List of Mines classed under the Mines Regulation Act, &c.—continued.

Forster, R., Gateshead Low Fell Colliery, Gateshead Low Fell Gateshead.
Gateshead.

Forster S., Callerton Colliery, near Newcastle

Cart Bog
Stublick

Morpeth.
Berwick.
Acklington.

Hexham.

Do.

Callerton

Newcastle.

List of Mines classed under the Mines Regulation Act, &c.-continued.

List of Mines classed under the Mines Regulation Act, &c.-continued.

Whitehaven Brick Works, Owners of, Whitehaven Fire Clay Whitehaven.

236

Mr. Wardell's Report.

REPORT on the WORKING of the MINES REGULATION ACTS, for the YORKSHIRE and LINCOLNSHIRE DISTRICT, during the Year ended 31st December 1873.BY FRANK N. WARDELL, Esq., F.G.S.

SIR,

Wath, Rotherham, 31st March 1874.

I HAVE the honour to transmit for your consideration my Report, as an Inspector of Coal Mines, for the year ended 31st December 1873.

I am thankful to say this year can be added to the list of those during which no calamitous accident involving great loss of life has been' recorded, notwithstanding the number of deaths reaches a total far from satisfactory. As months pass and the year rolls on one is apt to be deceived into anticipating a light death list, for no terrible disaster has occurred, no single accident, as sometimes has been the case, has hurried numbers to a sudden and violent death. Yet the accidents causing the death of

one at

a time go slowly and surely on, the units count up, and now in summing up the year's account, as I observed, an unsatisfactory and to some extent an unexpected total is disclosed.

There were 105 accidents, involving the deaths of 115 persons; 98 of these accidents caused the loss in each case of a single life. Of the remainder, one took place at a pit at Clifton, belonging to the Low Moor Company, when four persons perished by an explosion of fire-damp, one at Woolley Colliery, near Barnsley, where three persons were killed by the breaking of a crab-rope, one at the Speedwell Pit, belonging to Messrs. H. Briggs, Son, and Company, and one at Silkstone Main Colliery, the property of Messrs. G. A. Haworth and Company, in each of which cases two persons were the victims of explosion of fire-damp. Falls of roof at Brightside Colliery and the Oaks Colliery occasioned two deaths at each place; and the other accident, which involved the loss of more than one life, took place at Threshfield Colliery, near Grassington, the property of Mr. W. Lambert, owing to the rope slipping off an improperly constructed drum, and causing the death of a man and a boy by precipitating them to the bottom of the shaft.

The amount of coal raised in this District in the year 1873 was 15,311,778 tons, and the number of lives lost 115, or a proportion of one death to every 133,146 tons of coal raised.

The total amount produced in the country in the same time was 128,544,400 tons, and the number of lives lost 994, or a proportion of one death to every 129,320 tons of coal raised.

The amount of coal raised in this District in 1872 was 14,576,000 tons, and the number of lives lost 133, or a proportion of one death to every 109,594 tons of coal. Taking the headings of the list, seriatim, the mortality under the first, or "Explosions of Fire-damp," is 12, as compared with 45 the preceding year. The excessively high figure in 1872, however, was swelled by one explosion costing 34 lives. On taking the average of the five years prior to that date, six is the number arrived at, and therefore, as regards explosions, 1873 does not compare favourably with other years. "Falls of Roof and Coal," as usual, account for a very heavy proportion indeed of the aggregate, there being this year no fewer than 52 deaths to chronicle under this head, or a proportion of 45 per cent. of the whole number. "Deaths in Shafts," in the next column, show an increase of four over 1872, the numbers being 18 and 14 respectively. From "miscellaneous" causes underground I have to record 15 deaths as compared with 28 the previous year. This is a very satisfactory reduction, particularly in the case of deaths caused by trams and tubs, seven being the number this year and 12 last. The favourable report under this column, however, is more than counterbalanced by that under the next and last, "On the Surface," where 18 deaths take the place of three in the year 1872. This is a most deplorable as well as unaccountable total above ground, when circumstances conduce to safety comparatively so much more than below ground.

LIST of COLLIERIES where FATAL ACCIDENTS have occurred in the years 1868 to 1873 inclusive.