Queensland

Parliamentary Debates [Hansard]

Legislative Assembly

FRIDAY, 6 OCTOBER 1911

Electronic reproduction of original hardcopy

1368 Questions. = A::lS.EMBLY.J Supply.

FRIDAY, 6 OcTOBER, 1911.

The SPEAKER (Ron. W. D. ..\rmstrong, Lockyer) took the chair at half-past 3 o'clock.

QUESTIONS.

OVERTIME IN AUDIT BRANCH, RAILWAY DEPARTMENT.

Mr. LENNON (Herb1 rt) asked the Secre­tary for Railways-

" 1. \Vhat -..,vas the average OV(!rtime worl{ed per we -k by the c!erlm in the Audit Branch of the Railway Departn1ent during the current year to 30th September?

"2. The totnl oYerthne worke-d during thr same period?

" 3. VVhat extra pay was rf'cei ved for so working?"

fJh· . .T. jf_ l!u!lter.

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS (Ron. W. T. Paget, Mackay) replied-

" 1. From 1st January to 30th September, 1911, tlle uverage overtime was 182 hours per week, equal to three hours per man per week.

" 2. 7,096 hours, includinb all time worked after 4. 30 p.m. ; but overtime pay is not allowed until after tea ( 7 p.m.).

"3. £173 9s. 6d. Under the pre :ent system of 1nakiug all the annual report tables up to: 30th June, overtirne cannot be avoided, and owing to the special nature of the work it v.rould be usele''t' to call in ternpc,rary as:"i:.;t­ance."

DATE OF GENEHAL ELE':TIO"S. :\Ir. LENNON asked the Chiec Secretary,

without notice-" Can he afford the Ifouse any ·information

-even approximate information-of the ap­proximate datt• of the next genera! elef'tions. There is a p~"'!.ragraph in to-day's Cottrier)c apparently inspired, w1Jich giver; :mne little information. Therr; are nlany fluctuating J'Ulll'::'ll~'; about the n1atter. 1ncl I think, for the in£"crmation of the public, the Pre1nier m.ight state the apprDximate date."

The PREMIE-R (l-Ion. D. F. Denham, O:cley) replied-

" I have no knowledge of the source of inspiration, <1l'd I a1n unable to afford any informatien a~ to tlle anproximate date of the next elections." -

(Opposition laughter.)

PE'fiTIONS. LIQUOR BILL.

:\Ir. GRAYSON (Cunningham) presented a petition on behalf of the Presbyterian Church, Clifton, praying that certain amendments he incorporated in the Liquor Bill.

Petition received. Mr. MACKINTOSH (Cambooya) presented

a petition of similar purport and prayer, signed by the i\Ioderator on behalf of thf' Presbyterian Church, Toowoomba.

Petition read and received.

FEES PAID TO BARRISTERS .\ND SOLICITORS.

On the motion of Mr. :\lURPHY (Croydon), it was formall;• resolved-

" That there be laid on the table of the Hou~e a return showing the fees paid to bar­risters and solicitnrs sinre the last return was furnished to the Houee."

:.\IETHODIST CHURCH BILL. THIRD READING.

On the motion of the TREASURER CHon. vV. H. Barnes, Rulimba), this Bill, read a third time. was ordered to be returned to the LegislatiYe Council, by m<wsage in the usual form.

SFPPLY. REs::MPTION oF Co:-nnTTEE-FouRTH

~:\.LLOTTED DAY.

RAILWAY DEPART1!El\T-~!AINTENANCE BRANCH. (Mr. J. Stodr:rt, Legan, in the chair.)

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS moved that £534,710 be granted for "Maintenance Branch." There was a net inc,·case of £90,876 over the amount voted last year. Then01 Was,

Suppl_1f. [6 0C'!'O[]Eit.J Supply. 1369

an increase of £24,908 m the Southern division, £7,703 m the Central division, £2,540 at Mackay, £814 at Bowen £10.147 at Townsville, £16,233 at Cairns, £38 at' Cook­town, and a decrease of £1,497 at Normanton. The total mileage maintained during the year 1910-11 was 3,922 miles 75 chains and the total mileage to be maintained thi; year was 4,110 miles 91 chains, an increase of 188 miles 16 chains. The classification increases fm· 169 officers amountBd to £1,265, the amended classification increases, which took effect from 1st July last, for 2,339 officers amounted to £32,194, the special increases for twentv-six ?fficers amounted to £1,067; making a total mcrease for salaries and wages of £34.526. If hon. members desired detailed information res1pecting any officer' or any number of

officers, he should be very pleased to give it.

Mr. LENNON could quite understand the necessity for a considm able increase under the head_ing of "J\1aintcnanc-e Branch," becP,us.o a considerable number of new lines were added during last year. The incre<Lse for the ;)~luth­ern division appeared to b, normal, but the increas0 of £8,000 in the working expenses of the Central division seem"tl rath~,- lar((c. in view of the fact that the only lim", add"d during the year were the Port .t\lma RaiiV\av and the Dawson V a.Jley line. The incrPas(, in the Northern division was £28 000 and he did not think there had been m;y n'ew lines added there beyond the Cloncurry Railway.

