C;— 4.

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4. What length of time were you working at Home ?—I was in the Charlotte Pit at Newcastle-on-Tyne for ten years; in New South Wales for eight years—at Stockton, Bullock Island, Wallsend, and Tenilba. In New Zealand I have worked at Denniston and Seddonville (which was then the Cardiff Company's mine), and here at the Northern Mine. 5. How long have you been here ?—Two years and ten months. 6. Will you tell the Commission briefly the nature of your complaints ? —I complain of any company not being forced to have fans for ventilating the mine, the sanitation of the mine, and the change-houses. 7. Have you had any experience of bath-houses ?—No ; but I want to try them. 8. How far have you to walk from the mine to your home ?—Nearly three miles. There is no township nearer the mine than that. 9. Mr. Dowgray.] Have you ever made any complaint about the ventilation?—l have made a complaint regarding the ventilation in a place where they had me working a six-hour shift, but I generally come out when I find the air too bad. 10. How often have you had to come out ?—I have not come out now for a long time. I would like to see something recorded here to ensure a current of air being provided by a fan. 11. Are you aware that there is a fan in the Northern Mine % —Yes. 12. The Chairman.'] Since the fan has been installed, in what sections have you been working ? — I have been in Nos. 5 and 6 sections, but the fan has never done that portion of the mine any good. There is one shaft sunk to ventilate No. 5 and another for No. 6, but the drive should be made big enough to bring the air after you. 13. Mr. Dowgray.] What distance are the drives away from the stentons ? —The place I am referring to is through the pillars and through old bords that have fallen. But I consider that any drive should be taken wide enough to get the brattice up to you. 14. Is it not the custom to take it so % —No, it is the custom to take it in narrow work. I suggest that it should be wide enough to bring the air into you. 15. The Do you use much dynamite ? —Yes, in the stone. 16. What time do you leave the place after a shot ?—I generally wait fifteen minutes before going in again. If the drive was wide enough I could go back straight away. 17. Mr. Dowgray.] How do you account for those Nos. 5 and 6 sections not benefiting from the fan I—l1 —I say that there should be legislation passed to provide for the air being drawn in one direction. These sections are isolated. The only section to which the fan does any good is near the fan itself. It has no chance to do any good except the wind is in certain directions. 18. The fan has not had any effect upon these sections % —No, the only thing which affects them is natural ventilation. Sometimes there is an intake and sometimes a return. I have been working close alongside the bottoms of these shafts. 19. Have you had any experience of the wet trucking-roads which have been referred to ?—No. 20. Is it possible for the return for one section to be the intake for another section ? —Yes, up there where those two shafts are. 21. How does this mine compare with the other mines you have worked in as regards ventilation ?—lt compares very unfavourably, because the drives are too narrow. It is all haphazard. 22. Mr. Parry.] You say, Mr. Little, that when a place gets too hot you quit ? —Yes. 23. Have you suffered any bad effects at all from working in these hot places ? —Yes, you cannot eat as well; that is the only bad effect it has had on me. Sometimes I have come home with half my " tucker " in my tin. 24. Which do you think is the more fatiguing—working on the surface in a temperature of 84°, or working below at the same temperature ? —I could not tell you. I have never worked outside a mine. 25. You think it is a great disadvantage not having change-houses and drying-apparatus : you are anxious to see them provided ?—Yes, especially where the men have a long way to walk home. 26. Have you had any experience at all of taking temperatures in mines—as a check inspector or as a workmen's inspector ?—No; but I can speak from experience of Mr. Wallace's place. He said it was 82°, and I can only say it was quite hot enough for me. 27. Do you think there should be a maximum heat laid down by law for a six-hour place ?—Yes, I do. 28. As regards sanitary appliances ?—I think there should be pans kept, where a man has a certain distance to walk out to daylight. In some places a man has to walk seven, or eight, or perhaps ten minutes, and that means a quarter of an hour in'a man's day's work. In places where they are handy to the surface it would be better for them to go outside. 29. What is your opinion as to the maximum temperature ?—I think 75° is high enough. 30.' Mr. Fletcher.] In regard to Nos. 5 and 6 shafts, where you say the wind changes the aircurrent, are those two shafts downcasts ? —I do not know what they are supposed to be. The air will be coming down one day and going up another day. 31. Then, what have those shafts been sunk for ? —They are isolated. The shaft they had there was closed by the creep ; they drove a drive up, but the old shaft collapsed. 32. The next shaft they put down was meant for a downcast ? —No, that was in a separate section ; there was no return round to them at all. 33. Are neither of those shafts connected with the main return so that the fan could have an effect upon the air going down the shafts ? —No, I do not think so ; that is what makes me think that the fan has no effect upon the two shafts. 84. Mr. Reed.] You stated that you have generally been working in places in the Northern Mine where the conditions were good ?—Yes, generally speaking, I have been lucky enough to cavil good places.