PERILS OF THE PIT.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1007, 23 December 1910, Page 5

PERILS OF THE PIT.

WHY MINING ACCIDENTS ARB INCREASING. Tho annual report' of tho Chief Inspector of Mines in Britain was published in August. Of the statistics.contained in the volume (writes T. Good in the "Daily News"), the figures relating to mining fatalities give the..gravest food for. thought, for it is revealed that the number of deaths in such mines is at present steadily increasing year by year. : It should be,remembereel that throughout tho second half of the nineteenth century there was a constant and consistent decline in mining accidents, rela-: tively to numbers employed. . During the last ten years, however, the. accident rate lias increased. Progress has ceased, and retrogression has set in. More miners were killed in 1909 than in any year since 1873, while the death-rate per 1000 was higher than for many years po6t. In 1900 the accident death rate was , 1.30 per 1000. ■ Last year it was 1.61, the number of deaths reaching 1453, which ; means that very nearly fivo men are now killed every working (lay in this one industry. Electricity Perils. It is worth remarking that the recent check in the accident rate and- the subsequent rise have coincided with the wider application of electricity to mining. The opinion is strongly held by some observant miners that "electricity is a fruitful source of danger, particularly in the matter of fires and. explosions. It has been demonstrated beyond dispute that coal-dust, uneler a critical combination of conditions can be ignited by almost any olcctrical appliawio in a mine. It is thus possible for a broken cable, or for sparks, to spread disaster. " . When leading electricians are met with this avgument, they contend that some colliery owners do not maintain | staffs of electricians either efficient or sufficient to keep the installations in a, safe condition. "Speeding Up." Tho question of "speeding up" is also worth attention as a possible sourcc of danger. It cannot be proved from statistics that any general "speeding up" policy has been adopted in our mines. Indeed, the per capita output of coal is decreasing, in spito of the wider adoption of mechanical cutters and other labour-sav-ing devices. But tilings are not always what they seem. If we make duo allowance for the deeper and more difficult mining of recent years, the thinner seams now worked, tho more costly pumping, ventilating, and propping, and the increasingly frequent "stop" aud "short" days and petty strikes, we shall at onco find ground for suspicion that some "speeding up" has taken place in other directions in the mine, or the per capita ontput. would have fallen more than it has done. If tho miner's earning time is curtailed by frequent stoppages he is apt to rush when he nets a chance, and this means less attention to propping, etc. Other Causes. It would bo unfair to put all the blamo for the recent increase of accidents nn the shoulders of owners and managers. Tho workers themselves arc responsible for some of the mischief. It is true .that ! our miners,-like'other elns?es, arc more sober than. they used to be. as far <is alcoholic exccss is concerned, but ovielcnces aro far too frequent of a spirit of lawlessness, callousness, and indisciuline among our mine workers, especially the boys. Managers are set at defiance, leaders aro flouted, and fathers disobeyed. Possibly one causo of this occasional unrest is to bo found in the character of the amusement's that make the most popular appeal 10-elay. Yonng miners are not now content to speud their earnings in the villages. The tramcar takes them to the city, tho music-hall attracts, it is Inh when they return home and get to bed, aud they enter the pit next (lay lacking that physical freshness' anel mental alertness which are essential in- face of the natural risks and difficulties of their calling, . ....