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAVS: Oh. yes: we are workin<;· the EthNid;;-e Railwav 120 miles. and that is included in the vote,' and other lines have heen started.

Mr. LENNON: It appeared to him that £28, 00~ i_ncrease was out of all proportion to the ex1stmg cost m comnarison with the in­crease in the Southern division, in view of the larg_e number of railways that were being started m tho South; but he supposed it was due to the starting of the new lines the MinistBr spoke of and the running of the Etheridge Railway.

The SECRETARY FOR RAILW!tYS: vVe are running that line now.

* Mr. O'SULLIVAN (Kenrwdy): There was great dissatisfaction in his part of the State among the lengthsmen in regard to the length of mileage they had to look aftBr.

The SECRETARY FOR RAILW.,YS; The length of milea.ge for different gan;s?

Mr. O'SULLIV~\N: Yes; they could not look after the length of line allotted to them and _do justice to themselves and the travelling pubhc. Last year the l\linister informed him in reply to a question, that ten years ago there was .71 man per mile. To-day it was .40 man per mile. There was a lot of extra traffic on that particular railwav now so that it needed greater attention than it 'formerly received, and the older a line got the more work w:;ts entail_ed on the lengthsmen in keep­mg 1t m repmr. The ::Ylinister had statBd that the engineer was responsible for the maintenance and safetv of the line but he would remind the han. gentleman 'that the excessive rains which fell early this year necess1tated a lot of extra work on the rail­way. Coming down from Pentland recently he found that tho men who were in charge of a length were talmn from their work for davs in order to effect some repairs to another length.

The SECRETARY FOR R.,AIL"\YAYS: Perhaps the whole staff had to be got together to repair a bridge.

l\Ir. O'SULLIVAN; The men too.k pride in keeping their lengths in good order, and they did not like being taken away to do work at anothrr place, as when that work was finished they had to go back to their length and make up for the loss of time on their own lengths. He held that their dissatisfaction on that score was justified. On the b1·anch lin-e fi-'om Ravenswood Junction to, Ravens·,\ ood the men had to form thomseiYcs into a flying gl:mg, and the department considered that that was the bolt thing to do on that par­ticular railwav. He knew that the line was not paying, but he could. not understand the contention that by forming the men into a flying gang the department were cutting down expenses, as they had to pay extra rates and to cn1ploy tho san1c number of men. Moreover, there were objections to t!:c arrangc1nent f~·vn1 the rnen's point of view, as manv of them had families gro\ving upJ and i;hcy were put to conbider­able inconvenience, as they could not get home to their wiYes and famihr,, on:v once a week. They could only go horne to their \Yives and fan1ilie.;; once a week: if thcv wont oftener thov had to take it out of their time. If a man wanted to pay a visit to his home in Ravenswood, and he was at the other end of the line, he had to go to and hom very huniodly to get bark to duty at the proper time. This was a matter which entailed hardship and caused great dissatisfaction. He did not think that that was the best way to work the line. 'The men could see that the line was not kept in any bettet' condition than it was before, and thee had tho disadvantage of not having their home life, and it was an c>xtra expense to tho department. Again, in his electorate-and it was common to the wholp of the NorthNn svstem-when thev went on holidays they got so many extra days to go So,uth, but some might like a holiday further North, say at Barron Falls or the Atherton district, and in that case they said they got no extra days allowed.

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: They get the same consideration.

Mr. O'SULLIVAN : Thev had informed him j hat they got no extra days allowed, and it was unfair on the part of the de­partment not to gi Ye the sa n1o concessions when they went up North. Then there were some very serious complaints up North in reg·ard to the hot boxes. There was more heavy traffic now than there was ten years ago, and yet the staff to cope with the hot boxe' was just tho same. There were only five men in the whole Northern line. He had a note which he had taken, which road : Hot boxes-one man a:t CharteTs TO'weri!, one at Hughenden, and one at Cloncurry. with double the mileage there was ten years ago. Then tho men said that the lubricant used was inferior, which caused th<> boxes to run hotter than thev wo:1ld with a bettor lubricant. The department would sec thrut this \\as not a frivolous thing·.

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: It is a senous n1attC'r.

Mr. O'SL'LLIVAN: It was a soriou,, n1atter, and it was to preserve the roliing­stock that these men brought these just complaints forward.

1370 Suppl_1J· [ASSEMBLY.] Suppl_11

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: As a matter of fact, the boxes are being lined with white metal as they come in-they cannot be brought in specially.

Mr. O'SULLTV AN: If the lubricant was inferior, it would br> detrimental even if the boxes were lined with white metal. Again, when anv boxes were hot, and it was a night train, the guard had to do the work, but it was not a fair thing for a guard to have to do this. The department should, in vi('W of the 0xtra amount of haulage and increase of mileage, supplement the staff to cope with the work. If they did that tliey would find that the rolling-stock would last much longer, and there \Youlcl be more 'atisfaction amongo'· the employees in that particular branch. Ilc ishod to impress on the Minister the need of housing our lengthsmen. l-Ie -.,Yas in one part of his clootomte \vhorc '' lengthsman's wife was suffering from chronic rheumatism. The house was built on the ground, and it was the rain~~ se-a ,en, and the \VPt was oozing through the ground. Ue asked why they did not board the floor, and the woman s'Lid, " What is the use? My husband may get a wire to say th.·;t he is shifted somewhere else. This place has been pulled clown twice and put up again through our removal from one place to nnoihN." It was the duty of the department to look after not only the lengthemen, but their wives and families.

