathered to mourn their loss.
Butler’s grave and headstone at Shannon Cemetery
WARWICK SMITH/STUFF
Butler’s grave and headstone at Shannon Cemetery
No-one held responsible
The incident sparked investigations and legal proceedings by a handful of the workers’ families, with some claiming the compensation offered under the Crown’s Workers Compensation Act was insufficient.
They also claimed the fan failed due to negligence. They each sought £2000, the equivalent of $200,000 today, in damages from the Crown.
However, the Government Accident Insurance Department argued each of the men had signed agreements to not claim for damages in the event of a wrongful act or neglect. The case was dismissed.
Ultimately, a coroner’s inquest decided the incident was caused by a series of bad circumstances and no-one was culpable.
It was widely reported at the time that the five workers who rushed to rescue their two mates inside the Arapeti tunnel knew how perilous the mission was.
HOROWHENUA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
It was widely reported at the time that the five workers who rushed to rescue their two mates inside the Arapeti tunnel knew how perilous the mission was.
Corlett remembers hearing of her grandmother receiving compensation of £100, equivalent to $10,000, over six weeks.
“Some of my sisters think that Mum told them our grandmother had received some compensation, but we can’t find any proof she did.
“She must’ve taken the money quietly and tried to move on.”
Dawn of the power grid
Mangahao Power Station was the first of many hydro-electric power stations to be built in New Zealand. Construction commenced in 1920.
The Mangahao River was dammed and part of its flow was diverted westwards towards a reservoir on the Tokomaru Stream, created by the Arapeti Dam.
From there, a series of tunnels brought the water down the Mangore Stream where it passed through the powerhouse’s generators and was converted into electricity.
The intention was to connect the coal-fired Evans Bay power station in Wellington with substations around the lower North Island.
Eventually, power lines would connect Mangahao to Waikaremoana and Arapuni power schemes, the first steps towards an island-wide power grid.
The construction of the power station was part of a social and technological revolution in New Zealand.
While turning on a light switch is a fairly innocuous activity in 2022, a century ago it marked the end of a reliance on coal, paraffin and candlelight.
When the Mangahao station opened in 1924 it was responsible for turning the lights on for the first time in large swathes of the lower North Island.
Homes were refitted to make use of the new grid, farms were suddenly able to access a brace of new technologies.
The Arapeti Dam at the Tokomaru No 3 Reservoir as it looks in 2022.
WARWICK SMITH/STUFF
The Arapeti Dam at the Tokomaru No 3 Reservoir as it looks in 2022.
Radio and film were able to reach wider audiences through the establishment of cinemas and the sale of consumer radio sets.
Mangahao changed the lives of the lower North Island’s residents forever.
Today, the power station still functions, delivering power to hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders.
The Arapeti tunnel, where the seven workers perished, is still in operation, diverting water to turn the generators beside the Mangore Stream above Shannon.
Beside the powerhouse, the whitewater can be kayaked, and after climbing the windy track to the reservoir, visitors are greeted by lush thick bush and uninterrupted silence.
It’s as peaceful and idyllic as New Zealand can get.
And while standing in the pristine silence of the mountains, it makes it all the more jarring to know that 100 years ago, seven men were poisoned beneath the hills.