Mr. Willis's Report.

REPORT on the INSPECTION of MINES in the SOUTH DURHAM, WESTMORELAND, and CLEVELAND INSPECTION DISTRICT, from the 31st December 1872 to the 31st December 1873.-By JAMES WILLIS, Esq., F.G.S.

SIR,

Durham, 31st March 1874.

I HAVE the honour to lay before you my Annual Report as Inspector of Mines in charge of this district, for the year ending 31st December 1873, as required by Section 48 of "The Coal Mines Regulation Act, 1872."

Under the Acts 23 & 24 Vict. cap. 151. and 25 & 26 Vict. cap. 79. the district assigned to me consisted of the coal mines in the southern part of the county of Durham only. The Act of 1872, 35 & 36 Vict. cap. 76, being more extensive in its application and including not only mines of coal and other mines but also "mines of stratified ironstone," the large and important mining district of Cleveland in the North Riding of Yorkshire came under its operations, and I had the honour to be instructed by Mr. Bruce, the then Secretary of State for the Home Department, to consider it a portion of the district under my charge, as mentioned in the last paragraph of my Report for the year 1872. In November of last year I was further instructed by Mr. Secretary Lowe that he had decided that the county of Westmoreland should also form a part of my district for the purposes of inspection under "The Coal Mines Regulation Act, 1872." This district, consequently, will now be known as the "South Durham, Westmoreland, and Cleveland District."

The mineral productions, under this Act, being alike in South Durham and Westmoreland, viz., coal and fire-clay, I purpose treating these two portions of the district as one district. Cleveland mining under this Act, being entirely ironstone, will be best treated as a separate district. Moreover, the returns from Westmoreland being so small both in quantity of coal wrought and in number of persons employed, will scarcely at all effect, what may be called, the continuity of comparison with the statistics of previous years, as hitherto given for South Durham only.

The details of the Annual Returns which I have received for the entire district in accordance with Section 38 of the Act are as below:

Before proceeding further, I would here make a remark or two concerning the accuracy and reliability of the above summary of returns, especially as some time ago in one or more of the mining newspapers published in this country some doubt was thrown upon the correctness of the figures relating to the production of minerals as contained in the Inspectors reports of 1872.

With regard to the minerals wrought, so far as this district is concerned, there can be no doubt that the quantities stated are correct. The returns in this respect are in most cases compiled from the wages bills, made out weekly or fortnightly, as the case may be, from which the workmen are paid. Where, before the commencement of the present Act, coals were worked by "measure,” even then the correctness or proper filling of the measure was always ascertained by its being of a certain standard weight, therefore the figures may be taken as absolutely accurate representing the tons (of 20 hundred weights of 112 pounds each) of coal worked, without any allowance or deduction whatsoever. In Cleveland the ton has been in a few instances an arbitrary weight, sometimes 20 cwts., in other cases 22 cwts., and very occasionally 24 cwts., such cases have only arisen where the rent payable to the lessor of the minerals has been calculated on tons of these weights; but in all such cases care has been taken in sending in the returns to reduce the figures to standard tons.

So far as the returns of quantities are concerned, it is not a matter of "enjoying the confidence of the coal owners," or otherwise, but under the Act of 1872 it is compulsory that "correct" returns are made, a false return (knowingly made) is an offence against the Act, and subject to the penalties for offences against the Act.

As regards the returns of "persons employed." The returns for underground workpeople I believe to be very reliable. Errors are not likely to arise here, except in computing average numbers. I believe the practice is very general in this district to base this return upon the number of persons employed at the end of the year, and in a district like this, where the collieries for the most part are long lived, and where, as has been the case for many years, any changes in the mining population have been in one direction, viz., increasing, I think this is the best plan, because in any serious individual fluctuation of numbers, between the end and any other portion of the year, the balance will be rectified in the returns for other collieries.

