Check-weighers.—Where the amount of wages paid to persons employed in a mine depends on the amount of mineral gotten by them, those persons must be paid according to the actual weight gotten by them of the mineral contracted to be gotten, and the mineral so gotten must be truly weighed at a place as near to the pit mouth as is reasonable and practicable. But this provision does not preclude the owner, agent, or manager of the mine from agreeing with his employees that deductions shall be made in respect of stones or substances other than the mineral contracted to be gotten, or in respect of tubs, baskets, or hutches being improperly filled in those cases where they are filled by the getter of the mineral or his drawer, or by the person immediately employed by him. These deductions are to be determined in the mode specially agreed upon between the owner, agent, or manager of the mine on the one hand, and the persons employed in the mine on the other; or by some person appointed for the purpose by the owner, agent, or manager ; or (if a check-weigher is stationed for the purpose as hereinafter mentioned) by such person and such check-weigher ; or, in case of difference, by a third person to be mutually agreed on by the owner, agent, or manager of the mine on the one hand, and the persons employed in the mine on the Dther, or, in default of agreement, appointed by the chairman of the local Court of Quarter Sessions. Here, too, in the event of contravention n non-compliance, the persons directly concerned therein are primarily liable to a penalty ; and also the owner, agent, and manager of the mine, unless he proves that he had taken all reasonable means by publishing and to the best of his power enforcing these statutory provisions to prevent the contravention or non-compliance. Where it Is proved to the satisfaction of a Secretary of State, in the case of a mine or class of mines employing not more than thirty persons underground, to be expedient that the persons employed therein should, upon the joint representation of the owner or owners of the mine or class of mines and the said persons, be paid by some other method than that of check weighing, the Secretary of State may, if he thinks fit, permit that method, either without conditions or during the time and on the conditions specified in his order. Those employed in a mine and paid according to weight are entitled, at their own cost, to station a person (in the Act referred to as a " check-weigher"), or a deputy check-weigher, at each place appointed for the weighing of the niineral, and at each place appointed for determining the deductions. He is so appointed in order that, on their behalf, Ile may take a correct account of the weight, or deterniine correctly the deductions, as the case may be. The appointment of the deputy must be made in accordance with the provisions of the Coal Alines (Weighing of Minerals) Act, 1905. A check-weigher is entitled by statute to have every facility afforded to him for enabling him to fulfil his duties, includ ing a shelter from the weather, containing the number of cubic feet requisite for two persons, a desk for writing, sufficient weights, and facilities for examining and testing the weighing-machine, and checking the taming of tubs and trams where necessary. If at any mine proper facilities are not so afforded to a check-weigher, the owner, agent, and manager of the tnine ill each be guilty of an offence, unless he proves that he had taken all reasonable means to enforce to the best of his power the statutory requirements. But a check-weigher has no authority in any way to impede or interrupt the working of the mine, or to interfere with the weighing, or with any of the workmen, or with the manage ment of the mine. IIis authority is limited solely to taking an account or determining deductions as above-mentioned. When absent from his place the weighing must be done by the deputy check-weigher. A check-weigher has a perfect right to give to any workman an account of the mineral gotten by him, or information with respect to the weighing, or the weighing machine, or the tareing of the tubs or trams, or with respect to the deductions or any other matter within the scope of his duties as check weigher, provided he does not interrupt or impede the working of the mine. If the owner, agent, or manager of the mine desires the removal of a check-weigher he must complain to the local magistrates. But the complaint can only be received by the magistrate if it is based on the ground that the check-weigher has impeded or interrupted the working of the mine ; or interfered with the weighing, or with any of the workmen, or with the management of the mine ; or has, at the mine, to the de triment of the owner, agent, or manager, done anything beyond taking an account determining deductions or giving information as above mentioned. If the magistrates are of opinion that the owner, agent, or manager shows sufficient prima facie ground for the removal of the check weigher, they must call on the check-weigher to show cause against his removal. On the hearing of the case the Court will hear the parties, and if sufficient ground is then shown by the owner, agent, or manager to justify the removal of the check-weigher, the magistrates will make a summary order for his removal. Thereupon the check-weigher will be removed, but without prejudice to the stationing of another check-weigher in his place. The Court may in every case make such order as to the costs of the proceedings as the Court may think just. When, by an order of exemption of a Secretary of State, the persons employed in a mine are paid by the measure or gauge of the material gotten by them, the provisions of the Act apply in like manner as if the term " weighing" included measuring and gauging, and the terms relating to weighing are to be construed accordingly. The person appointed by the owner, agent, or manager to weigh the mineral is guilty of an offence if he impedes or interrupts the check-weigher in the proper discharge of his duties, or improperly interferes with or alters the weighing-machine or the tare in order to prevent a correct amount being taken of the weighing and tareing. Where a check-weigher or his deputy has been
