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Details of Event: Deceased, who was an experienced miner, 66 years of age, having charged a hole with 24 cartridges of gelignite, placed a short piece of lighted candle under the fuse and turned to leave the working. He had only to travel 2 or 3 yards to get to a place of safety but when he reached the corner of the working he looked back and observing the place to be in darkness he said to his mate, ‘Its gone out’ (meaning the candle had gone out) and he turned back with the object of re-lighting it. He had just reached the face when the shot exploded. The fuse had of course run properly and if deceased had waited a couple of minutes before returning to the working the accident would have been avoided. The special rules in force at this mine provide that in the event of a shot missing fire no person shall enter that working place until the lapse of an hour in this case (and I have had a similar experience in many non-fatal cases) the workmen evidently did not consider it a miss-fire. Miners as a rule interpret a miss-fire to mean a case where the fuse is known to fire but falls to detonate the explosive. This is a very limited application, and it cannot be too emphatically laid down that once an attempt has been made to light the fuse, and the men have left the working, if from any cause the shot fails to explode, it becomes a case of missfire and most be treated as such.