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portion of the seam to a height of from 50 ft. to 60 ft., when the coal thins out to an unworkable thickness. The south-west section of the mine has been worked out, the pillar coal having been extracted. On the north-east portion of the lease an adit level is being driven where the coal is showing in an old drive driven many years ago, known as Shephard's drive. It is said that the coal-seam is 7 ft. thick there. A ground tram is being constructed to connect with the mine mainhaulage tram-line. No. 1 Mine, freehold : Four men are working there taking out pillar coal. The area is small, and six months hence the mine will be closed. No. 2 Mine,, freehold : Four men are at work, pillar coal being worked, and the mine will be worked out in a few months, I found all three mines being safely worked, and the ventilation good. The coal mined for the year was 28,633 tons, of which 15,946 tons was from the Crown lease and 12,687 tons from the company's freehold, being an increase of 7,379 tons as compared with the previous year. Foot and Doel's Crown Lease (Part of Section 2, Block 16, Hikurangi Survey District).- A portion of the mine has been worked and the pillars removed. Another mine having been opened, and the main drive extended to the boundary, it was found that the levels right and left soon entered soft unsaleable coal, with no prospect of improving, therefore the area is very small, and at present it appears that the mine will be closed in a few months' time. Some of the pillar coal has already been worked. I found the mine carefully worked. During the year 7,733 tons of coal were mined, and during the previous year 1,855 tons, being an increase of 5,878 tons for the present period. Kerr and Wyatt's Crown Lease (Section N.E. 39, Block 16, Hikurangi Survey District). — The company has been very successful in locating coal left in by a former mining company, and during the year it has mined 6,924 tons of coal, as compared with 7.585 tons the previous year, being a decrease of 661 tons. The mine is being carefully worked, and very little coal is lost. It would appear that the mine will be worked out during 1919. The Hikurangi Coal Company purchase the coal. Cunningham's Crown Lease (Section N.E. 48, Block 16, Hikurangi Survey District). —The owner has suffered from the influenza and has not been at work since. The prospects at the mine are very poor. During the year 469 tons of coal were mined. North New Zealand Coal-mining Company. —This mining company is in the unfortunate position of being unable to sell its coal. It is alleged that the coal is of an inferior quality, yet the analysis from samples taken by me from every mine in that district proved that it was equal to any of the other coal. Unfortunately the company has been mining in a highly faulted area, and to some extent the coal would be adversely affected. A more vigorous development of the mine and the extension of the main dip headings would, I believe, have proved coal of better quality, where the faulting would have been less frequent, and the difficulties now facing the company might have been avoided. The coal in the deepest workings of the mine was much thicker and less subject to faulting- than the area previously worked, and it is stated that the old Kamo Mine was working the coal some distance ahead of this mine, and that the coal in that mine was very good and the seam from 8 ft. to 10 ft. thick. I examined the mine in May last just prior to it being closed. Twenty-five men were employed in and about the mine. Serious Non-fatal Accidents during 1918. Taupiri Collieries. —George Williams, miner, slipped and fell while using a spanner on a coal-cutting machine, and sprained his knee. The accident, which was not considered serious at first, happened on 6th August, but later the miner had to enter the Hamilton Hospital and have the semi-luna cartilage removed. The man is still off work, and to all appearances the knee will be permanently weak. William Ingram, with some other youths, was tending to a rope in the Extended Mine. The rope had been at a standstill, and the youths were sitting down ; the rope started, and Ingram put his right hand on the rope to raise himself up, with the result that his hand was drawn into a pulley and two fingers severed, and the third so severely injured that it had to be amputated at the Hamilton Hospital. The accident happened on the 24th September. Ben Housley had two fingers amputated while working at the screening-belt at the Extended Mine on the 21st May. Pukemiro Collieries. —Bene Poutu, miner, permanently disabled through conjunctivitis in a severe form, 22nd February. Richard Shilton, miner, permanently disabled through conjunctivitis (severe) caused by injury to the eye by flying coal, 20th June. Hikurangi Collieries.-— James Russell, miner, had his left ankle injured on the 26th March by a prop falling upon it; off work 214 days. Northern Collieries, Kiripaka. —John Craig, miner, sustained a comminuted fracture of the right leg, while getting down coal, by a lump of coal falling away from a fault and crushing his leg against a prop. I was at the mine when the accident happened, and found the place well timbered right up to the face ; a sprag had been in position under the coal, and had just been removed when the accident happened. Date of accident, sth October. During the year there occurred sixty-four accidents, which necessitated the injured persons being off work twenty-five ■ days or more, six of these being from eye accidents due to flying coal. There also occurred forty-one other eye accidents, causing the sufferers to be off work for a shorter period.