Mr. RYLAND: Get proper houses.

Mr. O'SULLIVAN: Before he had left that little township a wire came from the department saying that the husband was to be shifted to another place, but he was saved in this way-he wired back stating that there was a single man on the length who in justice sl1ould be shifted instead of him­self.

:Mr. MTJRPRY: The Minister said the other night that any lengthsman could get a house built at 5 per cont. on the cost.

Mr. O'SULLIVAN did not think that was generally known amongst lengthsmen.

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: Yes.

Mr. O'SL:LLIVA:\f had never heard it u:>til the1 Minister mentioned it the other night. It was the clutv of the department to alier all these things. There were men at Charters Towers in the other branches of tho service, such as locomotive ongine­clrivcrc. and firemen, who said they did not care to go 0ut to CloEcurr,y becaum there was not proper house aceonunodation, and tho fin-t time tlwro was a vacancv the\ got back to Charters Tov ors or ·Towns­ville, although they \\oulcl willingly stay if proper accommodation was provided. These men would get an order to go out West and would either have to br<'ak up their homes or lean' thoir wives and fami· lies behind, and when thev sa" there was no proper accommodation they tried to get back at tho first opportunity. Then, again, the department often sent temporary hands along to a ganger, who might give them the tool-house to ·lecp in for a night or two until they were able to get a tent up. Some of these men were recent arrivals, and the department should look after them in a better way, so that their first impressions of the State service would be favourable. A case came under his notice in which a ganger in his kind-heartedness gave them the tool-house to sleep in until such time

[Mr. 0' Sullivan.

as they could get a tent or other accommo• dation, and he got han! eel ov~r tho. , coals. 1·ery sevewly for domg so: H0 d:n not think the 1Govcrnrnent was JUSt. Tho n1an acted in all good faith to make these men as comfortable as possible, and it did not injure the tool-house-although he. (Mr .. O'SulliYan) did not think the tool-house should be used for that purpose. These \Verc reasons ,,-hv 1ncn did not vvant to go· out to these places. But the rail wav•· had to be looked after in the IV est as 1:dl as on th0 coa ,t, ;'.nd ,,-c :should in1provc the conditions of the service oo that these men would not be dissatisfied with their posi­tio'1S and ward to come back to the towns. Tim lengthsmcn out in these places were under rr:anv dicadYantages in connection wii h the h0~lth of their wives and families. If sidme>s came along they were e1ther put to ;rcat expemc by sending them. clown to _gd medical att0nclance, or by brmgmg_ nwdicnl ne·-ic.taro.cf' un to them. He hoped

- the Mi.nistcr would seriously [4 p.m.] nnnlv himeclf to rectifying these

things. The Minister had r:>et hi·01 in scv0ral things, such as the ercctwn o.f _at<· houses. A{, Powlathan.c•·a ther' was a temporary gatchousc -erecterl .. It ''.as a·. little fr>tm~ v;ith hoegian round It, ancl the h<>at cf the wn was too much for ~he wo·n:.1,:-1 workln:: t.ht.~rc. It \vanted S01J1cth1ng better than that temporary gatehouse.

l\1r. Cor.UNS: They increase the Railway CmnJni~-/_;iorPr's salary RO high that there lS no mocc:· left for anyone else.

Mr. O'SULLIV A='!: In a.rguing for ~n incr0ase in th{• ~,a~ari{'~ Df the loviter-p3:1d sNv:mts he 1vished to stah· that the m"~n­t0nanC'e me-n in thn. North did not ge-t a rlS8' at all last vear, although he was g·:ad to see that th<'Y ~vere included this year.

The SEC0ET\HY FO.R RAILWA'l:'i · The in­crease gn1.ntod last year \Yas only for men: who 1verc receiving less than 7s. a. d.a:v. ~nd th0 Northern men \i\~cre not r-eceiving- ~CRS·

than 7s. The bell indicated that tho hon. memhcr'sc

time had <•xpired.

Mr. O'SULLIVAN: He would take another five minutes. The wages laRt year were 7s. ]Jer dav in the South and Bs. per dav in th"' )Jorfh. Seven shillings w-as the rate -of wage in the South and 8s. in the :\forth: th0reforc, 'dwn the South< rn men "'ere, incrr1c~d 6d. ]Wr clay, th:tt iw:rease· ,hould a'so hrtYO been granted to the :\Drth­ern Dlf:'1l y, Jrking in thC' :-'1 111{' rnH]O t'J fJf-8-.

scrYP thn lt,,_' 1JlC0 bf>t'' '2n tl1e ?\orth fP1d

South. Mr. D. HvNTER: Ynu h'\' that on with

the olJ-agc pension and sc~<-~ i::: you su·::e.eod. The SEC'HET.IR',' FOH RAILWAYS: \V C did not

have ilw mon0y to do it last year.

