DOMINION COAL MINES.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 June 1917, Page 2

DOMINION COAL MINES.

- : <*■ ,'—— ASSURANCE OF SAFETY. By Telegraph—Press Association. Wellington; June 2. The Minister of Mines, in a statement to the press, combats the assertion by the Miners' Federatign in a recent manifesto that, from the pioht of view of safety, some of. the mines in New Zealand are amongst the worst south of the line. The facts are that for a ■"msideraolc time past neither the Government inspectors nor the workmen's inspectors have reported a single" mine to be dangerous, and there has n'ot been one fatal colliery accident in Canterb\ivy, Otago or Southland during the past three and a half years, and 6nly one in any North Island colliery during the past 2J years. Thanks to the precautions taken since the 1014 disaster the 'Huntly mines, so far as can be determined, are now amongst the safest in the world. The Government, by means of the Coal Mines and Mining Acts, and maintaining a staff of capable and strict inspectors, of mines, endeavors, so far as is possible, to render mining tin occupation no more dangerous than many surface avocationß.