MINES,

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coalfields a new form of register, showing daily hours, had been introduced
shortly before our visit. At that time some of the clerks were not
keeping this register properly. The register appeared adequate for
the purpose and if accurately kept should provide a reliable basis
for checking the observance of the law as well as the necessary safety
record of the number of men underground at any given moment, We
think that the personal responsibility of managers for the accuracy of
these registers should be impressed upon them and that, for a time at least,
the special attention of the inspectorate should be given to checking
them. We recommend that new registers, in the same form ag those in
use for coal mines, or with such modifications as may be found necessary
to meet varying circumstances, be prescribed for all mines under the
Act.

The Working Day.

We have now to consider the suitability of the legal limits on the
working day and the working week. The provisions of the Bill
which was passed as the Act of 1928 met with criticism because with
an existing weekly limit of hours of 60 above ground and 54 below
ground, the introduction of a 12 hour day meant no advance. On the
other hand, it was urged that the object of the Act wasnot the reduction
of working hours, but the enforcement of some regularity in their arrangement.
 The whole case for and against a shorter daily limit wags examined
with care by the Select Committee of the Legislative Assembly, which
considered the Bill in 1928. The members of that Committee were agreed
that the 8 hour shift is the system towards which advance should be
directed. But, for reasons given in their report, the Committee decided
to adhere to the 12 hour shift, recommending to Government that,
after the Act had been in force for three years, the situation should again
be examined to see whether an 8 hour shift could then be introduced.
As the three years did not commence to run till April 1930, we have had
no opportunity of seeing the Act in operation and it is not possible,
therefore, to say that the considerations which led the Committee to suggest
 an experimental period have lost their force. We do not suggest that
twelve hours is a suitable working day for a miner working regularly, hut
under the present law the miner working regularly cannot work more than
nine hours. The smooth working of the statutory system of shifts, combined
 with other changes recently introduced, will not be an easy task
either for the industry or for the administration. There is the further
consideration that, during the next few years, many miners will have
difficulty in adjusting their work to meet the position caused by the exclusion
 of their women, ; and a fresh and drastic limitation of the kind involved
in an 8 hour day might make adequate adjustment impossible.
Finally, the industry still depends to considerable extent on the miner
who comes in for g few days from a village some distance away and desires
to put in the maximum of work during that time in order to secure as long
a period as possible at his home. The introduction of 8 hour shifts
will tend to eliminate work of this kind. While we are not prepared to
Say that compelling the industry to depend on those classes of miners who