'Ir. McllPHY: \Yo should increase the fares an;t frei~~ht.;; jn ord{•r to proYiJe nlo,v.:~y to· pay higher .1f!CR.

Mr. O'SULLIVA=": 1·10 did not hclieve· in tlH:~; State so~ ialism bein~; used to increase· iho fares and :rcir·hts. Th:tt '"'aking it St,ttC' oanitali~ 1n. ·EY.cry milD railway that was huilt PTlh3ncod the va;nc of the hnd throucrh \Y~l; 'h 1-t pas_,c.d. ar d the railw.av did not cr~t any o' the. credit of that incrc>ase in valu0. and th0rcforc the Gncornment had to sweat the l<l-cn workjng on the railways in order to square the fina'1ces. The men di<l not get the increases bocau e· they were-

'upp1,1J. ~6 OcTOBER.] Suppl;IJ·

entitled to them, but because of the good seasons. It vvas an insult to them to sav that that was the reason they were given the Increase.

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: They got it because they were entitled to it.

_Mr. O'SLJLLIVA~: Members sitting be­hmd the Government stud that the increases were granted because of the good seasons, nnd that was an insult to the men. It was ju .t like saying, ··You d<Jn't e::trn vour rr1oney, but 1-ve ,,~i:I give yon an inc1~cuse be~ause of tho good sea-•ons." That meant that when bad scascns came the men's wages \:ould be ·dccreas0d .again. If he wore in the Hause he wou~d fight any such propcsal right thrcugh. (Hear, hear ') ::\icn should be w-ell paid irrespective of the seascns. and if had se!lscns c~me and sa many men were not w:mtDd, some should be put off but there shou~d not ~Pan~? r.c·duction of 'k~gEs. :Y1em~ bo:s opposrte d1d nDt ~,Yant to see ·wages rarscd beeaURE~ thcv \voulc1 h1ve to con1e un to thC~t standard themcelves. Just fancv mD~ g<etting 7e. a day and having to pay ·15s. a we~k rent! He met a labouring man the otl:wr day who showed him n letter he re­Ceived ~rom his J.andlcrd which r<>ad. "After a <'Drtam <l;;t" vour house nmt will be 15s. p<>r week." That m<'.lnt th 1t railwav Dm­ployees getting 7s. a day would have to pay t";,-·o day~' ''"ages for their w<"ek's rent. H'e did not know why th". railw::ty worker should h:-tv~ "to pav so much rnto the rapacious mavv of the landlord fer rent.

Th" lwll indicated that the hon. member's time had expired.

Mr. :\11JRPHY: We shoul-d make it that the lan<llrwd cou:d only get 5 per cent. on the capital cost, the same as the railwav men had to pay. •

Mr. O'S"CLLIVAN (continuing): Yes; but they would n_ot get that until they get a Gcvernment Ill pcwer which would lcok after the welfar-e of the people. Th<>y should

· ·avcid the examples set bv the older coun­tries, where the people we1:e f;round down bv usury: bnt they wore rising up against it !'ow as the people would not nut up with 1t. It would cau.se red revolution. and that was what they d1d not want. Thev did not want men reducPd to povertv anc1 despair so _that th0v v.:ould rise up as 'they had been domg lately Ill other parts of the world. Thev want.ed to avoid that in this vouno­country. It was i·hr- bcund·'n dutY ~f th~ he~d of the department to provide houses for the m<1n in the service. The GovDrn­mc:nt could borrow monev cheo"nor than a pnvate person, and thcv could · m·cct little cottflrres along- the rai~wR~v lin('" at the J.o,:n•;,t nossible cost 'or th ''"orkmen. It wns in the inter<>sts of the children as w<ell that this 'hould bf' don", as it would <>nable them to grow up h9o lthv an<'! strong.

The hell indicatPd that the hon. member's thir-d allotm<>nt of time had expired.

11r. RYLAND (Gympir) wieh0d to refer l·o an old grieYance !n connt>ction with the Maintenance Branch~that was with regard to extended leave. HE' know 'a man who, after long and useful service in the department, was retired in time of retrench­ment, but he did not get the extended leave tC? which he was entitled, and which w<ts g1ven to others who were retired at the

same time. He would like to know wha;; wore the regulations under which extended leave was granted.

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: They get the extended leave if they are entitled to it, and they do not get it if they arc uc>t entitled to it. There is the whole thing in a nutshell.

Mr. RYLAND: The man to whom i'e referred had been employed in tho Mary­borough section of the J\Iaintenanoe Branch, and he had done v-ery good service thc,·e for a quarter of a century.

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: 'Whon he retired he was not entitled to leave. There are reams of correspondence on the subject.

Mr. RYLA~D : Others who left under no more favourable circumstances got extended leave. It appeared that injustice had been done, as all men should be treated alike. I-I" brought the case under the Minister's notice.

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: I had it before me last week.

J\lr. RYLAND: He hoped the hon. gentle· man had done justice in the matter.

The SECRE1'ARY FOR RAILWAYS: I gave him the justice that he did not like~that was, that he was not entitled to leave.

