158 COALFIELDS AND COLLIERIES OF AUSTRALIA. 



can detect three-quarters of a per cent. The officials use 

 Hepple white-Grey lamps, and test for gas with the hydrogen 

 flame. It takes a man and three boys one minute to take to 

 pieces, clean, fill and put together again three lamps. One 

 boy takes the lamp apart ; the man cleans and examines the 

 gauzes, for this he has two revolving brushes., one for the in- 

 side, the other for the outside of the gauze cylinders ; a second 

 boy cleans the glasses, and a third boy fills the oil vessels and 

 puts the parts together. A fourth boy is employed on night 

 shift. 



Only one shift is worked at this colliery. The front and 

 back shift system is not employed here as in the tunnel col- 

 lieries down the coast, for as the only means of ingress and 

 egress is by the cages in the shaft, it would necessitate the em- 

 ployment of extra engine-drivers ; besides, the coal is so easily 

 won that it requires no preparation by holing and blasting to 

 fetch it down, so there is no occasion for a man to get the place 

 ready for his mate. After interviewing the examining deputy 

 at his station, the men proceed with their work at their own 

 discretion, and can have a snack when they please. The 

 wheelers, of course, have a fixed half-hour for dinner. The 

 men are searched for pipes, tobacco and matches before 

 descending in the cage, and at frequent intervals five or six 

 cages of men (16 in a cage) are searched immediately they 

 reach the pit's bottom in the morning. A special search is 

 made at irregular intervals, when officers, working in pairs, 

 thoroughly search the clothing of every person throughout the 

 mine while at their working places : precautions being taken 

 that no previous warning is given. 



The output from this colliery is practically absorbed by 

 inland consumers, the demand remaining unsatisfied. Fully 

 200,000 tons of this coal is taken annually by the Govern- 

 ment railways and tramways. 



Coal Cliff Colliery. 



This colliery, which is situated at Clifton, is of special in- 

 terest, for it was here that coal was first discovered in New 

 South Wales, in August, 1797 (Fig. 91.). It is owned by 

 Messrs. E. Vickery and Sons Ltd., and is managed by Mr. P. 

 J. Carrick, who has been in charge for the past ten years, but 

 has been employed at the colliery for twenty-seven or twenty- 

 eight years. The mine itself has been worked for about thirty- 

 iwo years. 



The seam, which averages about six feet in the workings, 

 crops^ out on the side of the cliff close to the sea near the com- 

 pany's jetty. The collieries south of this property can be 

 entered by means of tunnels, while north of this property the 

 only means of access to the workings is by pits. 



