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The following table (10) gives a summary of the haulage accidents :

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Of the above, two persons were injured while illegally riding.

Accidents from hutches happen in a great variety of ways, and it is a difficult matter to provide by regulations for the prevention of some of them. The dangerous practice of permitting the attendant to ride where there is not sufficient head room ought not on any consideration to be allowed. Props should not be set close to the rails. Contracted roadways are responsible for accidents which might otherwise not have happened, and badly laid and badly kept rails are the cause of others. It frequently happens that hutches are pushed over the brow of an incline without having been coupled together or to the rope and cause an accident which might be prevented by the precaution of taking means to see that the hutches were coupled by "stenting" them before removing a block placed in front to prevent accidental runaways. The common practice of allowing drawers and benchers to congregate at the foot of inclines where runaway hutches might run into them ought to be prohibited.

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At Bog Colliery, Lanarkshire, two men lost their lives by the fumes of an underground fire (No. 142 in the list in Appendix I.). It appears that fire due to spontaneous combustion broke out in a section of the Ell Coal worked by the "stoop and room method, and steps were taken to attempt to isolate the fire by putting in stoppings. The manager stated that he gave instructions to put in stoppings at a certain point from which the air went towards the seat of the fire, and a shift of six men, one of whom was the fireman in charge, started to put in the stoppings. Owing to some misunderstanding, they commenced to put in a stopping at a point towards which the air would tend to drive out the fumes from the fire. Before the stopping was completed several of the men were affected more or less by the fumes, but four of them remained and completed this work, and were about to retire when three of them, one after the other, fell insensible. Some 23 hours elapsed ere the bodies could be got out. One man was dead, and another died two days after, while the other (the fireman) recovered. This accident appears to have been due to the men's ignorance of the deadly nature of the carbonic oxide gas given off by an underground fire. Had they known this, they would have retreated when first they noticed the fumes coming out on them.

In Portland No. 8 Pit, Ayrshire, a miner lost his life by knowingly entering a body of black-damp (No. 61 in the list). He had been engaged driving a "dook" through old pillars, but just as the face of his working place was nearly through a pillar, blackdamp, which the air current was unable to dispel, caused him to retreat, and he and his brother were given another working place 600 yards distant. Eight days after being put out by the black-damp, the deceased without sanction, and without informing any one went into his former working place, apparently to attempt to get out some tools which he had left at the face. His brother, when he failed to come to his working place, went in search of him, and his body was found about 8 yards from the face of the dook. His lamp and jacket he had hung up at a point above where the black-damp extended.

Accidents on the surface. The fatal accidents were more numerous than usual, and numbered 13, with a loss of 15 lives, as compared with 10 accidents and 10 deaths during the year 1905. Of the three fatal accidents by machinery, the first was caused by the deceased going among the moving gearing to attempt to put a belt on. The result was

that he got caught by the driving pulley. The second happened to a painter who was painting the wood work about the pithead. The pumping engine stopped of its own accord, seeing which the deceased, without consulting any one, went below the bell crank to prepare to paint the wood work. The engine was re-started by a stoker, who was not aware that there was any one about the bell crank, and the result that the crank crushed the deceased. The third fatal machinery accident resulted in the death of the manager's son, who, with his father and others, was engaged repairing a dross conveyor. They were inside the conveyor when the engine started. The others escaped, but the deceased was caught and carried over the driving drum. Owing to the thread of the spindle of the steam stop valve having become "stripped," the valve could only be kept closed by jamming a piece of wood between the wall of the engine house and the valve spindle, and it seems that this piece of wood was accidentally knocked away by a boy, with the result that the engine started.

Three fatal accidents were caused by waggons while being shunted by the Caledonian Railway Company's workmen. At least one of these, that at East Plean No. 4 Pit (No. 374 in the list), ought not to have happened if ordinary care had been observed by the Railway Company's servants. The deceased was laying a water pipe in a track crossing the rails close to the screes, where the machinery makes a good deal of noise. After marshalling eight loaded waggons, the locomotive driver, after sounding his whistle, proceeded to propel them past where the deceased was working in the pipe track. Instead of one man being in front while passing the screes to see that the road was clear, the two guards were on the engine along with the driver and the stoker, and the consequence was that the deceased was run over, he having apparently failed to hear the whistle on account of the noise of the screes, or to see the waggons approach.

Proper regulations with a view to prevent accidents and applicable to railway company servants while shunting on mine premises are very much required. The ordinary printed railway regulations in force are not sufficient for the purpose.