Mr. RYL"I,)JD: The case was a deserving one, according to the evidence, taking into consideration the fact that other men got extended leave. \Vith reference to the insur­ance of the men in the Railway Department against accident, he had some figures which were co npiled by the officers of the de­partment, and it would be as well to quote a few of them to show the exact cost. The figures were for the five years during which th<' \Yorkers' Compensation Act had been in force, and applied to ,~ll branches of the service. The total wages paid in the Traffic Branch during the five years were £897,664, and the amount of compensation pu.icl was £5,249, which was equal to lls. 7cl. pc·r £100 of wages paid. Tho wages paid i•1 the Chief :\lechanical Engin0er's Branch a.mounted to £1,403,404, and tho compensa­tion paid to £15,610, equal to £1 2s. 2d. per £100 of wages paid. - In the Med1anical EngineNing Branch the total wao:es amounted to £1,342,279, and t.he compensation to £7.539. eqnal to lls. 2d. per £100 of wag<'s paid. In the Sto,·cs Branch tho a:;-c" paid a•nountcd to £19,048, and the compensation paid to £80, equal to Ss. 4d. per £100 of wages paid. The total wages paid during the five v<'ars was £3,662,395, and the anwnnt of compcn'·ation paid 'vas £28,478, which .,-as Ci,ual to 15s- 7d. per £100 of wages paid.

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: You thought. it was 7s. 4d. only until I corrected you.

Mr. RYLA~D: That was the rate on the figures he got last year. But even 15s. 7d. was exceptionally low compared with the rates ch«rged by private insurance com­panics. The l:nderwritors' Association of Queensland~he believed all tho companit'S worked under the same tariff~chargcd 80s. per £100 of wages paid for quarrymen ; 60s. for men Pngagcd in demolishing stone buildings; 50s. for bridge builders; 45s. for railway employees; 20s. for men employed in sugar refineries; and 15s. for ftcld c·,!plo_,:ces. It would therefore be seen that the cost to the Hailway Department worked ont at about the ·-amo rate as was charged

11[,_ Ryland.l

1372 Suppl,y. [ASSEMBLY.] 8upply.

for field mnployees by privatf~ con1panies, or about one-third of the rate charged by those companies for railway employees.

Tho SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: You don't want us to give it to tho private companies, do you'!

Mr. RYLAND: 1\'o; he would like to see the Govcrnnwnt undertake the insurance of other people. \Vh:v not give tho s. nw advantages to :<nen engaged in other indus­tries 't

The SECRETARY FOR HAlLWAYS: What hae this to do with the :\Iaintenance Branci1?

'Mr. RYLAJ\iD: It had everything to do with the :\laintenance Branch. lt a mau employ<"d in that branch met with an acci­dent, he got compensation. It was tlw duty of the Government to provide houses for the men employed in that branch, as they cou;d build ho1><9S for half what it would cost th ·' men to build them for themselw·s. The houses for statio,n-masters and maintenance 1nen on new railways were rnuch better than the houses put up years ago. Twenty years ago they were only two-roomed houses with a little skillion, not fit for civilised beings, and built of galvaniscd iron. About Bris­bane there should be a settlement-a sort of garden city-for rail'> ay employees. The Go­vernment could supply them with residences at a rate of about 5 per cent. on the cost. For 3s. or 4;c. a week the Government could supply them with better houses than they were paying 15s. a week for at present. In New South \Vales they were doing a good deal in that direction. They were not only building wooden houses, but in a good many pia< <:OS they were building brick houses along their lines. And they were going to build them cheaply,, because they would not have to go to private brickyards fo.r the bricks. Only the other day this statement appeared in the Daily Mail of 4th October-

" The State brickworks of New South \Vales have turned out, 1,423,000 bricks at £1 4s. 2d. per 1,000. With the improved machinery recently installed the cost of proiluctiou will be reduced to IEF'J than £1 per 1,000. Private brickmaking companies are charging £2 2s. ]Jer 1,000. It ir; expected that a oaving of £37,000 a year y ill be the outcome of the Govcrn1nrnt enterprise."

That was the way to do it. By reducing the cost of production they could give higher wages and better houses. It was not neces­sary for pric·,,s to go up as a result of in­creased wages, because wages were only a small item in the cost of production. It was monopoly that brought up prices. In New Zealand, where the fares and freights were already more than SO per cent. less than they were here, it was proposed to have a mini­mum wage of 9s. a day for lengthcmen, and also reduce the fares and frei,r;hts by 25 per cent. The enormously increased Yalue ~iven to land by railway construction should t,, made to contribnte towards cost of construc­tion, thus allowing th<e bringing down of freights and fares. Although the Minister promised in connection with the i\Iary Valley Railway that local men would be given a show. last week several men who applied could not obtain a show.

The SECRETARY FOR R.I.ILWAYS: Local men are getting a show.

:Mr. RYLAND: He mentioned thD matter because he thought local men ought to be given a chance.

;Mr. Ryland.

