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oath signed by the witnesses, and a verbatim report of the addresses of the' counsel engaged. We also append the plans referred to in such evidence. 8. Before dealing specifically with the questions committed to us, it will be convenient to give a short summary of the history of the mine and of the events which led up to the disaster. 9. The mine is situated at Nightcaps, in the County of Wallace, and is owned by the Nightcaps Coal Company (Limited), who have a paid-up capital of £24,000, but the managing director says that £30,000 has been expended on the mine, the railway, and general machinery and works. The following properties are held by the company : (1) Five hundred acres of freehold at Nightcaps; (2) a leasehold from the Crown of 15 acres at Nightcaps; and (3) 500 acres of freehold at Hokonui. The last has not been worked for coal. The present workings extend over an area of nearly 100 acres. The method of working is the ordinary pillar-and-bord, with an opencast or quarry in No. 2 Section. This opencast has greatly aided ventilation in this section. The operations have been continuous for the last twenty-six years, and altogether something over half a million tons of superior lignite coal have been won. There are in all three seams of coal of the aggregate thickness of 36 ft. The upper seam is from 4 ft. to 17 ft. thick, then there is a " band " of sandstone 4 ft. thick, then a seam of coal from 4 ft. to 13 ft. thick, then a " band " of sandstone 7 ft. to 12 ft. thick, then a seam of coal 3 ft. to 18 ft. thick. Only the two upper seams have been worked. The seams dip in a north-easterly direction at an inclination varying up to 1 in 7. The mine is entered by a tunnel, which runs through to the opencast in one direction, No. 2 Section being to the westward, and branches to the dip in No. 1 Section to the eastward. The method of ventilation in No. 1 has for the past six years been by means of a fan, exhausting or drawing the air up a shaft to the surface. The air-intake is from the mouth of the tunnel. In No. 2 Section the ventilation is the natural draught from the tunnel-mouth to the opencast, directed by brattice and doors as required. Water-pipes, connected with a race and dam on the surface, were led into No. 1 Section. Mr. John Lloyd has been manager of the mine from the commencement of operations. He holds a first-class certificate as a mine-manager, obtained by service, and not by examination. 10. On the 28th March, 1903, a fire broke out fiercely in the mine (No. 1 Section), close to the engine-station in the main haulage-road, caused, it is said, by a spark setting light to the timber in the engine shaft. It raged over a considerable area among the pillars, but was successfully subdued with water and blocked off. After some considerable time the area was opened afresh, and the ground worked; but the fire continued to eat its way ahead of the workings and eventually reached a place in the northern end of the mine where there is a fault in the upper seam. Whether there was always a connection traceable from the fire of March, 1903, to the last fire is doubtful, and the evidence is somewhat conflicting; but this fact is clear: that eighteen months prior to March last whatever fire there was in the mine was at the place marked "ABC" on the plan, and was securely sealed off by stoppings and there was no indication of any recrudescence until March last, when the stoppings that shut off the air from the fire were opened for the purpose of extracting all the coal then standing in the pillars. Within a day or two after the stoppings were broken down and the air admitted to the place, heat increased until the fire was visible. Instead of shutting the place up again, and working in the adjacent headings, bords, and pillars, and losing a comparatively small quantity of coal, the management decided to take out every ton of coal possible, draw the pillars, and let the roof fall. They had been, so far as we are able to learn, successful in thus coping with the fire in its previous stages, and doubtless thought they would be able to do so again, but in this attempt they undertook a very grave responsibility. In April last the fire became active; water was brought in by means of pipes, and was constantly played upon the fire. Black-damp naturally generated, and probably some small proportion of white-damp, but the fan appears to have been able to so ventilate the mine that no actual injury to the men occurred, although