Statutory leading statutes relating to mining are the Metalliferous Mines Regulation Act, 1872. which applies to every mine of whatever description, other than a mine to which the Coal Mines Regula * This artiole must now be read subject to the provisions of the Coal Mines Act 1911, pub lished while this volume was passing through the tress, which consolidates and amends the law.
tion Acts, 1887 to 1908, apply, and the latter Acts. The Coal Mines Regu lation Act, 1896, the Coal Mines (Check-Weigher) Acts, 1894 and 1905, and the Mines Accidents (Rescue and Aid) Act, 1910, should also be mentioned. These Acts are somewhat identical in detail, but are so extensive that the limits of this work make it impossible to attempt any adequate exposition of their provisions. The best that can be done is to give some outline of some of the leading provisions of the Acts relating to coal mines, so far as they concern the eniployment of labour, to pay some special at tention to the subject of the check-weigher, and to give the general statutory rules for working coal mines.
Coal of boys, girls, and women.—No boy under twelve years of age, and no girl or woman of any age can be employed under ground. A boy of twelve, or above that age, cannot be employed under ground for more than fifty-four hours in any one lieek, nor more than ten hours in any one day. IIis employment must also be in accordance with the following regulations :—(1) There must be an interval of not less than eight hours between the period of employment on Friday and the period of employ ment on the following Saturday, and in other cases of not less than twelve hours between each period of employment ; (2) The period of each employ ment is considered to begin at the time of leaving the surface, and to end at the time of returning to the surface ; (3) A week begins at midnight on Saturday night and ends at midnight on the succeeding Saturday night. With respect to boys, girls, and women employed above ground, the follow ing statutory provisions have effect :—(1) No boy or girl under the age of twelve years shall be so employed : (2) No boy or girl under the age of thirteen years shall be so employed—(a) for more than six days in any one week ; or (b) if employed for niore than three days in any one week, for more than six hours in any one day ; or (c) in any oiher case for more than ten hours in any one day. And no boy or girl of or above the age of thirteen, and no woman, can be so employed for more than fifty-four hours in any one week, or more than ten hours in any one day. Nor can any boy, girl, or woman be so employed between 9 and 5 r.m., nor on Sunday, nor after 2 P.M. on Saturday afternoon. There must be an interval of ai least eight hours between the termination of employment on Friday and the commence ment of employment on the following Saturday, and in other cases of at least twelve hours between the termination of employment one day and the com mencement of the next employment. A week begins at midnight on Saturday
night and ends at midnight on the succeeding Saturday night. No boy, girl, or woman can be employed continuously for more than five hours without an interval of at least half-an-hour for a meal, nor for more than eight hours on any one day without an interval or intervals for meals amounting altogether to not less than one hour and a half. Nor can he or she be employed in moving railway waggons. But the prohibition against employment after 2 P.M. on Saturday does not apply in the case of a mine in Ireland, which is exempted by order of a Secretary of State. The owner, agent, or manager of every mine is required to keep a register in the office at the mine, and to enter therein in.the prescribed manner the name, age, residence, and date of first employment of all boys employed in the mine below ground, and of all boys, girls, and women employed above ground in connection with the mine; and on request he must produce it there to a mine inspector or a school board officer, and permit inspection and copies to be made. The immediate employer of every boy, other than the owner, agent, or manager of the mine, before he allows the boy to go below ground in a mine, must report to the manager of the mine, or to some person appointed by that manager, that he is about to employ the boy in the mine. Any one who contravenes or fails to comply with, or permits a contravention or non-compliance with the fore going provisions, is guilty of a punishable offence; and in the event of any such contravention or non-compliance by any person whomsoever, the owner, agent, and manager of the mine will each also be guilty, unless he proves that he had taken all reasonable means by publishing and to the best of his power enforcing the statutory provisions to prevent the contravention of non-compliance. A bill has recently been brought in to the House of Commons which proposes to limit to eight hours, in any consecutive twenty four, the hours of employment of males under twenty-one; to prohibit the employment below ground of a person over eighteen not so employed before ; and to require that at every mine there should be kept a book to be called "The Hours of Work Book." At present there is no immediate prospect of this bill passing into law. Wages.—No wages may be paid to any one employed in or about a mine at a public-house, beer-shop, or place for the sale of spirits, beer, or wine, or other house of entertainment, or at an office, garden, or place belonging or contiguous thereto, or occupied therewith. In the event of contravention or non-compliance by any person whomsoever, the owner, agent, and manager of the mine, as well as the other persons more directly concerned, will each be guilty of an offence unless he can prove that he had taken means to prevent the contravention or non-compliance.