SHIFTS. 77 



rights, but who do not wish to work the coal themselves, 

 make the most favourable arrangements they can with those 

 who want to mine their coal. One cannot amalgamate adjoin- 

 ing' private and Government lands ; the labour conditions must 

 be carried ont on the latter according to the terms of the lease. 

 It is customary in the New South Wales collieries to work 

 but one shift of eight hours a day, except for men engaged in 

 development work. If the development work is not sufficiently 

 far ahead, there may not be enough places opened up for men 

 to win coal to fulfil contracts : also steeply inclined seams- 

 are not so readily developed as those that are more horizontal. 

 For these reasons, about 10 years ago, the East Greta Colliery 

 initiated three shifts a day, as is customary in metal mines, 

 and the same system was adopted by the newer collieries of 

 the Northern coal-field. The night shift, nicknamed the "dog- 

 watch," was objected to by the miners, tliough each man's 

 turn only came round every three weeks. He com- 

 plained that lie could not rest so well by day, especially in 

 the summer time, with the heat, flies, and noise about him. 

 His wife had to sell erne so as to let the bread-winner sleep, 

 rushing out to stop the tradesmen calling, and sending the- 

 children to play outside, away from her watchful eye. It is- 

 generally admitted that men working on night shift do not 

 work so satisfactorily as on day shift, and on the southern 

 coal-field the miners are paid l?>d. per ton extra for all coal 

 hewn by them during the night shift. Another objection that 

 the miners have to this shift is that there are six men in a 

 party instead of two. Now the coal won is credited to the men 

 obtaining it, not as individuals, but as sets, and the more 

 men there are, the greater the difference there is likely to be 

 in their individual capacity for work : so that unless they agree 

 among themselves that the inferior men shall receive so much 

 less, and the superior men so much more, than one-sixth of 

 the total earned (a principle objected to by miners when work- 

 ing for wages, as they want all to be on a dead level), then 

 the better men get dissatisfied. It is generally inexpedient 

 to separate the work of the shifts working in the same bord, 

 for time would be wasted in cleaning up the coal from each 

 shift. The men are paid according to the coal sent to the 

 surface in skips; one shift might put in hours undercutting 

 and blasting down coal, which it would not have time to fill 

 into skips; unless the following shift belonged to the same 

 party, they would get credited for the coal the former shift 

 actually won. Under these circumstances, miners naturally 

 do not break down more than they can fill, and as they cannot 

 always gauge the quantity, they may often be left idle for 

 some time, rather than put in work for other men; besides, by 

 making the work suit the time, instead of the time suit the 



