o.—_

16

The following is a description of fatal accidents reported under the Mining Act during 1919 : —

IV. GOLD-MINES. The following statement shows the value of the bullion-production, also the dividends declared, number of persons employed, and number of gold-mines and dredges:—

ii.it,. Name and Situation ''"''-• lot Mine or Operations. Name, Age, and Occupation ol Person killed. Value, Age, and Occupation ol Person killed. Description ol! Accident, and Remarks. 1919. 23 April : Westland Prospecting Syndicate's dredge, Ahaura River John Brosnahan (39), dredge hand William Crysell (50), dredge hand Thomas Reynolds (43), dredge hand John Brosnahan (39), dredge hand William Crysell (50), dredge hand Thomas Reynolds (43), dredge hand Leonard S. Humphries (16). mine contractor This dredge had suspended gold-dredging operations at Ahaura River, and had recently been acquired by the West land Prospecting Syndicate for- its property on the Arahura Kivcr. On this date the new owners were engaged shifting the dredge down-stream to a more convenient site for dismantling purposes. After- lunch three of the dredge hands appear to have got into one of the boats, probably to return a coil of wire rope which was known to be there. The river was in flood at the time, and by some means the boat was overturned. No one saw how the accident actually happened, 'but it was probably caused by a submerged log coming down the flooded river and striking the boat. A cry was heard by those on the dredge, and they saw the men struggling in the water. The second boat was got out, but the unfortunate men disappeared before they could be reached. John Brosnahan e body was recovered a week later, and an inquest hold, at which a verdict was returned that " The deceased mot his death by drowning through the. capsizing of a boat, but there was no evidence to show how the boat was capsized." The bodies of Crysell and Reynolds were recovered one month and nine months later respectively, and ai. formal inquiries held verdicts wen; returned in accordance with the inquest, on Brosnahan. Humphries and his mate on the early part of the shift were engaged cleaning down the face of a rise from a stope above an adit level. Afterwards they went outside and commenced working a hole through from the surface, as the rise was expected to break through at this point. Humphries left his mate working and returned to the rise, probably to knock to him from below. Two hours or so later his mate found the deceased's body half-way down the rise, with his head caught behind a lath on the footwall. At the inquest held a verdict was returned that deceased met his death at Wakamarina through having his neck broken. At a subsequent inquiry held at Blenheim on the 23rd February, 1920, upon the application oi the Inspector of Mines (under section 266 of the Mining Act, 1908) the Board found that the minemanager had not caused the rise to be, timbered securely as required by the Mining Act, and that his negligence in that respect was the cause of the fatality. His certificate was suspended for three months, and on proceedings being taken against him under seotion 254, subsection (11), he was lined £5. 14 Dee. Dominion Consolidated Mining and Development Company, Wakamarina

i) „j„ 1.1 i , Dividends raid, Production of ! Q1( ' ' Bullion, 1919.* lTJ _ . , „ (All Mines.) (By Registered Comx ' parnes only.) £ £ Quartz-mining ... ... 574,021 118,831 Dredge miningf ... ... 47,838 2,845 Alluvial mining!: ... 80,273 2,068 Totals, 1919 ... 702,132 123,744 Number of Persons ordinarily employed. Number of Productive Quartz mines, Alluvial Mines, and Dredges, 1919. 1,423 138 432 37 19 131 123,744 1,993 187 * In addition to the gold produced from the gold-mines, silver was obt is used in preference to "gold." -|- The bullion production is from nineteen dredges, b;.t the dividends perty of registered companies. The profits of privately owned dredges ani statement incomplete. J The bullion-production is from 131 alluvial claims, but the dividend are the property of registered companies, 1-mines. silver was obte .incd from them, hence the word " bullion " ges, b;.t the dividends lely owned dredges and given are only from four of these, the promines are unobtainable, which renders this tims, but the dividends are only ascertainable from those few that