13

H.—l6

"While upon the subject of legislation, I should state that it still remains for savants to devise some improved method for conducting arbitrations between the Government and mine owners and managers, so as to facilitate the settlement of disputes. There has been no time to consider this point sufficiently in all its bearings so as to include any new provision in respect of this matter in the draft amended bill; but I think that the following extract from an article published in the Lyttelton Times, of the 24th of March, 1879, will commend itself to the consideration of all persons interested in this important question of mining law :— " The present law is good, and for a commencement admirable. But it does not go far enough. Two amendments suggest themselves at the outset as necessary. They refer to the power of inspectors in a very important particular, and to the qualifications of mining managers. As the law stands at present, inspectors, if they have reason to find fault with anything in the conduct of a mine as dangerous to the lives of the work people, have no power to enforce the demand for alterations. In case of refusal to comply with those demands the matter is referred to an arbitration, the formalities of which must make it tedious. If the danger could be made to wait until the arbitration is over, then arbitration would be a wise plan. But if somebody is killed before the arbitrators have done talking, arbitration becomes worse than a farce. In such a case the neglect of the Inspector's warning will of course bring the manager under the law of manslaughter ; but the object of mining inspection is not to punish people, but to prevent accidents. The punishment of the careless is neither protection nor cure. If recusant managers were, in cases of accident, to be hanged for neglect of warnings from the proper quarter, the matter might be simplified. It would, we think, be better to give the inspector power to stop work in cases in which he thought the danger great enough, making him responsible for the consequences. After the work was stopped arbitration might be resorted to. It is obvious that, if mining managers were properly qualified the cases of difference between them and properly qualified inspectors would be few. This brings us to the second point—the qualification of managers. In the present state of the law they are not called upon to pass any examination or hold any certificate. A mine owner may, if he chooses, go into the street and pick out the first butcher, baker, or candlestick maker that he can induce to take charge of his mine. Of course no one would be such a fool as to select a man for such a post who is absolutely incompetent. But the point is that no one should be allowed to take charge of a mine who is not completely competent. The same rule should be followed as in the cases of shipmasters, lawyers, doctors, architects, engineers, surveyors, and the members of other professions requiring skill and involving responsibility. It ought to be no more possible for a man without a certificate to take charge of a mine than for a man who has no diploma to assume command of a hospital. The sooner the law recognizes this principle the better. If the two amendments above pointed out were adopted, the efficiency of the Mining Department would be greatly increased." The question of effectual control and inspection of mines, other than coal, including all gold mines, is also a matter which could not be fully considered with the limited time at the disposal of this department for framing the draft amended Bill. This, however, is a question which has been repeatedly referred to in the press for years past, and as accidents of a serious nature frequently occur in gold and other mines, as well as in coal mines, it appears that no legislation upon the regulation of mines would be complete unless it provided for the control and inspection of all mines of whatever description. The draft amended Bill, in its present shape, provides for this, although consideration has been given chiefly to the provisions affecting coal mines. It may still be open to question whether there should not be distinctly separate Acts for regulating coal mines, and all mines other than coal. " The Gold Mining Districts Act, 1873," (which is only in force in the Hauraki Gold Mining District) contains provisions for the inspection of gold mines ; but something more than this appears to have been considered necessary in framing " The Eegulation of Mines Act, 1874," or its provisions would probably have been restricted to the control of coal mines only.

Means of Transport of Coal Productions.— Conclusion. I cannot close this report, which, it should be remembered, is merely a report upon the initiatory proceedings connected with the control of mines under the authority of an Act only recently brought into force, and therefore necessarily incomplete in many particulars, without remarking upon the importance of improving the means of transit to and from coal-producing centres. I think it is patent to everyone who considers the matter that the difficulties in the way of transit form the principal obstacle to the more extended consumption in the Colony of our own coal; and in these days of progress it is not a pleasing spectacle to observe the successful continuance of business in coal imports, when we have evidence of enormous areas of coal of our own of excellent quality, only requiring a sufficiently cheap and safe means of transport to render it a marketable article largely in demand throughout the whole Colony. Olivek Wakefield.