by statutes distinct from the Factory Acts, have been included in the Mines Regulation Acts, e.g. the prohibition of the payment of wages in public-houses, and the machinery relating to weights and measures whereby miners control their payment; further, partly from the less changing nature of the industry, but probably mainly from the power of expression gained for miners by their organization, the code, so far as it went, at each stage answered apparently on the whole more nearly to the views and needs of the persons protected than the parallel law relating to factories. This was strikingly seen in the evidence before the Royal Commission on Labour in 1892–1894, where the repeated expression of satisfaction on the part of the miners with the provisions as distinct from the administration of the code (“with a few trifling exceptions”) is in marked contrast with the long and varied series of claims and contentions put forward for amendment of the Factory Acts.
Since the act of 1887 there have followed five minor acts, based on the recommendation of the officials acting under the acts, while two of them give effect to claims made by the miners before the Royal Commission on Labour. Thus, in 1894, the Coal Mines (Checkweigher) Act rendered it illegal for an employer (“owner, agent, or manager of any mine, or any person employed by or acting under the instructions of any such owner, agent, or manager”) to make the removal of a particular checkweigher a condition of employment, or to exercise improper influence in the appointment of a checkweigher. The need for this provision was demonstrated by a decision of the Court of Session in Edinburgh, which upheld an employer in his claim to the right of dismissing all the workmen and re-engaging them on condition that they would dismiss a particular checkweigher. In 1896 a short act extended the powers to propose, amend and modify special rules, provided for representation of workmen on arbitration under the principal act on any matter in difference, modified the provision for plans of mines in working and abandoned mines, amended three of the general rules (inspection before commencing work, use of safety lamp and non-inflammable substances for stemming), and empowered the secretary of state by order to prohibit or regulate the use of any explosive likely to become dangerous. In 1900 another brief act raised the age of employment of boys underground from twelve to thirteen. In 1903 another amending act allowed as an alternative qualification for a manager’s certificate a diploma in scientific and mining training after at least two years’ study at a university mining school or other educational institution approved by the secretary of state, coupled with practical experience of at least three years in a mine. In the same year the Employment of Children Act affected children in mines to the extent already indicated in connexion with factories. In 1905 a Coal Mines (Weighing of Minerals) Act improved some provisions relating to appointment and pay of checkweighers and facilities for them and their duly appointed deputies in carrying out their duties. In 1906 the Notice of Accidents Act provided for improved annual returns of accidents and for immediate reporting to the district inspector of accidents under newly-defined conditions as they arise in coal and metalliferous mines.
While the classes of mines regulated by the act of 1887 are the
same as those regulated by the act of 1872 (i.e. mines of coal, of
stratified ironstone, of shale and of fire-clay, including
works above ground where the minerals are prepared for
use by screening, washing, &c.) the interpretation of the
Act of
1887.
term “mine” is wider and simpler, including “every shaft in the
course of being sunk, and every level and inclined plane in the
course of being driven, and all the shafts, levels, planes, works,
tramways and sidings, both below ground and above ground, in and
adjacent to and belonging to the mine.” Of the persons responsible
under penalty for the observance of the acts the term “owner” is
defined precisely as in the act of 1872, but the term “agent” is
modified to mean “any person appointed as the representative of the
owner in respect of any mine or any part thereof, and, as such,
superior to a manager appointed in pursuance of this act.” Of the
persons protected, the term “young person” disappeared from the
act, and “boy,” i.e. “a male under the age of sixteen years,” and
“girl,” i.e. “a female under the age of sixteen years,” take their
place, and the term “woman” means, as before, “a female of the
age of sixteen years and upwards.” The prohibition of employment
underground of women and girls remains untouched, and the prohibition
of employment underground of boys has been successively
extended from boys of the age of ten in 1872 to boys of twelve in
1887 and to boys of thirteen in 1900. The age of employment of
boys and girls above ground in connexion with any mine is raised
from ten years in 1872 to twelve years since 1887. The hours of
employment of a boy below ground may not exceed fifty-four in any
one week, nor ten in any one day from the time of leaving the surface
to the time of returning to the surface. Above ground any boy or
girl under thirteen (and over twelve) may not be employed on more
than six days in any one week; if employed on more than three days
in one week, the daily total must not exceed six hours, or in any other
case ten hours. Protected persons above thirteen are limited to the
same daily and weekly total of hours as boys below ground, but there
are further provisions with regard to intervals for meals and prohibiting
employment for more than five hours without an interval of
at least half an hour for a meal. Registers must be kept of all
protected persons, whether employed above or below ground.
