THE MINERS' DISEASE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10042, 9 January 1909, Page 2

THE MINERS' DISEASE.

(Pub Press Associatioh.) Roofton, .7remiary 9Tho hops of a settilemant of the mining dispute through tho taking over of tho insurance risk by tho Government is very favorably roc.o.ived here. Tho executive of tlie Miners' Fodor.it.ion met last night, and there was a conferenc# of tho employers to-day. Tho Litter are doubtful of tho proposed amendment of the law when Parliament moots, and, are oouisulting Ministers. Tlie result is expected any time. COMBATINC THE DISEASE. "Miners' complaint," as it is commonly callod, or miners' phthisis, is a discosti peculiar, as its name implies, to underground workers. Many efforts have been nui do to combat it, and at tho present time tho disease is being carefully studied by medical men, who are anxious to liixl some sciontilic moans of reducing it to a minimum. An interesting letter on tho (subject bus been received by Dr Purdy District Health Officer flt Auckland, from Dr Porter, tho Medical Officer of Health at Johannesburg. Dr Porter writes - "I may say that 1 am at present a member of the Government Mining Regulations Commission, which will report jn about six or seven months' time. We have gonn pretty thoroughly into tho question of miners' phthisis, and wo aro convinced that, on tho Rand at any rate, tho evil can be successfully combated by the conversion of "dry" to "wet" mining by tlui use of jets in all developmental work and in drilling of what aro called locally backholes, that is, holes which aro being drilled upwards and will not- therefore retain water. Tho Western Australian Commission, in its report of 1906, was very favorably impressed by tho possibilities of an apparatus devised by 'Mr Armand Caudan, of Kalgoorlie, for use with rock drills. It consists of an adjustable tabular arm, with a trumpot-shaped mouth, which he proposed to fit pretty closely to tho rock face round tho drill hole by means of a pneumatic cushion. . . J''ngineers on tho Rand, however, consider this suggestion an impracticable one, as miners who will not tako tho trouble to use tho ordinary jet wiJl certainly not take the trouble to adjust a mechanism of this kind.

"I think that I am Bnfc in saying," inUls Dr Porter, "that our Commission will at onco recommend tho compulsory pro virion of sufficient clean water for jet purport at each working faco in development work, and the heavy penalising of the in in it who fails to it6c tho water in drilling holes. It appears to mo that really the onlv place in which tho exhaust apparatus would fill a useful purpose on theso fields is in a very uteen rise, where tho use of the water jet will practically mean that tho men arc kept wet throughout the whole shift. Against the water jet, is the objection that wetness favors ankylostomiasis, but this can be combated, us in Belgian and Wcatphalian mines, by proper attention to excrement disposal."