Mr. ADAMSON (Rockhanpton) >aid he had been particularly requesLed to. call attentwn to the latter part of RegulatiOn No. 20, as follo;,<s:-

,, .E: ,_t\ nded h..ave of absence can only be granted to pcr:,cm~ int>2nding to rrsun1e duty, o.ud cannot be u; ed as a retiring allowance~

a per:._:on who refiigns and ha '-' not attained age of sixty-five ytars will not be g1·anted

e:,.tended leave of ab -ence. Tmnporary ser-\·ice "\Vill not be :lliowed to count when calcu­lating the amount of extended lh1 ..,·e to which an ernployce is entitlct"

A number oi maintenance men hacl spoken of this as an injustice. rrhey sai~l, and rightly so, that if they i'"'l'Yed a certam pro­portion of the years that would ,cnhtle them to extended leave anJ. then for some reason retired from the ~enic , they should receive pay equiYalent to tile. cxte_nded leave to ·,· hich thev would be entitled 1f thcv mt<mded io rcsum.; duty. "

The SECRETARY FOR JlULWAYS: They get their proportion of th-P retiring allowance.

)Ir. ADAl'.ISOK: It seemed to him that t:wv should be paid an amount equivale!lt to ·the extended lea Ye which they would be entitled to according to their length of service.

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: So they do if they come back to work. Extended leave is not retiring allowance.

Mr. ADAMSON: He undetstood that-it '· >tS stated in the regulation; but he thought that if a man want<;d to rrr:circ, and had per­formed service entitling him to extended leaYo of absence equivalent to a certain amount of money, ho should get tl~at amount of money when leaving the sernce. They }J.'l J ]JCr:forrnod senrico which vvarranted them -getting extended leave equal to a "Cl:'r:ain rnoncy value, .and they contended 1t

'" was not fair. One or t\vO men l4.30 p.m.] had left hccausc their eyesight

was ba·d, after s8rving -e. long time. rwrhaps twenty >~e:1rs, and they ought tC' receive every considm·ation po'8ible. One or two men had receiv£>d consideration under those ch·cumst.ancC's. The opinion was held, so. far as R.effulation ~o. 21 vvas concerned, that it ou:,;ht to be made to apply to every­body in th<? railway service. If men were still vigorous at sixtv-five vPars of age, they should CJC h ;)t or; as l01ig as they were able t<, do their 'vork fairlv and well. If it was clone in one Lranch, it ought to be done in all branches.

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: You can­not. very well apply it to guards and engine­drivers. who ha vo very onerous duties to perform

Mr. ADAMSON : Every case should be dr.::llt \vith on it:< 1110rits. If an enginc­clri,-cr had def"ctivn sight. and had to re­tire. we;! and good; but if he ·:,as able to .d_o his work-,,.,-.lJ, he should recoiv-e some consideration. He wanted to particularly rPfcr to :1 w 1tt0" that took place in the }1nry~-mrough yards rBcently. Six men in tlw J\1,aryborough yards weF discharged, n.r~d i111mediatt:<v after"\Yards nc,,·chums were taken on to fi:J' their places. Some of those JY en ha'fl bceu in l\-!arvborough a very long time. Onf' had heen there over thirtv years and was g-etting ,a very old man. He was on!;: 1 tPmpor~ry man. and the f'xcuse for his di~{·hnrge ,,-,-a~ that he \Vas fift:· years of OitC. Thc> department on;y took him on six rn-onths ago, and if that mnn •.·7·as able to do

Suppl,11. J:o OoToBaR.] Sunly. 1373

his work satisfadorily six or eight months ago it seemed a groat hardship that he should be discharged, and men who had only just arrived in the country put on in his place. He had been tol<:l that two of the men could be taken back if they made application. Why were they discharged if they could be taken b.aci< on making ·application? 'If they W€rc wanted, there was no reason why they should be discharged; and if thH wore dis­charg·cd and other men took their places, there seemed to be something peculiar about it. Then two of the men-one had defectiYc sight an·d another a defecti.Ye leg-were -vvorking at filling coal, and if they had bc.-11 able to do that work up to that particnlm· time, it seemed strange that th<>v should have been put off. One of those men' was a native of Maryborough, and ho v>;-as glad to say had got work at the present time. The point he wished to cmphasi,,c was that there was something very jWcu]iar about the discharge of those men. He drd not want to state the reasons why he thought they W·ere dis­charg-ed, bat old men •rho had· b.oen a long time in the country, as those men had been respectable men with homes in Marvborouuh' if they could do their work, thcr"e was "n~ reason IH thcv should be discharrrcd and other m< n put ,J·n in their placcc. t:f;, hoped the Minister W•.mld pay attention to those, mathrs. an<l that the hon. gentleman would not think he had been saving anvthin"' unfair. L L

0

~!'· ::\1A:'\X (Gairns) .' . With regard to the rep,Ies made by tlw Mm1"ter the other C\'Cn· ing, he (Mr. ::\1ann) claimed that the officers on the Cairns Raih,·ay should have the same power gi_vcn to them as had b-r0n Q;iYen to offic<>rs m Rockhampton and Townsville. Tho :Ylinistcr stated that any request made by the Cairns officers would be o·iven full consider~ation. If that argun1ent ~:.a«. o-ood why not deal ln the san1e '.YaY with

0 th~

Towns\·ille and Rockhampton officers? There 1vas ,a hig mileage of railway in Cairns­a bigger mil<<tgc than mont.ioncd bv the Minist<'r at Bowen an<:! Mackay. "

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: Bowen and Mackay a,·c under the officers of Towns­ville.

