H.-IS.

has been made. No weekly report. General Rules neither hung up nor distributed ; Special Rules, except in two cases, both. 29. St. Andrew's Coal Mine. —This is not the same mine mentioned in last year's report; but the total output from that mine has been added, as it is the same lease. A good plan exists, and the Act is observed. 30. JSFgapara Colliery. —Introduced Act. 31. Shag 'Point Coal Mine. —Boys are employed overtime, and no register is kept. Men ride on the set in the engine-plane, which is a dangerous practice. One man has been hurt by it. Mr. Williams did not report this accident. There was, when I was at the mine, no plan of the workings, but one has since been sent to me by Mr. Hutcheson, C.E., who did the survey. A door was propped open whilst on its hinges, contrary to special rule. The ventilation was poor, though a communication had been made with the old workings. The roof, as mentioned in a former report (September last), is bad, and also insufficiently supported, as I had occasion to point out. A few weeks after my visit, a man was hurt by a fall of roof. This was, I believe, reported to you, in default of an inspector of the district. Mr. Williams informs me that the present output is 1,100 to 1,200 tons per week. 32. Elliott's Coal Mine, Palmerston, Otago. —Merely a prospecting drive. 33. Hill's Creek.- —No information. 34. Hyde Coal Mine. —Has not been visited. Messrs. McAuley and Main have kindly informed me that this mine has been worked only during the past summer, and that no account of the output has been kept. 35. St. Balkan's Coal Mine. —This mine is worked opencast, and employs only one man. lam indebted to Messrs. Rolland Brothers for the information given. 36. Kyeburn Coal.Mine. —Messrs. McCready and Combes have been good enough to forward the statistics of this mine. 37. Welshman's Gully Coal Mine. —Mr. Owens, the proprietor, sent me the particulars of this mine. He also stated the output as " 500 loads," which I have put down as tons, though it will probably be more. 38. Alexandra Coal Mine. —Both shafts require fencing. Vertical ladders are used. The air is good, and the mine is in good order. 39. Manuherilcia Coal Mine. —There is only one man working underground —a Chinaman, who does not know how to read English. Though there is only one outlet, the workings are well ventilated, like the hold of a ship, by a windsail. The total output given is only from this shaft. The old mine, which was worked by a drive, was abandoned during the floods. 40. Cromwell Coal Mine is in very bad order ; but, being little else than a prospecting drive, much is not to be expected. The old shaft, with good engines, &c, was destroyed by the floods. The shaft mentioned in the table is only just commenced, to the dip. Since writing the above, Mr. Muter has informed me (June 4th) that the mine is no longer worked. 41. BannocJcburn Coal Mine is an old mine, worked by a drive. The coal is becoming worked out. 42. Kawarau Coal Mine, Cromwell. —The coal here stands nearly on edge, and is, therefore, more difficult to work and ventilate. The air requires guiding. 43. Bannockburn Coal Mine was formerly worked by Mr. Lawrence, but is now abandoned. 44. Clyde Coal Mine is worked on no system; and the owner, manager, workman and carter, who works alone, will probably some day be hurt or killed, and nobody will know of it for days. On my representing that the pit was worked in a dangerous and unsystematic manner, Mr. Marie replied as follows : —" With regard to the last part of your communication with respect to the working of the pit, I ought to know whether it is dangerously worked or not, having to do the whole of the pit-work myself ; and that, if any accident arises through my neglect, no one will be the sufferer but myself." There appears to be some force in this argument; still, an individual who has shown so much perseverance as Mr. Marie can ill be spared, and suicide is inadmissible. However, if a man chooses to take the risk, no amount of interference—unless an Inspector shared his solitude, and were constantly down the pit—could prevent his working the mine in his own way. A curious fact in connection with this is, that Mr. Marie carries the coals in bags on his back, up a considerable incline, out of the mine, not caring even to adopt the wheelbarrow, which is popular in this district. 45. JEarnscloiu/h Colliery, Clyde. —At this colliery I found two boys, who informed me that their ages were respectively thirteen and fifteen, that they got the coal while their father carted it, and that they were sometimes ten hours in the mine in the course of one day. The entrance to the mine is by a dip drive —in one place only 23$ inches in heigkt. The roof is exceedingly bad. The place where the boys usually worked was past an old road to the rise; on exploring this road, and surmounting a small pig-back, my candle was at once extinguished by an accumulation of carbonic acid gas. This gas was within twenty yards of the travelling-road, and might at any moment have increased in volume sufficiently to pour over the brow of the hill and down to the travelling-road, so as to cut off the boys' retreat. The younger child said he frequently had headache, owing to the bad air. The owner and manager of the mine, who was also the father of the boys, appeared to be—l must in justice to him, say —in total ignorance of the imminent danger existing. Still, such young boys ought on no account to be allowed to work alone in the safest mine, much less in one where there was so much danger as in this. The mine was never examined before the boys went in, although the father did appear to go in occasionally. lat once gave notice under section 19, and Mr. Holden (who said the younger of the two was fourteen years of age) replied, as follows: " I hereby agree to remedy the said danger, by stopping the employment of the boys mentioned in the mine, except under the supervision of myself or some other responsible person of mature age." 46. Clyde Coal Pit. —This mine, which was worked by a shaft, was closed by the floods. The total output given is by no means exact, Mr. Holt not having, he informs me, kept an accurate account. 47. Qibbstown. —Mr. Dooley informs me that the exact amount is not known to him, but that the annual output is about a thousand tons. 48 to 50. McPherson's, Crawson's, Low and Robertson's. —All open-work lignite mines, at Roxburgh. Crawson's can hardly be called a sale-pit, having raised only some five or six hundred tons ia ten years, and of course nobody is regularly employed.

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