NEW SOUTH WALES COAL MINES.

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 78, 26 December 1925, Page 5

NEW SOUTH WALES COAL MINES.

GREAT LOSSES UNDER PRESENT CONDITIONS Sydney, December 24.

The Royal Commission inquiring into the safe working of the coal mines has considered the loss in coal for which present-day methods of mining are responsible. Evidence was submitted showing that scaling off meant a serious loss in coal and that existing conditions of work were opposed to the successful extraction of pillars, and unless some radical change of methods was adopted great loss would be inevitable. It appeared that only by the flushing method could reasonable extraction be expected. At the Humber collieries much coal would be lost owing to tlie barriers left between various mines, and coal under the railways and villages. There were many cases where barriers two chains wide were left on each side of the boundary lines. Taking a seam twelve feet thick, this meant between six hundred and seven hundred thousand tons of coal per mile, which in the case of the Maitland mines would amount to millions of tons. In one area six million tons were involved. , *u. It was suggested that a board of three mining engineers should £e appointed to supervise the working oi such materials. —Press Assn.