HON. MARK FAGAN

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 221, 14 June 1930, Page 7

HON. MARK FAGAN

Good Friend to Workers LIFE OF SERVICE The Hon. Mark Fagan, of Wellington, ■who has been appointed to the Legislative Council, is a native of Tasmania. He worked as a miner in that State, and also in Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria, and West Australia. While in Queensland he worked in the same mine with the Hon. E. G. Theodore, now Commonwealth Treasurer, and formerly Premier of Queensland ; with the Hon. W. McCormack, who was also Premier of Queensland: and With Mr. J. O’Brien, M.P. for WestMr. Fagan came to New Zealand and settled on the West Coast 30 years ago. Until a few years ago he was closely associated with the gold-mining industry in the Beefton district. He was general secretary of the Inangahua Gold and Coal Miners’ Union for 16 years, and he was also workmen’s inspector for that period. He was closely connected with the initiation and carrying out of important reforms in working conditions in the mines. These included provision for improved ventilation and sanitation, the third compartment system of rising, change rooms, and bathrooms, compulsory regulation of shot-firing, and the installation of dust-laying appliances, including the water-leyner drill. Miners’ Phthisis.l In addition Mr. Fagan was also actively associated .with the promotion of the Miners’ Phthisis Act of 1915. He was later instrumental in securing the benefits of this legislation for many unfortunate miners. Among other improvements Mr. Fagan was largely responsible for obtaining first-aid appliances installed in the mines. During his term as secretary of the inaugahua Miners’ Union he repeatedly appeared in the Arbitration Court, the Conciliation Council, and other tribunals on behalf of the miners. He obtained from the Arbitration Court a weekly halfholiday for quartz miners for the first time in the Dominion. Mr. Fagan was for ten years a member of the Inangahua Hospital and Charitable Board, and for seven years he was chairman of that body. _He was founder and secretary of the Inangahua Miners’ Accident Relief Association, with a membership of 1000; a member of the Beefton Domain Board; president of the Inangahua Prospecting Association, which represented the whole of the -Keetton district; and secretary-treasurer of the Beegton centre of the St. John Ambulance Association. He was a member of the Repatriation Board for the Inangahua district during the whole period of its existence, and he. gave . devoted and conscientious service m the interests of the returned soldiers. Sporting Activities. Mr. Fagan takes a keen interest in all kinds of sport. He was a member of the Inangahua Trotting Club for a long ■period, and president for three years* He was president of the Beefton Cricket Association, and played for the Reefton team until a few years ago. He contested the Motueka electorate as Labour candidate in 1925, and he was elected a member of the national executive of the Labour Party at the annual conference last April-