duly appointed by the persons employed in a mine who are paid accord ing to weight, and has acted as such, he may recover from any person for the time being employed at such mine and so paid his proportion of the check-weigher's wages or recompense ; and he may do this even though the persons who actually appointed the check-weigher have left the mine or others have entered it since the check-weigher's appointment. This is so, notwithstanding any rule of law or equity to the contrary notwithstanding. The owner or manager of a mine, where the majority of persons, as above-mentioned, have so agreed, may retain the agreed contribution of his employees concerned and pay it to the cheek-weigher. The Weights and Measures Act, 1878, apply to all weights, balances, scales, steelyards, and weighing-machines used at any mine for determining the wages payable to any person employed in the mine according to the weight of the mineral gotten by him, in like manner as it applies to weights, balances, scales, steelyards, and weighing-machines used for the trade. An inspector of weights and measures must once at least in every six months properly inspect and examine the weights, balances, scales, steelyards, and weighing-machines so used or in the possession of any person for use at every mine within his district. He must also make an inspection and examination at some other time in a case where he has reasonable cause to believe that there is in use at the mine any false or unjust weight balance, scale, steelyard, or weighing machine. And it is also his duty to inspect and examine the measures and gauges in use at the mines within his district. But nothing in the Act is intended to prevent or interfere with the use of the measures or gauges ordinarily used at the mine.
General Rules as to the working of coal mines are included in the Act of 1887, and in addition to these a mine owner is empowered to make certain special rules. The general rules are as follows : 1. An adequate amount of ventilation shall be constantly produced in every mine to dilute and render harmless noxious gases to such an extent that the working places of the shaft, levels, stables, and workings of the mine, and the travelling roads to and from those working places shall be in a fit state for working and passing therein. In the case of mines required by the Act to be under the control of a certificated manager, the quantity of air in the respective splits or currents shall at least once in every month be measured and entered in a book to be kept for the purpose at the mine.
2. Where a fire is used for ventilation in any mine newly opened after the passing of the Act, the return air, unless it be so diluted as not to be inflammable, shall be carried off clear of the fire by means of a dumb drift or airway.
3. Where a mechanical contrivance for ventilation is introduced into any mine after the commencement of the Act, it shall be in such position and placed under such conditions as will tend to ensure its being uninjured by an explosion.
4. A station or stations shall be appointed at the entrance to the mine or to different parts of the mine as the case may require ; and the following pro visions shall have effect :—(i) As to inspection before commencing work : A competent person or competent persons appointed by the owner, agent, or manager for the purpose, not being contractors for getting minerals in the mine, shall, within such time immediately before the commencement of each shift as shall be fixed by special rules under this Act, inspect every part of the mine situate beyond the station or each of the stations, and in which workmen are to work or pass during that shift, and shall ascertain the condition thereof so far as the presence of gas ventilation, roof and sides, and general safety are concerned. No workman shall pass beyond any such station until the part of the mine beyond that station has been so examined and said by such competent person to be safe. The inspection shall be made with a locked safety-lamp, except in the case of any mine in which inflammable gas has not been found within the preceding twelve months. A report specifying where noxious or inflammable gas, if any, was found present, and what defects (if any) in roofs or sides, and what (if any) other source of danger were or was observed, shall be recorded without delay in a book to be kept at the mine for the purpose, and accessible to the workmen, and such report shall be signed by, and so far as the same does not consist of printed matter shall be in the handwriting of the person who made the inspection. For the purpose of the foregoing provisions of this rule, two or more shifts succeeding one another without any interval are to be deemed to be one shift. (ii) As to inspection during shifts : A similar inspection shall be made in the course of each shift of all parts of the mine in which workmen are to work or pass during that shift, but it shall not be necessary to record a report of the same in a book, provided that in the case of a mine worked continuously throughout the twenty-four hours by a succession of shifts the report of one of such inspections shall be recorded in manner above required.
5. A competent person or competent persons appointed by the owner, agent, or manager for the purpose, shall, once at least in twenty-four hours, examine the state of the external parts of the machinery, the state of the guides and con ductors in the shafts, and the state of head-gear, ropes, chains, and other similar appliances of the mine which are in actual use, both above ground and below ground, and shall once at least in every week examine the state of the shafts by which persons ascend and descend ; and shall make a true report of tho result of such examination, and every such report shall be recorded without delay in a book to be kept at the mine for the purpose, and shall be signed by the person who made the inspection.