Section 38 of the Public Health Act 1875, which requires separate and
sufficient sanitary conveniences for persons of each sex, was first
extended by the act of 1887 to the portions of mines above ground in
which girls and women are employed; underground this matter is in
metalliferous mines in Cornwall now provided for by special rules.
Ventilation, the only other requirement in the acts that can be classed
as sanitary, is provided for in every mine in the “general rules”
which are aimed at securing safety of mines, and which, so far as
ventilation is concerned, seek to dilute and render harmless noxious
or inflammable gases. The provision which prohibits employment
of any persons in mines not provided with at least two shafts is made
much more stringent by the act of 1887 than in the previous code, by
increasing the distance between the two shafts from 10 to 15 yds.,
and increasing the height of communications between them. Other
provisions amended or strengthened are those relating to the following
points: (a) Daily personal supervision of the mine by the certificated
manager; (b) classes of certificates and constitution of board for
granting certificates of competency; (c) plan of workings of any mine
to be kept up to a date not more than three months previously at the
office of the mine; (d) notice to be given to the inspector of the
district by the owner, agent or manager, of accidents in or about any
mine which cause loss of life or serious personal injury, or are caused
by explosion of coal or coal dust or any explosive or electricity or
any other special cause that the secretary of state specifies by order,
and which causes any personal injury to any person employed in or
about the mine; it is provided that the place where an explosion or
accident occurs causing loss of life or serious personal injury shall be
left for inspection for at least three days, unless this would tend to
increase or continue a danger or impede working of the mine: this
was new in the act of 1887; (e) notice to be given of opening and
abandonment of any mine: this was extended to the opening or
abandonment of any seam; (f) plan of an abandoned mine or seam
to be sent within three months; (g) formal investigation of any explosion
or accident by direction of the secretary of state: this
provision, first introduced by the act of 1886, was modified in 1887
to admit the appointment by the secretary of state of “any competent
person” to hold the investigation, whereas under the earlier
section only an inspector could be appointed.
The “general rules” for safety in mines have been strengthened in many ways since the act of 1872. Particular mention may be made of rule 4 of the act of 1887, relating to the inspection of conditions as to gas ventilation beyond appointed stations at the entrance to the mine or different parts of the mine; General rules. this rule generally removed the earlier distinction between mines in which inflammable gas has been found within the preceding twelve months, and mines in which it has not been so found; of rules 8, 9, 10 and 11, relating to the construction, use, &c., of safety lamps, which are more detailed and stringent than rule 7 of the act of 1872, which they replaced; of rule 12, relating to the use of explosives below ground; of rule 24, which requires the appointment of a competent male person not less than twenty-two years of age for working the machinery for lowering and raising persons at the mine; of rule 34, which first required provision of ambulances or stretchers with splints and bandages at the mine ready for immediate use; of rule 38, which strengthened the provision for periodical inspection of the mine by practical miners on behalf of the workmen at their own cost. With reference to the last-cited rule, during 1898 a Prussian mining commission visited Great Britain, France and Belgium, to study and compare the various methods of inspection by working miners established in these three countries. They found that, so far as the method had been applied, it was most satisfactory in Great Britain, where the whole cost is borne by the workers’ own organizations, and they attributed part of the decrease in number of accidents per thousand employed since 1872 to the inauguration of this system.
The provisions as to the proposal, amendment and modification
of “special rules,” last extended by the act of 1896, may be contrasted
with those of the Factory Act. In the latter
it is not until an industry or process has been scheduled
as dangerous or injurious by the secretary of state’s
Special
rules.
order that occasion arises for the formation of special rules, and
then the initiative rests with the Factory Department whereas in
mines it is incumbent in every case on the owner, agent or manager
