C.-2

61

Description of Fatal Accidents at Coal-mines, &c. —continued.

The most prolific cause of accident has been falls of coal or roof at the face in the bituminous coalseams of the West Coast. Greater vigilance is required to avoid such accidents, and systematic timbering should be carried right up to all working-faces. During the past year there has been a pronounced improvement in the management of our collieries from a safety view-point, partly due no doubt to the introduction of legislation based upon the British law. To avoid accidents constant and sustained vigilance is necessary, as there is always a tendency to revert to less careful methods after a period of immunity from accidents. This tendency all managers and Inspectors should strictly guard against.

N'ame of Person killed. Ardent. *ame of Colliery.' Cause of Accident, and Kemarks. Alfred Edward Lloyd 13/7/15 Taupiri Extended Deceased and another miner (L. Bumby) were engaged in the face of a bord 10ft. high by 14ft. wide. They had prepared for a shot to be fired, and Bumby was sounding the face—which appeared loose—with a pick, whon suddenly without warning about 30 cwt. of coal fell, striking deceased, knocking him down, breaking his thigh-bones and pelvis, besides inflicting internal injuries from which he died the same night. The Coroner's verdict was to the effect that death was accidental, no blame being attachable to any one. Deceased and F. Donovan, both miners, were engaged splitting a pillar in a place 10 ft. 6 in. high and the same width. It was well and securely timbered and had an excellent roof. A shot had been fired, tho place had then been inspected by a deputy, who informed the miners that the shot had not done good work, and he ordered them to trim away loose coal and reset sprags preparatory to drilling another hole. Deceased had carried out the first two orders, when a piece of coal fell from above the sprag, knocking him down and inflicting serious injuries from which he died two days later. A subsequent examination showed that the coal had in all probability been loosened from between two converging " backs" by the action of wedging the sprags by decoased. The Coroner's verdict was accidental death, no blame being attachable to any one. Deoeased had just oiled a roller on the endless-rope-haulage incline in the Waratea section when a sudden forward movement of the haulago-.'opc caused a tub to strike him, knocking him down, and inflicting a fracture of the pelvis and serious internal injuries, from which he succumbed. A verdict f>f accidental death was roturned. Whilst talking to a trucker at a distance of about 100 yards from the face of a dip in course of being driven, a heavy " bump " in the overhead rocks oceuired, the result of which was to throw a quantity of OJftl from a " sooty back," completely covering the deceased, and before he. could be released he died from suiiocation. Deceased was employed at the time trucking his own coal. The place had been examined daily for a period of eight, months. The Coroner found that death was accidental, and that no blame was attachable to any one. The deceased, an elderly miner, was running down a jig when he fell and ruptured his stomach, causing peritonitis, from which he died eleven days later. The Coroner returned a vordict of accidental death. This has been included among fatal mining accidents, but if he had fallen elsewhere the result would have been similar. This accident occurred while jigging in a heading 13 ft. wide was in progress. The deceased, aged sixty-eight years, was employed as a shiftman. He had been engaged repairing brattice, and, having completed this, left to go home. About fifteen minutes later a full tub was " jigged," and it was subsequently found that tho deceased, having dolayed on his way out of the mine, had been hit by the jigged tub. He subsequently admitted that no one was to blame but himself. He had evidently lost his presence of mind, as there was ample space lor the tub to pass him with safety. Maxwell Kennedy 11/8/15 Westport-Stock-ton Thomas .Johnston 16/9/15 i Denniston Alexander Morrison 30/9/15 Blackball George Burdon 1/11/15 ! Denniston iWilliam Russell I 16/12/1.5 ; I