COAL-NINES ACT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 85, Issue 229, 29 September 1941, Page 7

COAL-NINES ACT

MINOR ALTERATIONS TO BE MADE BILL BROUGHT BEFORE THE HOUSE OUTCOME OF HUNTLY DISASTER (P.A.I Parliament Bldgs., Sept. 25. “This Bill embodies a few minor alterations to the Coalmines Act brought about as the result of the Huntly disaster,” said the Minister of Mines. Hot,. P. C. Webb, moving the second reading, pro forma, of the Coalmines Amendment Bill in the House of Representatives to-night. The Bill was read a second time pro forma and referred to the Goldfields and Coalmines Committee. “It has been discovered that there is not sufficient supervision in connection with mines where electricity is extensively used, and the recommendations of the commission have been embodied in the Bill to enable the appointment of an inspector with a knowledge of electricity to be made," Mr. Webb continued. “Ti*? Bill provides that all electric equipment must be inspected by a man with an understanding of electricity." The Minister also said that a clause in the Bill enabled the Inspector of Mines to make provision for a man driving a winch to do so without having to spend a long time in study. The Bill embodied a recommendation of the Coal Council and had been agreed to by the mine owners and employees, Mr. Webb added. It was, quite definitely, not a contentious measure.

“A majority of its clauses arc of a machinery nature," he said. "It is stipulated tnat particulars of boring operations must, be supplied to the Inspector of Coalmines. Another clause permits any person authorised by the Minister to enter land to make geological or geophysical surveys in connection with coalmining. The owner, or occupier, of the land is entitled to compensation for the damage done in making the survey. “Every limited coalmining company is required to furnish, before January 31. each year, a true statement of its affairs at the end of the preceding financial year. Coalmine owners who have advanced money to workers to acquire a homo may, with the worker’s written consent, deduct from his wage the agreed amounts toward repayment, provided the terms of the advance are approved by the Minister, and the Inspector of Coalmines is given power, in certain circumstances, to require the appointment for any particular mine of a manager holding higher certificate than that normally demtnded. The inspector may also require a ventilation survey if the percentage of inflammable gas in any working place is not less than It per cent. He may also /ve an improvement made to the ventilation.”