Tiny town of Runanga unites to banish tragedy

Anglican minister Barry Smithson leads Runanga residents on their prayer walk. Picture / Nigel Collins

Tragedy has knocked once too often for the residents of the tiny West Coast town of Runanga.

A mine cave-in, misadventure, sudden death, a road accident and two as-yet unexplained deaths have claimed six lives over the past four months.

If that was not enough, a flash flood swept through the township last month, leaving several families homeless and causing thousands of dollars in damage.

And two weeks ago a suspicious fire razed a local house.

Enough being enough, a group of residents banded together and decided it was time to consult a higher authority.

Following talks with local church leaders, the residents arranged a prayer walk to cleanse the town of whatever was causing such grief.

Braving a stiff breeze from the snowcapped Southern Alps, about 30 residents huddled for prayer at Runanga's small Sacred Heart Parish Catholic church before taking a circuit of the township's lone school, pensioner flats, domain and community hall. The ceremony wound up with prayers and hymns at the St Thomas Anglican Church on a hill overlooking the town.

Tears were shed and holy water sprinkled as grieving relatives, supported by neighbours and friends, called for a new beginning for the town.

"After the little girl died people started saying there is something wrong with Runanga," said Barry Smithson, the Anglican minister who led the procession.

"And those that approached the Ministers Association and requested them to come and pray over their town are not even practising Christians.

"There has been a lot of tragedy, so many things and all in proximity to each other."

Coroner Tony Sullivan's findings are still pending on the death of the 11-year-old girl, whose death on May 4 may have been due to misadventure. He is also looking into the deaths of two local men in April.

The pain of the deaths, so close together, has cut sharply in this working class town, which has its roots in coal mining and is proud to be known as the birthplace of the New Zealand labour movement.

Set deep in the Grey River valley between the Paparoa Ranges and State Highway 6, better known as the West Coast Road, Runanga Township struggles to maintain just 566 occupied households.

At one time it was a boom town, an important hub in the West Coast's mining past. But recent amalgamation with the Grey District has taken away what some say were its last shreds of identity.

It was on a tight curve heading out of the township on the Coast road that the car in which Steven Mort was a passenger left the road and rolled into a siding on May 28. Mr Mort, 29, died beneath a monument marking the spot where 100 years earlier two men were murdered when the stagecoach carrying the Runanga miners' payroll was hijacked.

Within 24 hours of Mr Mort's death, his close neighbour, taxi driver William Henham, dropped dead of heart failure near Porters Pass while returning from a trip to Christchurch.

"At one stage there were funerals going on simultaneously in houses on opposite sides of the same street," said a resident.

It is not as though the townsfolk are strangers to tragedy.

Runanga was one of the hardest-hit communities in the district when the nearby Strongman mine collapsed in 1967 and killed 19, among them many of the town's able-bodied men.

It may even be said that Runanga folk handle trauma better than most.

This was reflected in the ease with which they rushed into action on March 8, when the nearby Blackreef Mine flooded, killing one of their own - Robert McGowan, who left behind a young wife and family.

Scones were baked and hot food appeared seamlessly for the rescue teams as they fought through the chilly night in an effort to free Mr McGowan and another miner trapped below ground.

"There is a high population of widows in this town," said Mr Smithson, who has spent most of his 60-plus years of life in the tidy bungalow he shares with his wife on the Seven Mile Road, "over the years people have died of mine-related illnesses and a lot have been killed in the mines."