TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 173 



A Short Account of the Barton Colleriei Club. By T. Wilson, F.S.S. 



The Society thus designated must be considered purely as an expe- 

 riment — as an attempt to ascertain, in certain circumstances, on what 

 terms a miner might insure to himself and his family a certain " relief 

 during any illness that might arise from any accident happening to 

 them while at work." 



The Club was established in February 1833 at Silkstone Colliery, 

 near Barnsley, and has since been adopted at the Darton CoUeries. The 

 subscriptions are deducted from the wages of the men, the allowances 

 have been paid and the accounts kept by the owner of the mine, and 

 the meetings have been held at the Colliery ; so that all expenses have 

 been avoided, and the lunds may be considered as wholly applicable to 

 the purposes of relief. 



A member whose wages are less than 7s. a week, pays Qd. on entrance, 

 and one halfpenny per week, and receives when ill 3*. Qd. a week so 

 long as the illness continues; all whose wages exceed 7*., pay Is. on 

 entrance, and one penny per week, and receive when ill 7s. a week. 



The surplus fund is now £50 10s. lO^d. 



No account of the cause and nature of the accidents was kept previous 

 to July 1836, since which time 96 accidents have occurred which have 

 been chargeable to the Club. Of these, 90 have been reported with 

 their causes, of which the following is a summary : — 



25 from the roof falling, 

 20 from the coal falling, 

 19 from corves hurting them, 



6 from falls, 



7 from wounds from tools, 



8 from vai-ious things falling on them, 

 5 from fire damp. 



90 



A Letter was read to the Statistical Section, from the Rev. Dr. 

 Potter, accompanying a donation of the last Annual Reports of the 

 Regents of the University of the State of New York. 