With the increased use of noisy machinery at the pithead, there is greater danger of accidents by moving waggons to men at work about the screes. It would tend to prevent such accidents if a steam whistle, which all could hear, were to be blown before any waggon was moved at the screes or brought forward to them, and if waggons were not brought forward unless some one went in front to see that the road was clear.

A fatal accident, whereby a gatekeeper at a level crossing on a branch railway was run into by a cyclist, gave rise to an interesting case under the Workmen's Compensation Act, as showing how even judges differ as to what constitutes a "mine" with reference to branch railways. The following is a newspaper report of the case :

COURT OF SESSION.

FIRST DIVISION.

Tuesday, January 22, 1907.

(Before the Lord-President, Lords M'Laren, Kinnear, and Pearson.)

WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION CASE-DIVISION OF OPINION.

The Division gave judgment in an appeal by way of a stated case in an arbitration before Sheriff-Substitute Thomson, under the Workmen's Compensation Act, in which Mrs. MacKinlay, widow of the late John MacKinlay, Douglas Cotrage, Auchinraith, Blantyre, claimed damages from William Dixon (Limited), coalmasters, Blantyre, for the loss of her husband, who was fatally injured on August 3, 1906, while in the defenders' employment. The Sheriff-Substitute found that as an essential adjunct to the working of the collieries a private branch line of railway connects them with the main railway lines. The deceased was employed by the appellants as a gatekeeper at the gates which guard the branch railway at a point about 290 yards from the nearest of the collieries where the railway is crossed by the public highway at the foot of the Sides Brae. While the deceased was leaning on one of the gates waiting for an engine and waggon to pass on, a cyclist, who, on account of the steepness of the brae, had lost control of his bicycle, dashed into the gate with such violence that the deceased was thrown back upon the engine and waggons and was killed. The SheriffSubstitute found for the pursuer, and awarded her £150 compensation. The questions of law for the opinion of the Court were :-(1) Was the place where the accident occurred on, in, or about a mine within the meaning of the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1897, and (2) Did the accident arise out of, and in the course of, the deceased's employment within the meaning of the Act?

The Court answered both questions in the affirmative.

Lord Pearson said he had no doubt that the accident arose out of and in the course of the deceased's employment as gatekeeper, as what happened was one of the risks incidental to the employment. His Lordship should have had difficulty on the other point in sustaining the respondents' contention that the accident happened in or about a mine, but that Section 7 of the Act provided

that a "mine" meant a mine to which the Coal Mines Regulation Act applied. In that Act a mine included tramways and sidings adjacent to the mine. It was a question of construction whether that was imported into the Workmen's Compensation Act, and his Lordship thought it was. A mine included a siding provided it was adjacent to or belonged to the mine, and this branch railway fulfilled that condition.

Lord Kinnear said the question was one of considerable difficulty. If it were open his Lordship was not certain that he should have been able to come to the same conclusion as in fact he had done with Lord Pearson, but he thought it was governed by the Second Division decision in Anderson v. Lochgelly Iron Company. His difficulty was whether a branch railway of this kind was a railway to which the Coal Mines Regulation Act applied. It was decided by the case to which he had referred that it was such a siding-not only a siding in the sense of definition, but a siding to which the Coal Mines Regulation Act applied; and the moment that was decided, then the question whether the particular line of rails in question was or was not a siding in the sense of the statute was a mere question of fact. It was decided as a question of fact by the Sheriff-Substitute, and he agreed with the Sheriff-Substitute.

The Lord President had a clear opinion in the opposite sense to that expressed by their Lordships. The Workmen's Compensation Act was not universal in its application, but was only applied to certain specified places. So far he understood their Lordships agreed with him-that was to say, if there were nothing else they would not hold that the accident, which took place where the branch line crossed the public road, nearly a quarter of a mile from the mine, was an accident which happened in, on, or about a mine. But what their Lordships passed their judgment upon was upon the definition of a mine in the Coal Mines Regulation Act-a mine for the purpose of the Workmen's Compensation Act, meaning a mine to which the Coal Mines Regulation Act applied. It was perfectly true that a siding commonly denoted a branch railway, because it was being looked at from the point of view of the railway. The Act they had to refer to was not a railway Act, but the Coal Mines Regulation Act; and the first purpose of that Act was to apply various rules, all pointing in one direction to the safety of the worker in the coal mine. It did. not look upon the matter from the railway point of view at all. Railway connection between a coal pit and a railway was not a necessity, and did not exist in many cases. In this case the railway line was not a siding adjacent to the mine, or had anything to do with the congeries of apparatus which were to be found at the pithead. It was a branch railway, and nothing else, for the traffic in minerals. His Lordship understood that Lord M'Laren agreed with him in the ordinary case. Inasmuch as the decision in the Second Division in Anderson's case was by a majority of one in a Court of three, he should have had this case reconsidered by a higher Court; but in view of the new Workmen's Compensation Act, which was passed a few weeks ago, the question for the future really became academic, because the phraseology was so altered that this question would never arise. In these circumstances, it would not be fair to the

