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|_B. CAMPBELL.

37. Do you know the difference between the wet and the dry bulb? —No. 38. Mr. Parry.'] In regard to the appointment of a shot-firer in charge of each district, do you think that would have the effect of minimizing accidents at present caused by the handling of dynamite?— Yes, I believe it would. 39. Does the dynamite have any injurious effect upon you?— Yes, there have been times when I have been so overcome by it that I have had to ask the-shift boss to let me up. It affects me in the head. 40. Do you retch at all from the effect of it? —Occasionally. 41. I would like to know your opinion as to the necessity for appointing an assistant to the engine-driver? —I expect it would make matters a good deal safer. 42. Have you known many accidents resulting from firing in any other place but Waihi ? — Yes, I had a mate killed in the Talisman. Ido not know what happened, whether the first shot ran or whether he was spitting too many holes —he was firing about eight or nine. A hole in the corner was left, and the shot went off and injured him. 43. Do you feel any ill effect from mining?— Yes, I do. I know that I could not do the work now which I used to get through before I started mining. 44. You also think the trucks are too heavy? —Yes. 45. What do you think is responsible for the majority of the accidents which take place at Waihi? —It is the contract system under which we work. 46. Did your party ask for the door to be placed in the level —did you make any complaints? —Yes, complaints were made to the shift bosses pretty often. I was present in the stope when it was mentioned to Mr. Gilmour, and the door was put up shortly afterwards. 47. You corroborate the evidence of previous witnesses in regard to the change-houses and sanitation ? —Yes. 48. Mr. Cochrane.'] You say you desire the standard temperature to be fixed at 75° or 76° : what do you desire if it rose above that?— Shorter hours. Six hours would be a fair thing. 49. And would you allow any time to elapse in which the thermometer stood at that before the six-hour shifts were actually started ?—Yes, I would give it a day or two to see if it got any cooler. 50. As to electric firing, do you favour the use of the battery in drives as well as in rises? — No, Ido not. I would sooner use the fuse in the face —that is, provided the drive was not wet. Where it is wet the battery is the better. 51. As to swing-doors, do you think they would be efficient in providing really good ventilation?— They would in some of the stopes, but where the lode is naturally hot I do not think the ventilation would be much improved by their use. They might cause a draught and clear the stope of smoke, but it would not be much cooler. 52. I think you said you worked with machine drills? —Yes. 53. Have you the small popper or hammer drill?—l have never worked a popper. 54. Mr. Eeed.] Have you ever known of a round of holes failing to explode when fired by an electric battery?— Yes; we put it down to a fault in the cables. 55. How many holes do you fire per round? —T have fired as many as sixteen, and only got two or three to go off. 56. What was the reason of that?—At that time we were using the short cap, and we understood afterwards that it is the long cap with a high tension which should have been used. 57. Have you ever experienced or heard of hangfires or misfires when the electric battery has been used? —No. I presume you mean, did it explode after I had worked the machine? No. 58. Have you known of the men in the Waihi Mine interfering with the brattice so as to take the air from another man's place and send it into their own? —No, I have not seen them do it, but T have seen the brattice pulled down. 59. Is it a common practice for the miners to pull it down?—l do not Enow of its being a common practice, but I have noticed it done under our stope. They do not exactly tear it down, but there are nails on each side, and when we are trucking the cloth is thrown over them. 60. Has the brattice been accidentally torn down? —I could not say. 61. Is it frequently torn down?— No. 62. You stated that the hardest work you have done in the Waihi Mine was trucking?— Yes. 63. Was that hardship owing to the heat? —No, that was owing to the size of the trucks, the quantity of dirt, and the bad lines. 64. So that trucking was more severe up«n you than working in a temperature of 81° saturated?— Yes; that is, recently. There was a time when the trucking was easier, when we had srood-running trucks, but the trucking under present conditions is harder than working in Rlsegood's stope. 65. Would you propose to make the truckers work only six hours also? —You could make it easier for the truckers by using smaller trucks, and so forth. 66. As regards the six-hour places, would you make it six hours from bank to bank or at the actual working-place? —From bank to bank. 67. How many hours would that be in Elsegood's stope? —About five and a half. 68. Would you only take half an hour going to and from your place—would you only lose half an hour out of the six? —We may lose a little more. 69. Do you include crib-time in the five hours and a half? How much would that be? —Not very long —perhaps a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes on a six-hour shift. 70. The Chairman.] You say that trucking is worse than working in hot places : is it the heat you complain about or the hard work?—lt is not the heat. There is not much heat on the levels, but usually n good current of air. Tt is on account, of the bad lines, and so forth.