The returns for persons employed above ground are, I fear, not so reliable as for those underground. There are elements of disturbance here which cannot affect the underground returns. In the returns for 1873 I have endeavoured to obtain an uniformity of practice in computing the numbers by issuing circulars asking that "only such workmen as are employed in the absolute production of the coals or other minerals in their marketable forms shall be included, and not such as are "employed in brick works, coke ovens, branch railways, &c."

I fear in previous years many persons so employed have been inadvertently entered in the returns, but I hope in future to have the numbers correctly given.

I now proceed to lay before you, in accordance with previous custom, various statistics, remarks upon accidents, lists of accidents, &c., as connected with the South Durham and Westmoreland portion of the district.

The following table shows a comparison between the year under notice and the preceding year (1872) as regards number of persons employed, quantity of coal raised, and other particulars.

Number of persons employed

1873.

1872.

As noted in my report for 1872 there is a large quantity of fire-clay worked in connexion with the coal in this district, and as the same staff of workmen who work the coal also produce the fire-clay, it is impossible to give to each variety of mineral its proportionate number of persons employed, therefore it has always been the practice to include

the fire-clay workmen in the coal returns. Adding the tons of fire-clay raised, viz., 463,321, the above proportions would stand as below:

The following table shows the number of fatal accidents of different kinds, and the number of deaths that have resulted from them, in, at, and about the mines of the South Durham and Westmoreland portions of the district, in each of the years 1869, 1870, 1871, 1872, and 1873, the last being the year embraced by this report.

The figures given above show on the whole a slight decrease in the number of deaths as against the number in the preceding year. This might scarcely have been expected seeing the largely increased number of persons returned as being employed, and also considering the increased quantity of minerals produced.

The returns of 1872 showed the number of persons employed and the number of lives lost to be-

35,450 persons employed, 69 lives lost.

Underground
Above ground

It thus appears that the number of persons employed has increased by about 18 per cent.

It will be seen also that the numbers of lives lost in the various classes of accidents bear a great resemblance to the numbers for some years past, with the exception of shaft accidents, and in this a very pleasing decrease on the average of preceding years is to be noted.

Appended hereto will be found a list of fatal accidents which have occurred in this portion of the district during the year, and I now beg leave to make a few remarks concerning the most notable cases in the order in which they will be found in the summary of fatal accidents accompanying this report.

Explosions of Fire-damp.

One fatal accident occurred during the year, under this head, numbered 49 in the list. The explosion caused the death of one person, John Coyne. The deputy on examining the place where it was intended Coyne should work, found indications of gas, and also found, on trying to discover the cause of the gas being present, that a slight disarrangement of the brattice had taken place. He re-arranged the brattice and, as he said at the inquest, removed the gas by "waving" it out with a shovel. He then left the place and went forward examining other places previous to the men commencing work in them. On meeting the men at the station he asked Coyne if he understood how to manage a lamp, and if he understood indications of gas, to which questions he gave satisfactory answers. The deputy then gave him a locked lamp and sent him to work cautioning him in the hearing of others not to work with his candle, to which he promised obedience. After working some time Coyne had come out a little way to partake of refreshment, where he was joined by the putter boy who had a naked light with him. According to his statement, for he lived a few days after being burnt, when ready to go back to his working place he lit a candle at the boy's light (this the boy denied) and went in, when the explosion occurred. Of course he was much to blame for taking a naked light into the place and thus wilfully disobeying the orders of the deputy, but the deputy was also much to blame for not taking further steps than merely cautioning him. At the place end he should have fixed a "caution" board, beyond which no naked light is allowed to go, and thus he would have given additional warning to Coyne, and not only so, but this "caution board would have prevented the putters going in with their naked lights, which it was proved they had done whilst Coyne was at work; and so had also the overman. It is of no use to give a hewer a safety lamp, and not take any steps to prevent others in the discharge of their duties going into his place with naked lights. Coyne, I think, most likely further contributed to his own death by casting the coals he had worked, at the end of the brattice, and thus materially lessening the airway and impeding the ventilation. I have no doubt the deputy left the place "clean" but Coyne having destroyed (almost) the airway by casting his coals where he did, and then leaving the place to get his food, made the opportunity for gas to collect in sufficient quantity to cause the explosion when he returned.

