C.—2

Taratu Mine.—ln May the temperature at the outside of a concrete stopping, only 16 yards from the main haulage-road in the shaft section, registered 114° F., having risen from 102° F. in a couple of weeks. Two cylinders of CO 2, each containing 40 cubic feet, were emptied behind the stopping and a reinforcing stopping built outside the concrete one. This enabled work to continue shaft section for the remainder of the year. Mount Torlesse Mine. —23rd May : While making the morning inspection the mine-manager discovered smoke in the main level of the Rise section and that ajfire had broken out in the return airway. It had started from a fall in the old workings overhead. A large fall to the surface occurred south of the seat of the fire and checked it from spreading in that direction. Breaks to the surface were filled in with clay, a strong stopping put in near the mouth of the drive, and the section completely sealed off. Birchwood Mine. —7th May : At 5 p.m. a little smoke was seen rising from a hole at the surface above the old pillar workings in the horse level. The hole was closed up immediately. Stoppings had been put in the entrances to this section a month previously. Linton Mine. —10th July : Falls had occurred in the top coal near the prehistoric fire area, and this, together with dross left in the first working a couple of years ago, caused heating. Five stoppings were put in the first line, three of brick and the last two of timber. These timber stoppings were reinforced by 9into 12 in. of sand, then another wooden stopping was put up, then 6 in. of ashes, and finally a third stopping of wood plastered with clay on the outside. This first line of stoppings confined the fire, and was completed at midnight on the 12th July. A second line of eight brick stoppings was then built, with a small opening left in two of them to permit of inspection between the two lines of stoppings. These eight stoppings are 9 in. thick and plastered on the outside. These stoppings are regularly examined, and the warmest temperature recently recorded, about 60° F., was at No. 5 stopping. Albury Mine. —The underground fire which has been burning for years past in the old workings to the southwest came through the hill, and unless it can be segregated it will eventually reach the coal underlying the MacKenzie Pass traffic-road. Efforts are being made to beat the fire back, but if this cannot be accomplished the road will have to be closed.

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