Parliamentary Jottings.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 189, 15 August 1901, Page 3

Parliamentary Jottings.

(FROM OUR SPECtAL CORRESPONDENT.) Sir J. G. Ward has been down with the the measles for a week and unable to attend the House or do much business. This has been a considerable inconvenience to the members and to Parliament because all business connected with his department remains at a standstill in the meantime. However he hopes to be all right by Tuesday next when the House resumes. His proposed Railway Servants Superannuation Rill is exciting general interest. The report of the Coal' Mines Commission has been laid upon the table and very interesting reading it makes. It is particularly Uncomplimentary to the Allendale mine in which Mr James Allen, MvH.R. for Bruce is largely interested. Of this particular pit the report says ;-*-We were so impressed With the urgent necessity for immediate improvement in the condition of this mine siat we •submitted to .your EioeUeiwy

interim faport thetaon, as follows : —“We visited this mine on the 20'h March last. We found a prevailing feeling of apprehension -of danger on the part of the miners employed, but they declared that if they gave evidence they would' lose their employment. We entered the mine by the only airintake, and crawled along i% chiefly on our bunds and knees, for a distance of between nine and ten chains. This roadway is made through ground where the pillars have been removed without leaving sufficient support, and the whole place is creeping. The props and timber overhead are breaking under the strain, the floor is coming up and the sides are bulging. It has all the indications of a place that may close in at any moment. This intake leads into the main workings, which are on the dip from a main haulage-road, and are dependent entirely for ventilation upon the air-intake. In every working face we visited the air was deficient, and up the north Side it was still more seriously so. The immediate danger arises from the strong possibility of the intake closing, and the air-current, poor as it is now, ceasing altogether, whefi the black damp, of which there is a considerable quantity in the mine,’ would probably overpower the men before they could make their escape. We are very unfavourably irauressed with the condition of the whole mine. Broken sets of timber were not infrequent, the roof was ragged and apparently neglected, and there was altogether a want of cate for the lives of the men employed. The quantity of timber set and in hand appeared to us to be insufficient for safety. The chief ground, however, for representing this now to your Excellency is the apprehension of some grave catastrophe through the want of proper ventilation. v e strongly recommend that immediate steps be taken to compel the owners of the mine to put it in a condition of safety.” Perhaps the paragraph in the report of the most general interest in the following.— State distribution of coai.—Much evidence was offered to us, which wo felt unable as wall as unwilling to reject, on the subject of the cost of cnr.! to the consumer, aa compared with the cost of production. The case of the Westport Company’s Coal—which is produced at 7s 10d a ton, in the rail way-trucks at Wairaangaroa, and is retailed in Wellington at £1 15s a ton neb—is a striking example of the cost of distribution. Mokan coal, produced in the mine at 8s (id, is sold in Now Plymouth retail at £1 14s per ton. The same proportion practically exists throughout the colony. We believe that if the State, which now buys a large quantity of coal at a moderate price, would sell such coal at a fair price to consumers the grievance now complained of would vanish, nnd the result Would bo that, while the State would fix t'te fair retail price of coal, the present dealers would sell at such price and would not be injured. This should interest every householder in the Country, and if the Government succeed in putting this matter straight they will have done much to secure for themselves a renewed lease of office and power.