JOHN FOSTER.]

3

I.—4a.

gone in to inspect a mine—reading the reports before I went in, and finding things all right—and then twenty minutes afterwards I have found them to be all wrong, through the men not knowing anything about such matters. 12. Now with regard to clause 11 : " That all Sunday work in or about a coal-mine be paid for at the rate of double ordinary time, and that overtime be paid for at the rate of time and a quarter " % —The miners look at it in this light, that double time is paid all over the world for Sunday work, and we think it is only right that we should have double time for working in a mine on Sunday. As far as Sunday work is concerned we do not want to do it, but we recognise that it can scarcely be done without in a coal-mine. 13. What do you get now ? —Time and a quarter. 14. Clause 12 : " That 2J per cent, be allowed from the Coal-miners' Accident Relief Fund for the purpose of management" I—That1 —That is practically asking the Government to assist the different secretaries throughout the colony to distribute the half-penny royalty fund on the expenditure. What that means is this : it is not 2|- per cent, on the whole of the money, but 2| per cent, on the money collected for the year. Say we have £5,000 lying down there now :we do not want 2J per cent, on that, but we want 2£ per cent, per annum on the amount coming through our hands. 15. Mr. R. McKenzie.] What would the amount be % —About £150, I think. 16. Hon. Mr. Guinness.] The total amount comes to £480. It is £893 for the whole of the mines of the colony ? —We pay £30 a year to our secretary, and we ask that per cent, on all the money raised shall be set aside each year in each mine. 17. The Chairman.] Clause 13 : " That the check inspectors be paid by the Mines Department whilst employed inspecting the mine " ? —This is a matter which we have had before the Government for some years, and we still think it is necessary. We quite recognise this, that, so far as the Inspector on the West Coast is concerned, he is not in a position to get reliable information as to the way in which a mine has been worked at all times, because if an Inspector does not visit a mine oftener than once in three or four months there can be quite a mass of coal lost without his knowing it unless the men's inspectors report it to him. This is a case of looking after the assets of the colony as well as looking after ourselves, and I think the Inspector should be brought more closely into touch with the workmen's inspectors in connection with this matter. It is the only means by which he can get information as to whether there is any loss in a mine or not. We think that if the men were paid by the Government they could do their work fearlessly, and if there were any loss in that respect they could simply book it irrespective of anybody. Our inspection of the mine is generally about once a month, while the inspection by the Inspector of Mines, I suppose, will be about once every three or four months, and it is impossible on the West Coast, I think, for him to do it any oftener in a district so large. We think these things would facilitate matters a great deal and would make the mine-owners very careful when they knew that men were on the job all the time. 18. Clause 14 : " That power be given to check inspectors to have any practice or thing discontinued or done which they consider to be dangerous or injurious to the health of the workmen employed in or about a mine " ?—At present if anything is done in the mine we can say nothing to any one about it —-all that we can do is to report it. The Act gives us no power to say whether it shall or shall not be done, and we ask for power to say whether anything that is unsatisfactory shall be continued or discontinued if it is considered to be dangerous or injurious to the health of the workmen. 19. Clause 15 : " That the hours of labour in mines be not more than eight hours from surface to surface in any one shift " ?—The reason we are asking for that is this : some four years ago we made an agreement for two years, and at the end of that agreement we filed a reference. The reference was lying some nine months before the case was heard, and then the Court refused to give a further award, and in consequence we have had to work under the old award. Instead of working eight hours from bank to bank we have had to work eight and a half. At the present time any mine that is not working under an agreement is working eight hours from bank to bank. The State collieries are working eight hours, and several other mines are working eight hours where the award has been altered since the passing of the Act, but where they are working under the existing award they have to work eight and a half, and that is the position with Granity, Denniston, Blackball, and Reefton. At Brunner, I believe, they are working eight hours from bank to bank, and yet the biggest company in the colony is exempt from that provision. We believe the Court has gone beyond its jurisdiction in not making an award when requested. We think that by the Court being called upon to consider the reference, if they did not alter the award one iota, but extended it for a further term, we should have come under the Eighthours Act; but they did not make any alteration in the award, and we have still to work under the old one. That is the reason why we are asking for this provision. We think it should come into operation immediately the law is made. 20. Clause 16 : " That in any section of a mine where inflammable gas exists no naked lights shall be used, and where the various sections of a mine where inflammable gas is found are connected one with the other by workings of any description safety-lamps shall be used throughout the mine " ?—We think that is a very necessary clause. It appears to me, after looking through statistics as to explosions here and there, that it is time this matter was taken in hand, and we did away with some of the present dangerous practices. It is necessary in my opinion to make it compulsory, where gas is known to exist in a mine, to use safety-lamps. I have been in a mine myself—in the Brunner in fact, many years before the explosion took place—where I had to work with a safety-lamp, and yet within a few yards of me there was a man working with an open light. We think that safety-lamps should be used in the different sections of a mine where inflammable gas is found in any of them. I would like to amend the clause a little as there has been an oversight. We have had a measure before the Government dealing with the sealing-off of old workings, and we have found by evidence that it is in consequence of these old workings giving off gas that a lot of these explosions have occurred, and we have come