The meaning of this pay-bill is that John Smith and five other men took a contract to sink a certain shaft at £7 per fathom, and to stope part of the lode at £3 per fathom. They sank the shaft 4 fathoms 2 feet, and stoped away 2 fathoms; in addition to this they put in some timber, a matter not included in the original contract, and for which they are credited with £4 108. extra. The gross balance due to them is therefore £40 168. 8d., against which they are debited with the cost of the candles and explosives supplied to them, and with their subscriptions for medical attendance and accident club. While the contract was running they received £21 on account, so that on the payday they took up a balance of £13 138. 1od. In a contract of this kind the leading man, John Smith, is known as the "taker."

In stoping a vein, the price is calculated per square fathom of advance for its whole width; thus if a lode is 4 feet wide, stoping I fathom of ground means the removal of a block 6 ft. high 6 ft. long and 4 feet wide; in other words, 144 cubic feet. In wide lodes the men are sometimes paid per cubic fathom excavated. At one British lead mine, where the lode sometimes measures several fathoms from wall to wall, a standard price is arranged for a width of 6 feet, and where the stopes are wider than this the men are paid extra. In order to prevent loss of ore through carelessness, the men are paid a premium of 158. a ton for all the lead ore they save.

Another example (p. 640) gives an instance of "tutwork" wages calculated by weight. It is copied from the figures on the back of the little envelope in which the money is handed to the "taker" on the pay-day. The account shows that Richard Williams and his six partners excavated 120 tons 9 cwt. of tin ore ("tinstuff") at 68. per ton, and were credited with £36 28. 8d. Against this they had to pay £5 48. 4d. for materials (candles, explosives, &c.), 78. for doctor, 58. 3d. for club and 18. 9d. for barber,* leaving a balance of £30 48. 4d. to be divided among them, that is to say £118. 7d. per man per week.

A third basis of payment is the number of inches bored in the shift. This plan was in vogue in stoping the wide lead-lodes in the Upper Hartz some years ago; it necessitated careful supervision, for otherwise the men bored their holes in the softest places they could find, or in positions enabling them to wield their hammers with the greatest ease, without any thought for the work required from the shots. A foreman came round at the beginning of the shift, and pointed out how the holes were to be placed; in the middle of the shift he returned, measured the depths bored, and then charged and fired the holes while the men rested. The positions for fresh holes were then indicated, and at the end of

*The item "barber," a charge of 3d. per man per month, still remains in a few of the oldest mines in Cornwall. The barber attends at the mines on Saturdays.

the shift the depths were measured and booked, previous to the charging and blasting. The price paid was 1 M. 38 Pf. per metre of hole bored upwards, and 1 M. 13 Pf. per metre of hole bored downwards; in the latter case the men could put water in the holes, which keeps the finely powdered rock in suspension and allows the cutting edge of the tool to do better execution.

The men working away the great pyrites deposit at Rammelsberg in the Lower Hartz by means of boring machinery are paid

per metre of hole bored, as this method is more convenient than measuring up the amount of "ground" removed in wide workings and paying per cubic metre. The latter system, however, is adopted in driving levels and sinking shafts where the dimensions of the excavation are regular.

In removing overburden, where everything has to be sent away indiscriminately, payment per cubic yard excavated is common, just as it is in making railway cuttings; this system is adopted with the men who uncover the iron ore in Northamptonshire (Fig. 324), whilst those employed in getting the ore are paid so much per ton put into the waggons.

(3) The combination of the two methods, payment by time and payment by measure or weight of some kind, may be adopted when men are too inexperienced or too timid to take contracts depending solely upon results. This plan has been found to answer at a pyrites mine in North Wales, where the mineral is got by the aid of rock drills worked by compressed air. The miners receive a fixed wage of a pound per week and a premium of a penny per foot for every foot bored over 12 feet per day of eight hours. The company finds the machines and all tools. The mine is worked in three shifts of eight hours each; in two of them the men are merely boring, and in the third shift a set of blasters come round to charge and fire the holes. Of course, as in the Hartz, the position of the holes is planned by the foreman. By working in this way the men generally make from 38. to 48. a week extra pay, for they are able to bore 40 or 50 feet a week more than the standard task. The ore is fairly uniform in hardness, for otherwise it would be impossible to maintain a single tariff for the whole of the mine. This system has been advantageous both to the men and to the company. Previous to its introduction the men were all on one dead level, and had no interest in exerting themselves; they each got their 1 a week by doing the minimum amount which enabled them to escape a scolding from the foreman, whilst now the man who works hard feels that he will get some recompense for his extra exertions. The company benefits by having an increased output at a smaller cost per ton, without any extra plant.

