118 
Detonators. 
Stowage in ships. 
Country maga¬ 
zines. 
Licenses for pri¬ 
vate magazines. 
Want of Govern¬ 
ment magazines 
in country. 
Fumes. 
have suggested a locality in the Macedon State Forest Reserve, where the magazine will be far from 
habitations, and may be easily reached by a siding from the railway. This site would not lie inconvenient, 
as by far the largest quantity used is carried over the railway to Sandhurst and the branch lines. The 
hulk in the Bay would then become, as intended, merely a place for temporary storage, and the regulations 
passed by the Governor in Council dated the 28th November, 1882, could be carried out. At present they 
are ignored, as they contain a clause prohibiting the storage of dynamite in the hulk for a period exceeding 
two months, while, as a fact, dynamite Inis remained in the hulk for twelve months, lliis breach of the 
regulations was pointed out by the Customs otlicer in charge of dynamite ; but, as there was no other place 
to store it, 1 recommended that it should he allowed to remain in the hulk while in a sound condition, and 
that some system of constant inspection should be adopted ; but, owing to the divided responsibility of the 
various departments having control of explosives, the inspections have been carried out in a most irregular 
manner and without any system, at my own personal risk, responsibility, and expense, till within the past 
six weeks, when I was authorized by the Honorable the Premier to take such steps as wore necessary to 
ensure immediate public safety. 
The new Explosives Bill to he introduced during the present session of Parliament will probably 
consolidate all the previous gunpowder and explosives Acts, and some one department of the Government 
will be made to take the whole responsibility of admitting only good sound explosives to stores, magazines, 
and mines, and controlling the storage. 
Owing to the large amount of dyuamite in store, there is an equivalent quantity of dynamite 
detonators, which, up to the preseut time, have been treated ns ordinary merchandise, and stored in ware¬ 
houses and shops. The number recently in Melbourne was about 800,000. Since the removal of the 
Government gun-cotton from the small magazine within the Maribyrnong Magazine enclosure, 1 have 
recommended that this building should be set apart for detonators, and I have no doubt that merchants 
would gladly avail themselves of this safe storage and limit the quantity in any of their stores to ono case 
containing 10,000 detonators. 
I may here mention the careless stowage of explosives on board ships arriving here from abroad, to 
which I think the attention of the authorities in England should be called. When inspecting the dynamite 
on hoard the ship Noi'th American, in the early part of the year, I noted that directly over some 20 tons of 
dynamite, 200,000 detonators, several tons of gunpowder, and thousands of ammunition, cartridges, there 
were several cases of explosives marked by the War Department as not to he placed in a magazine with 
other explosives uuder any circumstances whatever. The notice had been entirely disregarded by those 
who placed the explosives on hoard the ship. 
The Government dynamite magazine has been opened at Sandhurst, and seems at present to meet 
the requirements of the district—though 1 fear it will soon he found too small, unless some general shore 
magazine is established ; for, owing to the difficulty and expense of communicating with the hulk in its 
present position, larger quantities will he sent at one time, in order to save the cost of carriage between the 
hulk and the landing at Footscray. With the hulk in its old position, orders were sent for as few as two 
or three cases at a time ; but now, owing to the cost of carriage, such orders could not be profitably 
executed. 
During the year, licenses have been granted for storekeepers’ and mining companies* magazines at 
the following places:— 
Stohekkepjbhs. 
R. II. Bake, Donnelly*s Creek, 
J. L. Roberts and Co., Wallialla, 
Thomas Calder, Mahlon, 
M. Thomas, Sandhurst, 
C. B. Cook, Waudiligong, 
S. Dabb, Maldon, 
A. Harris, Wallialla, 
Clicri Mars, Gordon. 
Mining Companies. 
South Devonshire, Eaglehawk, 
Johnston and Webster’s, Eaglehawk, 
Long Tunnel, Wallialla, 
New Bendigo, St. Anmud, 
Granya, Grunya, 
Bungil, Granya, 
Toombon, Wallialla, 
Seymour, Sulky Gully, 
North Long Tunnel, W allialla, 
Port Phillip, Clunes, 
Madam Berry, Creswick, 
Berry No. 1, Creswick. 
Government magazines are urgently needed in many of the more active mining districts, and some 
dissatisfaction has been expressed at my declining to advise the department to allow any dynamite to be 
stored in the powder magazines; but these buildings are wholly unsuited for the storage of dynamite or 
mixed explosives, and for the most part their situation has become, owing to the growth of the towns, such 
that, should an accident occur, habitations and public works would he destroyed. 
New magazines, constructed of the lightest possible material consistent with safety from fire, should 
bo erected in isolated places, or on reserved ground, at such distances from bouses as maybe deemed safe • 
protected by banks of earth, not sand or ** mullock ”—and the whole enclosed within a fence, to prevent access 
of unauthorized persons. The explosives in these magazines should be under the control of some compe¬ 
tent inspector. Dynamite in a sound perfect condition is one of the safest explosives known, and may, 
while in a sound condition, be kept in a magazine for any time; but dynamite or any of the nitro- 
explosives in an unsound condition is unsafe to store, handle, or use; and, in my opinion, the responsibility 
and control of all explosives of this class should he centred in one department, and that the officers of that 
department should know the condition of every parcel of explosive from the date of its arrival, or of its 
manufacture, if of local origin, until it has been used. 
Numerous complaints are being made of the effect of the fumes produced by the explosion of dyna¬ 
mite charges in mines; and, as our mines get deeper, and ventilation becomes more difficult, the effects on 
the health of the miners will become greater. So far as I know, no mining company has yet tried the 
efficacy of the sulphate of iron spray recommended by the Explosives Board in 1882, and, with your sanction, 
I propose to have a spray apparatus sent to each mining district where there are deep mines, so that the 
miners may see the simplicity of the contrivance, and practically test it. 
