ELECTRIC SAFETY LAMPS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 6, 4 December 1926, Page 9

ELECTRIC SAFETY LAMPS.

QUESTION OF CANDLE-POWER. PLAINTIFFS NON-SUITED. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, Dec. 3. The question of the candle-power of electric safety lamps was involved in the text of a claim by miners for arrears of additional wages heard in the Supreme Court. John and Joseph Redfern sued the Taupiri Coalmines, Ltd., for £9O 3s 9d, representing 3d per ton on coal hewn by them jointly in the Rotomaro mine. Clause 33 of the award states that there shall be an addition of 3d to the hewing rate if, in the event of changes in the working conditions in the mine, men are required to work with lamps of less than one candle-power. Both the company and the men had assumed that the Oldham safety-lamp was of one candle-power, and accordingly, from its introduction, the lower rate was paid. It was now alleged that tests made by Professor Powell, of Canterbury College, upon an Oldham lamp from Westport showed that the lamp was less than one candle-power. After witnesses, including Professor Powell, had given evidence, Mr West, for the company, moved for a non-suit, and Mi- Justice Adams granted it, saying that plaintiffs had failed to produce evidence that the lamps used in the mine were less than one candle-power, within the meaning of the award, which did not specify any method of determining candlepower, and plaintiffs were not entitled to select a method which gave results in their favour.