(4) We now come to the fourth or last system-viz., payment by value of the product. This system has had its home in the south-west of England for many years, and has been transplanted by the ubiquitous Cornishman to many other ore-mining districts. "tribute." In Cornwall it is known as working on

Under the tribute system a gang of men agree to hand over to the mining company all the ore they raise, on condition that they receive a certain proportion of its value. Thus, supposing that the tribute is 4, or 58. in the £1, and that a couple of men produce marketable copper ore worth £50, their share will be £50 or £12 108., less the cost of the materials they have been supplied with, and all the expenses for winding, dressing, sampling, &c. In other words, the tributer may be said to take a sublease of part of the mine and pay a royalty, in this case of or 75 per cent. for the permission to work accorded to him. But it must be recollected that the mining company renders the place accessible to him, keeps it drained and ventilated, and supplies him with machinery for raising his ore to the surface and dressing it, which he could not provide. The tributer is therefore a person who can speculate upon the value of the ore in a certain small working area, without having any capital beyond his brain and his muscle.

The precise nature of this mode of payment will be best under stood by an actual example.

The pay-ticket shows that John Jones and his partners, a gang of three men, raised a certain quantity of crude tin ore (tinstuff) which, according to assays, contained 1 ton 6 cwt. 3 qrs. 23 lbs. of clean tin ore (black tin). The value of this quantity, at £52 per ton, is £70 18. 8d. The pay-ticket also states that the tribute was 138. 4d. in the pound, or, in other words, two-thirds of the value. The gross total credited to the gang was therefore 46 148. 5d. Against this come the returning charges, subsist, dressing, drawing, and sampling, as follows:

These deductions require a word of explanation. The returning charges represent the cost of treating the "stuff" from the time it goes to the stamps until the dressed tin ore (black tin)

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is fit for the smelter. The amount charged varies slightly in different mines.* "Subsist" is another name for an advance, or money paid on account, during the running of the contract, which in this case lasted eight weeks. The term "dressing" as used in these accounts is not very happily chosen, because the returning charges represent all the cost of stamping and washing. The dressing" referred to in the pay-bill is the preparation of the "tinstuff" for the stamps by "ragging," "spalling," &c. The charge varies from 4d. to 6d. per ton, according to the hardness of the veinstuff. In this case the books of the company showed that 96 tons 6 cwt. 1 qr. of tinstuff had been dressed. The "materials" included candles, powder, fuse, dynamite, pick hilts, detonators, a shovel, clay for the candles, and the smith's cost for sharpening drills and picks.

"Drawing" is the Cornish term for winding, and is charged at the rate of 3d. per ton. The "sampling" refers to the assays of the tin ore made upon the vanning shovel by the mine agent; they are charged at the rate of 18. each, and it is upon the results of these assays that the mine-owner ascertained that the 96 tons 6 cwt. I qr. of "tinstuff" contained 1 ton 6 cwt. 3 qr. 23 lb. of "black tin." One of the three men being a bachelor, paid only 6d. per month for the doctor, instead of the usual 18. of the married man, whose wife and family are likewise entitled to receive medical attendance.

I

In former days the "tribute," or proportion of the value retained by the workmen, was publicly fixed by Dutch auction on the "setting" day. The miners assembled outside the mine office (counting-house), and the manager, after reading out the nature of the "pitch," or working place, asked for bids; the lowest bidder received the contract. If a certain place seemed likely to be profitable, there was frequently much competition among the men in order to get the "pitch." Nowadays the agreements are often made privately. It is evident that the richer the lode, the smaller will be the proportion of the value necessary for giving the men a fair return for their labour; in other words, the tribute will decrease as the lode improves.

This system of working has many advantages, which have rendered it popular with men and masters in Cornwall and elsewhere. The man's pay does not depend solely upon his muscular exertion, but also upon his judgment. IIe exercises his wits, he

* Common rates are:

8. d.

On tinstuff producing 14% (or less) of "black tin," 2

11% to 24%"

o per ton.

64%
74