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2957. Was it decidedly less valuable ?—Yes ; but Ido not know how much, nor how they deal with it. 2958. Mr. Moody.] It contained a good many of these nodular stones? —It was very full of stone. 2959. There were no continuous bands ?—No. 2960. Were there stony places in the Coal-pit Heath and Brunner Mines ?—Yes. More in Coal-pit Heath and Wallsend than in Brunner. The Brunner was very clean, especially in the coal beyond the fault. 2961. What is the general load of your skips?—l think the Brunner averages llf cwt. to 12c wt. 2962. And if the skips carried 12cwt. in coal and put out from 2cwt. to 3cwt. in screened coal would you consider that a fair proportion ?—We can only work on the average of the whole. A truck may have gone 2cw r t., but the average is over 6cwt. It is a very small coal. 2963. What we call the holings ?—I have known men weighed on a truck that only went 3cwt., and the other trucks would weigh from 10cw 7 t. to llcwt- or 12cwt. I have known cases where the majority of a man's trucks would weigh 12cw 7 t.,but he has filled one with holings and cuttings, and he has only weighed on that, and that counted his weight for the day. 2964. Mr. Brown.] That is hard luck ?—No, because they bring their hard luck about themselves. They fill these holings with the round coal, but they may get out an extra truck with it and get caught. One man came out to see if his truck w r ent on the weighbridge, and I had been in the mine previous to his doing this and saw the state of his place, and on looking at the book in the morning to see how many had been filled in the various places I saw this man had only filled two. I asked how he found his place in the morning, and learnt that it was full of coal. I knew he had his truck put on the weighbridge overnight, and saw how light it was, and he sent out no more trucks that day. 2965. Have the men any opportunities of observing that their trucks are weighed? —No, I do not think they have. 2966. This must have been a very exceptional instance ?—Yes, it was. He made an excuse to come out of the mine, and saw this truck was one that had gone on the bridge, and he refused to fill any more. The man was dismissed for it, and was six months in the Coal-pit Heath after that, and he came back and asked me if I had punished him enough. 2967. Was being in the Coal-pit Heath considered as a punishment ?—Yes; it was at that time, because there was very little work going. 2968. The Chairman.] How much has been spent in fault-proving by the company since the amalgamation took place ?—Well, in actual fault-proving there has not been a great deal spent. We have been finding faults, but not proving them. We have had a fault on the east side of the mine which involved a little outlay, but not much. It was on the east side of the Wallsend, and we had prospecting up to the one in the Taylorville side, and some faulty ground to go over before we found the main fault. 2969. There has been nothing done to the second Brunner fault since the amalgamation ?—No. 2970. What are the depths of the different shafts that have been put down ?—Wallsend is 650 ft., and Coal-pit Heath 300 ft. 2971. Mr. Moody.] What was the Tyneside ?—That was about 90ft., I think. 2972. The Chairman.] What was the depth of the borehole betw 7 een the Tyneside and the Wallsend?—l have heard it stated to be about 220 ft., I think. 2973. There have been no other boreholes on the surface ?—No. 2974. What was the grade of the average dip of the coal in the Brunner Mine between the two faults? —Between the two faults the average is about 1 in 3J, or about 17°, and in the coal between the Brunner fault and the river it is about 1 in 5. 2975. And in the Coal-pit Heath?—lt would average about the same —about 1 in 5. 2976. But there are heavy drops, are there not ?—Yes, near the river, beyond the windingshaft, there are heavy drops. 2977. Are they cut off by the fault, or do they disappear?— They disappear. 2978. Have they anything to do with the drop towards the river? —Yes, there is a series of steps, and it is only shown near the river. 2979. About the Greymouth management, what does the £26 cover ? —lt covers mine-manage-ment, the Brunner office, and the Greymouth office. 2980. Does that include your secretary too ?—Yes. 2981. Now, you mentioned that some of the men were, to your knowledge, in the habit of getting duplicate tickets ? —Yes. 2982. And that that was done through your clerk?—lt could only have been done through him. 2983. What is his name ?—Mr. Franklin. 2984. You know nothing about it further than that, personally ?—No. 2985. Have you been cognizant of the attempts that have been made within the last few days to arrive at some settlement of the dispute with the miners ? —Yes. 2986. Mr. Brown.] Between Mr. Dunn and Mr. Kennedy ?—Yes. 2987. Was there an arrangement offered by the company to pay 12s. a day?— Yes. 2988. Was that satisfactory to the miners, do you know ? —I understand that the men elected to take a tonnage rate. 2989. Did they apply for a tonnage rate ? —Yes, to take immediate effect. 2990. Does the printed form we have represent the offer made by the company ?—-Those are the terms now offered—yes.