Mr. :YL\.::'{K urged that the Cairns and Cooktown systems should be under one traffic n1anap:er stationed in Cairns. There was a very -big mileage in Cairns no\v a~ it had been increased by the department takmg· over the Mulgrave Tramwar, and by the opening of the Tolga-Johnstone Rail· way, which he hoped would soon go to the Milia 2\Iilla Falls, and the railway opened ~n;nn ..:-~ therton to Evelyn "V\~ould giv-e a very farr m1leage of country to look after. The mainten::tnce officers and traffic officers there should be allowed to run the thing, as they ~ad a .better local know!edge than the people 111 Brrsbanc. lf anythmg 'Iii anted doinu to expedite the traffic, or giving the n1en b anv concessions that the Pngineers thought tho'V deserved for their very arduous class of work-the engineer a1ld traffic 1nanager should be given certain powers in certain cases to increase the wages of the men under their .co~trol. Of course they mi~·h~ have to submrt rarge matters to the Mrmster, but they should be allowed to do more than make recom1nodations, and, further, to in1pose less onerous conditions upon the men than vvas ~ometimes done in Brisbane, as the people m Brrsbane knew nothing of the Northern conditions.

'l'he SECRETARY FOR RAIL WAYS : The officers in Brisbane know just as much about the Xorthern railways as the people in the North.

Mr. MANN: Apparently they did not by the way things were done. On certain lines the lengthsmcn were not allowed to run over the road on a tricycle on holidays. If it was dangerous to run the tricycle on holidavs was it not equally dangerous during week ~lays? If the men were allowed to run over th~ road on tho tricycle it would save a g·ood deal of time, and it would be much easier on the lengthsmen who were inspect­ing the road, and if the lengthsmen were supplied with the timetable of the trains there vvotlld be no dang·er in putting the­h·icycle on the road. A number of those thin ~s vrere irkson1o, and the engineer should h•o allowed, if he thought it safe, to do awaY with that foolish regulation, and let the ·men run over the road. The Minister could quite understand what it meant to a man if he had to walk along the length 4 or 5 n1il0-.; on a hot morning in tho tropic;::., and then vntlk back to his camp. It meant a great detd of unneccssarv exertion when the road could be run over" on a tricycle in the ordinary way.

The SECRETARY FOR RAIL v\ AYS : I cannot undor:tand why it f-hould not be so.

Mr. MAN?\ could not give any satisfactory reason, and that was \\ hy the local officers should have the power to run the road on common-sense up-to-date lines. In reply to what was said by the hon. member for \Voo­thakata with regard to the Cairhs tunnels, he agreed that the tunnels were not con­structed as well as they might have been in the first placP, and that the tunnels were not properly packed, but he did not think for one moment that the eng·ineers would run the trains through the tunnels if there was the least chance of any of those tunnels col­lapsing. As a matter of fact, there would haYe been 110 collapse in the Ko. 10 Tunnel only for the fact that they were working at the tunnel and had everything lying open, and down c:,,me huge torrential rains and washed down a tremendous amount of loose rod earth and blockecl up the tunnel, and, of course, such a tremendous weight falling on the tunnel, which vvas in a state of repair, naturally blocked the whole thing.

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: Anybody who saw it e,·en when l w'fts up there must know that the tunnel must collapse.

Mr. MANN: Although the workmanship mig·ht ha\·e been faulty in the fir·st place, anyone must realise that no matter how well and faithfully built it might have been, it must collapse with such a trc:nendous weight of earth that poured dow:1 on top of it. Tho tunnel cracked, to his knowledge, as far back as 1894, and the men wc.-c merely patching the tunnel when this thing hap­pened. The tunnel was not properly packed in the first instance, and the cause of its cracking was the rotting a,,, ay of the packing and the great weight of earth brou-:;-ht down on it by the exceedingly heavy rains which fell shortly after it was built. The other tunnels on that rail" ay had stood for twenty-two years, and trains had been runnin;:; through them con'·tantly, and he <lid not think there was any great danger of their collapsing unless the whole side of the mountain slid away, and there was not much fear of that t>oca use ""ature had prov idee! got a ways for the rainfall, in the shape of great natural:

Mr.Mann.J

137 L Supply. [ASS.EMBLY.J Suppf.y.

gorge'. With reference to the construction of wooden bridges on that line he would re­mind hon. members that whe~ the railway was Guilt tho engineer was not aware ;f the abnormal torrential rains which some­timoc fell in the district, and had never seen running water in some of those places spanned by bridges, so that he felt justified in saving the expense that would have been involved in upkeep of bridges by substitut­ing concreto culverts. The flow of water there was something abnormal recently. He was informed by Mr. O'Leary, the manager of the local tramway for the Government, that a culvert at Babinda which he had known for twenty years, during which time he had never seen any running water there. was washed away by tho abnormal flow ci' water lately experienced in the locality. \Vith the knowledge that the engineers now had of conditions in that district, they would no doubt provide against that kind of thing in future. At any rate, he (?.Ir. Mann) was perf~ctly satisfied that the railway would be put m a perfectly safe state, and that there would be no danger of a tunnel collapsing when a train was going through. There was a stoppage of traffic in 1893 certainly, but that kind of thing happened on other rail­ways. Flood waters sometimes ran over the Western railways, and stopped traffic for a time.

