214 Mr. Brace's Mines Beg illation Bill. [^P ru S 



(Mr. Baker's district) is returned at 550, and on conrparing it 

 with the returns of the Keeper of Mining Becords, we rind that 

 more than two hundred of that number have ceased working 

 (many of them for six or seven years and longer), this aspect of 

 the question would appear to require further investigation. 



The second objection, if vahd, would be more formidable. It is 

 argued that the responsibihty of the actual managers of collieries 

 would be diminished if a more close and systematic supervision by 

 government inspectors were attempted. Doubtless it would be 

 a mistake to exonerate an incompetent manager on the certificate 

 of an equally incompetent government official. This is not what 

 is wanted, but that the inspectors should have such a knowledge of 

 the condition, as to discipline and safety, of every mine in their 

 district as a personal inspection can alone afford. "Where this is 

 honestly attempted, as in Mr. Brough's (the South-western) district 

 (and we mention Mr. Brough's case as an example and not as a 

 solitary instance), the solicitation and advice of a man of large 

 experience and of sound acquirements would tend to bring the 

 practice of inferior managers up to the best standard of then own 

 and other localities. 



We are not so sanguine as to suppose that any degree or quality 

 of inspection will prevent a recurrence of lamentable catastrophes. 

 With the increase in depth of our coal mines the frequency of the 

 sudden and dangerous outbursts of gas necessarily increases ; against 

 them no management of details is of much avail without the faculty 

 of increasing the supply of air almost indefinitely, now happily 

 afforded by the exhausting fans of Lemielle, Guibal, and others, 

 which are rapidly coming into use in the Xorth of England and in 

 South Wales. Another source of constant danger is the reckless- 

 ness of the mining population, which will only be removed by such 

 a change in then habits as time and education can alone produce. 



But with all this a more vigilant supervision by the representa- 

 tives of the central authority cannot fail to increase the good order 

 and safety of collieries as it has done that of factories. It appears 

 to us that the country cannot rest satisfied with the present pseudo- 

 inspection, or rather post-mortem revision, serving, as it does in 

 nearly every instance, to show merely that the inspector had no 

 knowledge whatever of the condition in any respects of the pit in 

 which the fatal accident arose. 