litigant here to send the case to seven judges for the determination of an academic question. He recognised that the case was ruled by the case of Anderson, in regard to which his Lordship said he agreed in the opinion of the Lord Justice-Clerk, who formed the minority. Lord M'Laren agreed with his Lordship in the chair. Counsel for Appellants-Mr. Wilson, K.C., and Mr. Strain. Counsel for Respondent-Mr. Orr, K.C., and Mr. Moncrieff.

Agents-W. and J. Burness, W.S.
Agents-Simpson and Marwick, W.S.

Two fatal accidents, resulting in the loss of four lives, were caused by explosives. The first (No. 220 in the list) caused the death of an overman and other two men, while another man was injured. Robert Elder, who had charge of the explosives, in coming from the magazine found an old electric lamp in a heap of manure and took it into the office along with a box containing 27 lbs. of compressed gunpowder and two and a-half lbs. of gelignite. It is stated that he and the overman took off the lamp in use and substituted for it the lamp which the former had found, and when the current was switched on the lamp burst, and apparently a piece of fused glass or wire falling into the box of explosives placed beneath the lamp caused the contents to explode. The four men present were all injured, and only one of them survived.

The following table (No. 11) gives particulars regarding accidents in connection with the moving of waggons :

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* The term "waggons" includes bogies, corves, hutches, trams, trolleys, trucks, tubs.

SECTION IV.

PROSECUTIONS.

The prosecutions during the year numbered 50, of which 13 were against owners, managers, or under officials, and 37 against workmen. In Appendix II. there are given (a) a list of prosecutions against owners and officials, and (b) a list of prosecutions by the Procurator Fiscal, either at his own instance or from information lodged by the mine owners, for contraventions of the regulations by workmen. The following table (No. 12) gives a summary of the prosecutions :

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* One offender absconded and another was sentenced to 14 days' imprisonment.

The only prosecutions to which I need specially refer were those of the owners and the manager of Kenmure Colliery for inadequate ventilation and failure to provide proper manholes. The manager pled guilty, and although I had previously drawn the attention of the owners to similar contraventions by writing to them, the Sheriff-Substitute held that they were not guilty, because it was alleged that they had instructed the manager to put matters right. As an appeal could only be taken on a stated case by the SheriffSubstitute it was not considered advisable in the circumstances to proceed further.

SECTION V.

GENERAL REMARKS.

Examinations for managers' certificates.--The annual examination of candidates for first and second class certificates of competency was held in the Technical College, Glasgow, on the 23rd and 24th of November, with the following results :-(1) For first class certificates there were 59 candidates of whom 22 passed; (2) for second class

Exemptions.-The following is a list of the exemptions granted during the year by the Secretary of State :

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Explosives used.--In accordance with your instructions I again asked the mine owners to give a return of the quantity of the various kinds of explosives used in the mines during the year, but I find that in many cases it is impossible to obtain accurate information on the subject, as the explosives are obtained at shops and stores over which the owners have no control. According to the returns sent in, the following table (No. 13) shows the total quantity of each explosive used :

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Abandoned Mines-In Appendix III. is given a list of plans of abandoned mines deposited in the Home Office during the year. In addition to these, I received notice of the discontinuance of a number of other mines or seams, some of which may never be re-started. Some two years ago Garturk Colliery, near Coatbridge, was abandoned, and pumping operations thereafter ceased. The water in the workings rose and flowed into adjoining collieries and shut them up one after the other. In this manner the two Drumpeller Collieries, Heatheryknowe Colliery, Kirkwood Colliery Kirkwood Colliery (Summerlee), and Rosehall Nos. 5 and 10 Pits have been stopped, and although I have received notice that they are simply discontinued, it is evident that unless concerted action is taken by the mine owners affected to deal with the water there is little likelihood of work being resumed at these pits.

Inspection duties. The official duties connected with the district have, as formerly, been carried out by Mr. Thos. H. Mottram, Mr. Andrew Pearson, and myself. One inspection, at least, was made of every mine below ground, and many of them had repeated underground visits paid to them. All accidents reported and complaints made were investigated, while a large number of the underground inspections were casual visits. without notice. Practically the whole of the correspondence relating to the district was attended to by myself, and reports upon all fatal accidents were made out and sent tothe Procurators Fiscal on behalf of the Lord Advocate.

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