COAL MINES ACT

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 98, 22 October 1924, Page 7

COAL MINES ACT

AN AMENDING BILL.

An amendment of the Coal Mines Act was introduced by Governor-General's Message in the House of Representatives last night. The Bill provides that the rent under every lease is to be payable half-yearly in advance on Ist January and Ist July in each year. Royalties are to be calculated for half-yearly periods, ending.on 30th June and 31st December. If the royalty exceeds the rent for the halfyearly period, it is to be reduced to the amount by which it exceeds the rent. Should the loyalty exceed 50 per cent of the rent, it is to be reduced to an' amount equal to 50 per cent/ of the rent. In exceptional circumstances or unfavourable, conditions, the Minister is empowered to grant relief- to the holder of a coalmining lease, and a' further clause permits a' warden to authorise the sale of coal won in the course of prospecting on payment by the licensee of a royalty of not less than 2d and not more than Is a ton.

To determine whether bath-houses are to be erected or re-opened at any mine, a vote of the workmen is to be ■ taken within three months after tho opening of a new mine, and in any other casu on a requisition signed by not less than ten workmen working- underground If a vote is taken and not carried no further vote is to be1 taken for at least three months from tlie date of the- previous vote. The erection of bathhouses is to bo undertaken within twelve months from the carrying of a vote, and m the case where a vSte has favoured re-opening, the verdict has to bem? lveS-nffe^ to witllin a month. /he Bill also contains clauses dealine with mam airways, air-crossings and stoppings. °,'.