MINES AND MINERS.
The number of coal mines in the State is 150. The number of miners employed in them is 5,100. The production exceeds 2,000,000 tons a year.
The law in relation to coal mines, through carefully framed, is believed to need some amendment in order to give proper security to the lives of miners. The State Inspector is a practical miner of long experience, and thoroughly acquainted with the needs of miners. Hempen ropes for hoisting are, in his opinion, unsafe in cases of fire. Besides, no ordinary inspection can detect with certainty secret defects which often render them unreliable. Steel wire ropes should be required to be substituted in their place. Every mine, in the Inspector's opinion, should have at least two outlets. Where a furnace is employed for the purposes of ventilation, and one of the outlets i used for the escape of smoke and steam, the outlet so used is useless as a means of retreat in case of sudden danger. A mine in this condition has practically but one outlet. An additional one should, in such cases, be required.
It is made the duty of the Mine Inspector to examine all scales used in any coal mine for the purpose of weighing coal taken out of the mine, Miners are usually paid by the ton for their work. Justice to them and the preservation of harmony between them and their employers require that correct scales shall be used. The State, however, not having provided the Inspector with sealed weights, he has no accurate means of determining satisfactorily whether scales are correct. The page: 22[View Page 22] State should provide him with a set of sealed weights.