Falls of Coal and Roof.

The number of lives lost by this class of accident during the year is slightly larger than in last year, but I think it might reasonably have been expected. A large proportion of the increased number of persons employed have been workers underground, some of whom there can be no doubt would be men entirely unacquainted with coal mining, and consequently would not be able to look after their safety so well as the experienced miner. Although by far the largest number of lives are lost by this kind of accident, it is perhaps the class that can be said least about in the way of recommendation or warning. Each accident is unlike every other in the precise mode of its occurrence and therefore no general principles can be set forth with any hope of important diminution in the number of victims which year after year is to be found in this list. The whole of the official and working staff of a colliery may find room here for the exercise of sound judgment and unceasing vigilance; the manager by his care in the choice of proper persons to appoint as deputies, the underviewer and overman by careful watchfulness in keeping the deputies up to their duties, and the workman himself, in his continual exposure of new sources of danger, should be especially cautious in noticing the most trifling variation in the appearance of the roof of his working place. I am sorry to observe (or to imagine I can observe) a growing disinclination on the part of the good workmen (hewers, &c.) to become deputies, and thus take the first step towards rising up through the various grades to the position of manager. This may, and I hope does, arise in a great measure from the exceptionally prosperous state of the coal trade and the consequent high rates of wages which have obtained for the last two years or more. The hewer, as being the direct producer of the coal, has been able to command very high wages, whilst he has a minimum of responsibility. On the other hand, the deputy, although he may have good wages, is not in a position, if he thinks fit, to earn extra wages by extra work, and has a very great responsibility daily resting upon him; besides his occupation is of a more confining nature, i.e., the hewer may work two days, or five or six in the week, but it is imperative that the deputy shall be regular in his attendance at work. Thus I fear it frequently occurs that the moderate (both in strength and intelligence) hewer is appointed as a deputy, his inducement for seeking the appointment being generally his inability to earn by hewing, the rate of wages paid to the deputies. In such cases it is to be feared responsibility does not form an element in the consideration. I have had complaints from the workmen relative to the quality of the staff of deputies employed at some of the collieries; and although this disinclination to be appointed to higher posts on the part of the workmen, if it exists, may not have been, up to the present time, of serious importance, it is I think worthy of careful consideration on the part of employers whether the wages paid to workman and officials are in correct proportion to the duties and responsibilities resting upon each class; few applications from the best men for the higher office indicate that the wages paid are not considered a fair equivalent for the work together with the serious responsibility attaching thereto, or, that the wages for hewing, without any responsibility, are more acceptable.

The separate accidents under this head have not been, any of them, such as require special mention.

SHAFT ACCIDENTS.

Overwinding.

Only one case of accident under this head occurred, No. 17., and arose in consequence of the kibble in which a man was riding being drawn up against a pulley and thus causing him to fall out and down a staple or shaft. An underground staple was being sunk in the Eppleton Colliery. An engine situated on the surface had been utilised by taking a rope 135 fathoms down the principal shaft of the colliery, thence under a sheave and along a drift for some distance, and then over another sheave or pulley and down the staple, by which means the materials and men were drawn to the top of the staple. All the fittings were in good order and good of their kind. The distance from the top of the staple where men and materials were delivered to the pulley above was 8 feet, and this probably, although the engine was geared 5 to 1, i.e., the engine made five revolutions whilst the drum, on which the rope wound, made one revolution, was rather too short a distance, to allow the engineman for stopping with accuracy, especially as the engine was at such a considerable distance. Every precaution was taken that any slackness of rope which might have arisen from the long distances should be guarded against by the rope being conveyed between points in close spoutings, moreover it was