COLLIERY DISASTERS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1010, 28 December 1910, Page 4

COLLIERY DISASTERS.

The terrible colliery disaster in Lancashire, in which 350 men per.ished, leaving bereft .1500 women.and children, has naturally produced a prompt and generous response to the call for assistance for those dependent on the unfortunate'miners, who lost their lives. The accident, itself is of a kind the. world is painfully familiar with; it may bo regarded as one of the dire risks of industrialism which neither the wisdom nor skill of man can avert. ■ But the sudden orphaning of hundreds of families is a matter that instantly arouses'sympathy, and the welfare of these unfortunate victims is no longer regarded as an affair of momentary concern, but-one that calls for a liberal and- thoughtful provision for the future, or until'such;time whenthe social.■andicconomic changes that inevitablyrfollow/in thejWake of such a disaster readjust themselves. , The call for a relief .fund-in the present instance, of £50,000 is hopeful: that the work of collecting and" distributing so largo a sum will be undertaken in. an energetic arid businesslike manner. Tho frequent occurrence of mine disasters in late years has made the application of business' system to the work of relief, very necessary. _ There is on record a base of.the officient distribution of a large relief fund under circumstances very similar, although , not so-serious, as thoso in the Lancashire disaster, which is worthy of attention. On December ]9, ,1907, an explosion occurred at the Darr mine, in Pennsylvania,' U.5.A.,, in which ,i total of. 238 out of 239 miners' lost their lives. Tho report of the Darr Mine Relief Fund explains how a.fund.of 100,000, dollars wasl'distributed..anio.rig.'■ thq. dependents^'f.-'the; men .. of whom' 128 were married and no' U n : married. 'Tlie''scheme of relief was based naturally on'tho'size'of the re- ! mairiirig families.:' Each widow, received 254. dollars, and every "child , under, the age of sixteen 191. dollars. The same scale held among the unmarried men. A dependent widowed mother received 254" dollars, andfor each of her children under sixteen 191 dollars, tho'latter sura being, the average for all remaining dependents, every case thus boing attendedto with the strictest impartiality. The largest distributions for individual families amounted to 14C0 dollars. The report also furnished an analysis of the size and age of each iamily,. and ..the.,.-amount .of benefit .in .p'cr'iocl-.of timereach was: likely.;to receive,: Every dollar of the, .fund'wasaccounted' for;-including a further sum of 45,000 dollars received in the form of death' benefits and insurances, so that it.'may be seen that absolute or immediate destitution faced none.of the survivors of those killed, and that the entire relief fund was providently and skilfully disposed of. :

That the Pretoria.colliery was under humane and thoughtful management is the one mitigating circum-, stanco of the disaster. It is stated to have been one of the best equipped in Lancashire, a fact that can only add to the difficulty of finding the cause of the accident, and 'perhaps, warrant the conclusion that the explosion was due to individual carelessness. The installation of hydraulic machinery in the mine, it is-as-sumed, dispensed with the use of electricity, "thus removing the most fruitful source of danger. In a recent issue of the Engineer it was pointed out that in the last ten years the mining death-rate has steadily increased from one worker killed in every 840 employed to one in faO, an increase said to be due to the wider application of electricity to mining. The same authority : further states that there is ground for suspicion that soveral recent fires and explosions involving great loss of life were effected electrically. Under a critical combination of circumstances coal-dust can be ignited by almost any electrical appliance in a mine; a very tiny electrical spark whore there happens to ba a quantity of dust and a gaseous atmosphere togcther>t the same time.is sufficient to spread disaster, and cases are. known in which explosions have been caused by this means. The use of electricity in mines was recently discussed by the Eoyal Commission, on Mining Accidents, and it is urged that an attempt be made in next year's British Mines Regulations' Bill to give effect to the growing volume of opinion that the employment of electricity underground should be strictly regulated, the installations kept in the highest state of repair and efficiency, and larger staffs of skilled electricians placed in charge. AVithin the past two years approximately 800 lives have been lost in British coal mines, an emphatic testimony to. ■ thq' .need for every,precaution:in future being.enforced to minimise the already grave risks the work of coal mining .under the bost'of condition's must necessarily .incur, ._.: ..._„ -._ ..