A MINER'S OPINION.

Otago Witness, Issue 2861, 13 January 1909, Page 29

A MINER'S OPINION.

(Fkom Our Own Correspondent ) CHRISTCHURCH, Januaiy 6. Mr D. K. Pritchard, who has worked at the mines in Reefton, and who took ! a prominent part in the recent BlacJcball strike, speaking to a Times repoiter in Chrietchurch last evening, said that he believed that the companies' liability in regard to " mineis' disease" had been greatly exaggerated. Most of the men ! employed were single, and instead of | < working in the mines continuously, took j epells in the bush, or at other work. By that means they recuperated from any ill-effects they might feel from mine work. The coal mine owners* in attempting to raise the price of coal, were acting very unreasonably. The disease was contracted, J ■ not in coal mines, but in gold mines. A Royal Commission which investigated *he position on the Rand came to the conclu- j sion that when a man worked for from five to seven years in a gold mine his health ' must be broken, and he must have contracted miners' consumption. Even with the best of modem mining conditions, and in the light of even the highest developments of medical science, the trouble would not be preve-nt-ed. The miners were not afraid of examination for the disease ; they were afraid that it would bo^ used as an exciue for turning them off. A good deal couM be don© by means of artincial ventilation to prolong the Ihes of ;

those who were already affected, and lo arrest the evil in respect to the young men. The ventilation of the gold mines at Reefton was very bad. He had worked in the thirteenth level with only a 3in compressed air pipe to ventilate the mine. He pointed out that a miner might be thrown out of work easily, and if he was rejected on the plea of disease at one place, he would find it hard to get work at another place, and, indeed, might have difficulty in getting even ordinary pick-and-shovel work.