H.—l6

2

In order to avoid any departmental confusion, it was also decided that the placing of the control and inspection of mines under the Act, under the Mines Department, should not be understood in any way to interfere with the scientific exploration of coal mines conducted by the Geological Department. Precautions for Safety—General and Special Rules—lnspections—Reports— and Statistics. Immediately after the appointment of the two Inspectors first mentioned, a copy of the Act was forwarded from this office to each of the coal mine managers, to whom I also addressed a circular letter, directing their attention to part VII. of the Act, which provides for the establishment of Special Rules, in addition to the General Rules contained in part 11., for the conduct and guidance of managers, and of all persons employed in or about a mine, as under the particular condition of such mine may be best calculated to insure the health and safety of the persons employed therein. Apprehending the difficulty in which mine managers would be placed upon being suddenly and unexpectedly called upon to construct special rules, I deemed it expedient to forward with my circular letter a set of such Rules, altered, after due consideration, by the two Inspectors (Messrs. Cox and Binns) and myself, from Special Rules framed in accordance with " The Coal Mines Regulation Act, 1872," of Great Britain, so as to be applicable as nearly as possible to each condition of coal mining in the colony, of course leaving it optional with the managers to accept or alter these Rules, or frame their own and transmit them for the Governor's approval; and lam happy to state that this plan succeeded well, a large proportion of managers accepting the set of Special Rules sent to them, thus saving much delay and correspondence which might have occurred before a different set of Special Rules for each mine could have been agreed to. A copy of the Special Rules particularly referred to here will be found published in the New Zealand Gazette, No. 74, of the 10th July instant. It was not considered expedient to communicate with the owners or managers of mines other than coal with reference to the provisions of the Act affecting such mines, as, looking at the large number and various condition of these mines, and the inapplicability of the provisions of the Act in many of these cases, together with the small staff of Inspectors under the control of this department, it would have been impossible to have brought the Act into working order in these mines before the time had arrived for the consideration by Parliament of an amended Bill, including provisions for dealing with such questions. Shortly before the Act was brought into operation, Messrs. Binns and Cox had inspected the coal mines in Canterbury and Otago, and as soon as Mr. Binns was appointed an Inspector under the Act, he proceeded to inspect all the coal mines in the North Island, and all those of any importance upon the West Coast of the Middle Island. Dr. Hector having kindly forwarded Mr. Cox's report, to the date of the Act coming into force, here for publication, complete reports of these inspections will be found in the Appendix ; also a report by Mr. Cox upon his inspection of the D'Urville Island Copper Mine. I need hardly add, that as thorough and vigorous a process of inspection of mines as can be undertaken by the present staff is now being continued. The tabular statement of statistics of Workings in Coal Mines—Return No. 1 following the Appendix, referred to in Mr. Cox's report of the 19th of June—has been completed by additional statistics obtained by Mr. Binns during recent inspections ; and various managers of mines have been good enough to assist me in preparing the columns showing the output for the year 1878, and the approximate total output of coal from all coal mines of any importance in the colony to a fixed date, from which future returns of coal production in New Zealand may be compiled. A return of Coal Imports and Exports, for the year ending 31st of December, 1878, as supplied by the Secretary and Inspector of Customs, will be found in Return No. 2 following the Appendix. This return shows the quantity of coal imported during the year 1878 as 174,148 tons, being an increase of 18,152 tons over the quantity imported in 1877. If we add the total output from coal mines in the ■colony during 1878 to the; quantity imported, and after deducting the quantity exported during the same period, assume that the whole has been consumed here, the total consumption in the colony during 1878 would be 332,445 tons, or an increase over the quantity shown in Dr. Hector's report as consumed during 1877, of 37,465 tons; the increase of coal derived from mines in the colony during 1878 being 23,234 tons over the quantity raised in 1877. The Accident at the Kaitangata Railway and Coal Company's Mine. As soon as the preliminary arrangements for the working of the Act had been put into shape, I made it my business, in connection with other matters, to visit the Kaitangata Coal Mine, in which the accident occurred upon the 21st February, resulting in the loss of 34 lives, I am aware that, in remarking upon the circumstances attending the occurrence of this unfortunate catastrophe, lam treading upon delicate ground; but, as I have not only visited the scene of the explosion, but have also read with care everything of importance which has been published upon the subject, I feel it to be no more than my duty to state briefly the points upon which opinions differ in reference to this matter. From the evidence taken at the inquest, the jury agreed to a verdict to the effect that the necessary precautions in the management of the mine had not been observed, and that the immediate cause of the accident was that the old workings, containing explosive gas or fire-damp, were entered with a naked light. A question was, however, afterwards raised in published correspondence—no doubt with a view to challenging the correctness of the verdict—as to the source of the accumulation of gas which exploded in the old workings, and on one side it was held that a strong probability existed that the gas made its appearance suddenly, and did not originate in the mine but in Mr. Shore's adjacent No. 1 Kaitangata Mine below. Mr. Shore, the owner of the No. 1 Kaitangata Mine, however, altogether denies the correctness of this view, and not only states his positive opinion that the fire-damp did not emanate