Grey River Argus THURSDAY, February 24th., 1927. SAFETY FIRST.

Grey River Argus, 24 February 1927, Page 4

Grey River Argus THURSDAY, February 24th., 1927. SAFETY FIRST.

it is satisfactory to find that, as the outcome of yesterday’s conference of the State Mines Superintendent, Mr 1. A. James, and the reprseentatLes of the Miners’ Union, the dispute as to the ventilation question at the Middle Brake Section of the Liverpool Colliery has assumed a more hopeful aspect. The Superintendent yesterday intimated that the Minister of Mines, Hon. G. J. Anderson, would go himself into the points at issue. This, as we yesterday suggested, is a course preferable by far to the adoption by either party of an attitude calculated, to create a deadlock. Although the miners have taken a stand on the matter of the docking of payment for time lost through a ventilation

stoppage in these very gassy workings, the Superintendent doubtless recognises that the most important point to be decided by the .Minister is that of precautions against a recurrence of the venti! - alien trouble. As a matter of fact, it is that aspect of the ques lion, rather than the securing of an hour’s pay, to which the

miners attach the chief importance / Ln their present stand. The lives* » of over 220 men are at stake. The v

demand- of the Union, therefore, is that the fan whereon the MiddL Brake section depends for air shall be contimieusly in the care of an attendant, so as to render any stoppage as brief as possible. The management has emphasised the fact that continuous attendance upon the fan would be more costly than the practice at present in vogue. Nu doubt it would, when it is conisdered the custom in vogue is for the fan to be attended only at intervals of four hours. In the ease of a stoppage, there is an indicator a quarter of a mile distant at an engine house, which denotes the fact, and an attendant has to travel at least a quarer of a mile to reach the apparatus before it is possible to.ascertain the cause of Ihe trouble, and to make the necessary adjustments for a restoration of the air current. In certain contingencies, this delay might be disastrous. The Mines Act certainly permits the present practice of an occasional examination of the fan, but where hundreds of lives are dependent upon the apparatus, it is Surely not toe much to ask that the risk shall be eliminated to the fullest possible extent by providing continuous attendance. Regard must be had fo’’ the fact that Ihe workings under nolice are as dangerous as any in the country so far as explosions are concerned. Even a few minutes’ stoppage of the artificial air supply means a gas accumulation at the workings, and the location of the indicator at a distance is no justification for the location of the fan attendant at a distance. Above all things, breakdowns must be guarded against, but it is impossible in the very nature of tilings to remove the risk of these entirely, so that Ihe next thing is Io lessen the risk by limiting the duration of a breakdown. When this can bo done merely by the provision of a single attendant continuously on the sj>ot to rectify any accident, we have no doubt that the Minister and the Superintendent, as well well come to the conclusion that the Union, in its endeavour to safeguard life is only making a proposition which should be given immediate effect. Wo have lately had more than an ample sufficiency of warnings against neglect through a false sense of security.