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Dangerous Occurrences notified under Regulation 82. During May a workman employed in Young's drive, No. 1 section, Ironbridge Mine, ignited a quantity of gas in the roof of his working-face. As the amount was small he was not injured. On 12th June smoke was observed coming through No. 12 stopping in the sixth west section, Mine Creek, Millerton Colliery. The stopping was repaired and the fire again sealed off. During July an excessive quantity of water was observed coming along the main level of the Saramain Mine (Morrisvale lease). On examination it was found that a fall at the face of the level had reached the surface gravels. The mine was abandoned towards the end of the year. Early in November an inrush of water caused the stopping of coal-winning operations in the dip workings of the Goldlight Colliery. On 18th November the old fire broke through No. 6 stopping in the third west dip section, Millerton Colliery, but was again sealed off. On 19th November a heating was discovered in the east dip extension of the Blackball Mine. The section was sealed off and later flooded. During November the main level in the Perfection Valley Colliery (Morrisvale lease) holed into an old fire area. A clay stopping was erected and the fire sealed off. On 10th December heating in the goaf adjacent to the horse-road, third west dip, Millerton Colliery, was discovered. The area was sealed off. Prosecutions. There were nineteen informations laid during the year. One was dismissed, three were withdrawn, and fifteen convictions were recorded. For firing a shot not holed or side cut in conformity with Regulation 234 (6) (1) a shot-firer was convicted and fined £2 with costs. For failure to take steps to enforce the regulations relating to shot-firing the manager of the same mine was convicted and fined £2 with costs. For failure to provide a water-gauge, or either an automatic indicator registering the number of revolutions of the fan or an automatic indicator registering the water-gauge, as required by Regulation 182, a mine-manager was convicted and fined £1 with costs. For failing to produce by means of a mechanical ventilation applicance an adequate amount of ventilation during the eight hours preceding the entry of men into the mine, as required by Regulation 181 (1), the mine-manager was convicted and fined £1 with costs. For failing to record without delay in a book to be kept at the mine for the purpose, a report of examinations made in compliance with section 129 (a), (6), and (c) of the Coal-mines Act, 1925, the minemanager of the mine was convicted and fined £1 with costs. For failure to record particulars of a discovery of inflammable gas as required by Regulation 82, the manager of the mine, who also acted as deputy, was convicted and fined £1 with costs. The owners of a small mine were fined £1 10s. and costs for failing to appoint a fully qualified minemanager in conformity with section 60 (1) (c) of the Coal-mines Act, 1925. The manager of a small mine was fined 10s. and costs for failure to produce an adequate amount of ventilation, as provided by section 91 of the Coal-mines Act. Charges against an owner of two small mines for failing to appoint a sufficient number of officials to manage the mines, were successful. (Section 198 (2) of the Coal-mines Act.) He was fined £5 and £2 respectively. Two alternative charges against the manager of the mines were then withdrawn. For allowing on a railway siding a structure below a height of 7 ft. 6 in. to remain within a distance of 5 ft. 6 in. from the centre-line of the nearest rails, the manager was fined £1 with costs. (Regulation 263.) For failure to keep detonators for blasting stored on the surface of the ground in a covered box placed in a magazine specially provided for the purpose, a mine-owner was convicted and fined £1 with costs. (Regulation 223 (2).) The charge against a mine-manager for failing to supply a copy of all regulations regarding explosives in booklet form to every shot-firer as required by Regulation 232 was dismissed. For attempting to fire two shots simultaneously, in contravention of Regulation 234 (c), a shot-firer was convicted and fined £1 with costs. Two charges were laid against a member of a co-operative party as follows: (1) For introducing strangers into a mine; (2) for employing workmen without the permission of the mine-manager or underviewer. The charge against the manager of the mine for a breach of section 60 (1) (c) was then withdrawn, it having been proved that the men were working in the mine without his sanction. SOUTHERN INSPECTION DISTRICT (George Duggan, Inspector of Mines). The output from the coal-mines in the Southern Inspection District —489,709 tons—again shows an increase, being 13,711 tons more during 1930 than in 1929. There was a small decrease from the Canterbury mines and small increases in Central Otago, South Otago, and Southland. From North Otago the output increased from 19,189 tons to 27,471 tons. Only two labour disputes, concerning the mines of this district, occurred during 1930. The Wairaki Mine was idle for a few days in August, and, late in September, a " go-slow " policy was adopted by the miners of the Linton Mines in an endeavour to get the holing and cutting regulations relaxed. The " go-slow" was continued until the 18th November, when a civil action Was heard in the Magistrate's Court, Invercargill, and was decided against the miners, who sued for the " make-up " of some wages to the minimum. Towards the end of the year trade slackened and work is now being rationed at some of the mines, the Wairaki miners having shared work for several months past. Prospecting on Freehold Land, Sheffield. —The small party of working miners renewed their prospecting operations early in the year by driving a lower level a few chains east of their dip prospect drive. After going due south for a chain, a couple of thin coal-seams were met, the upper one 14 in. thick and the lower one 6 in. thick. The level was then turned to the east to follow the seams, but work had to cease there for lack of money. Towards the end of the year an old dip drive, near the foot of the hill, was reopened. This old drive is about 10 chains north of the level driven earlier in the year and is down 90 ft. at a grade of 1 in 4. In a place broken away to the east from the bottom of the dip a 3 ft. seam of clean coal is now being worked to the full dip. A shallow shaft is to be sunk from the surface to connect to the present face for ventilation purposes. Springfield Mine. —Towards the end of the year a new dip was driven at a grade of 1 in 10 for 30 yds. to the southward in a2O in. seam of fairly clean coal. Off this short dip levels were driven east and west, but the seam pinched in the west level, which was stopped when 16 yards in. Off the east level, 10 yards in, a place has been started to go to the dip. Homebush Mine. —Pillaring was continued to the rise of the main level until July, and since then a block of pillars to the dip has been extracted. Extraction of the remaining rise pillars was recently resumed. A 10 h.p. kerosene-driven engine has been installed on the surface to drive the haulage winch and to replace the small vertical steam boiler and winch. The fireclay sections are almost exhausted and have been abandoned. The owners have purchased the Lucknow Clay-mine for supplies for their pottery-works at Glentunnel,

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