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: They are absolutely under water sometimes.

Mr. MANN: That was quite true, and it was no argument to say that because traffic on the Cairns Railway happened to be hung up for two or three weeks they should build another railway to Port Doug· las, where they had a similar range to con· tend with, and which would also have land· slips if they got 70 inches of rain in three days.

The SECRETARY FOR RAIL WAYS : I think I told them that the rainfall at Port Douglas was the same as at Cairns.

Mr. MANN: It was practically the same. The only thing alleged by the advocates of that line was that the Port Douglas Range was safer than the Cairns Range. But they could not say what the range was like until they opened up cuttings, and if they did and there wa.s a rainfall of 70 inches, it was possible that there would be as much wash­away there as there had been on the Cairns Railway. With regard to wages of the lengthsmen, whatever the Minister might say about making it clear that only those receiving less than 7s. a day were the men to g·et an increase, he knew that lengths­men on the Cairns Railway thought that last year they were to get another 6d. a day. and were keenly disappointed at not getting the increase. There were quite a number of increases to be given this year, and members would know 'who received those increases when the men were paid.

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: They are under the now regulation.

Mr. MANN : Y cs, but members did not know what the new regulation was.

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: I can give them to you.

Mr. MANN : Sometimes, owing to some little quibble, men did not get increases. The Minister seemed to have the impression that temporary labourers working with the lengthsmen were receiving 6d. a day more :than lengthsmen. But the fact was that .they

[Mr. kfann.

got the same rate of pay, but were denied the privileges accorded to permanent hands. He could understand that men in permanent employment expected to get a little more consideration than was given to temporary hands, but there was not much in the privi­leges granted to permanent hands. They certainly got holidays which were not given to temporary labourers, but the temporary hands got privilege tickets, which were not much usc to them, especially where such an employee was a single man, who did not wish to go home or go to town. In such a case, the temporary employee did not get much benefit from the privilege ticket. He thought the Minister would be well advised, however, to allow the gangers to issue privilege tickets to all the men, and did not think the privilege would be abused. It had been asked by some members that permanent hands should get more than temporary hands. He did not believe in that, hut thought that both should be paid the same rate-a decent wage commensurate with the work they performed-as both did the same class of work. With regard to the inquiry as to why temporary employees did not be­come permanent hands, he would point out that the reason was that a tt'mporary hand had to serve a certain period of probation, ·"ornetimes for twelve months before he be· carne a permanent employee, and while so serving got a less wage, even though he had been doing the work for years, and was just as capable as a pern1anent e1nployee.

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: They have to serve six months on probation before they can become permanent hands.

Mr. MANN: Yes, that was the regulation, and he would not mind a man serving six months on probation if he received the same pay as was given to· a permanent hand.

The bell indictt9d that the hon. member's time had expired.

Mr. MANN (continuing): Temporary hands were often got rid of just to tide the Govern­ment over a tight corner financially although their services might be required, and they would be put on again in a few months' time aft-er the temporary shortness of money had passed away. For example, a certain vote was put down for work on a railway, and the vote was exhausted before other money was \Oted, and the Government instead of con­tinuing the work and charging it to unfore­seen expenditure might dismiss the men and take them on in a month or two after more money was voted. To knock off these men ill a good time was mistaken economy, be .. nuse the time you would get the best work out of temporary hands was during the. cooler months-May, June, August, and September -and if men were knocked off in April because the vote was expended, and were not started again until September when the money was voted, some good time was lost. You would find the Government putting on men in Sep­tember, and often getting men who had no hwwledge of the work. He thought men engaged as ternporarfy labourers should be l<ept on, because they knew all about the mnditions of the work, and when a lengths­man happened to be ill there was no trouble in putting on a good reliable temporary hand· to do the work. He wanted to refer to a case in Cairns with regard to compensation to workers. He knew the- Government were generous, if they could be, but if a labourer was hurt he only got £1 a week. He might

[fi OcTOBER.~ Suppl;y. 1375

'have 'a large family and be away for a long .,time unable to do "-nything, being badly tJurt.

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: We cannot step out from the Act.

Mr. '.\lANN: He admitbd that, but what ·he wished the :Mini,;tor to do was to give inetructions to all the officers that whenever a. man was able to •{et out of bed, but could not go t.o the err.nl•)~HtHmt he had before, they should find him some light job to keep ·ihe pot boiling. There was a. case in Cairns •Some time ago of a man who hurt his spine. He (Mr. l\lann) advised him that he should see the Minister, who was coming to Cairns, about his case. He clearly recognised that the department was paying him what they were entitled to pay~£1 a week~but if they could find him a. light job a.nd pay him a. .decent wage it would very materially help these people over a bad time, and would not unduly penalise the department. There were often much lighter jobs to be found on the railway than the work o,f shovelling, when a man could not wheel a barrow and take his place among the men. He trusted that the Minister would givP instructions to the

·officers that wherever possible, when a man got hurt, and afterwards applied for light work, the. department would meet the case, ~~~: ~~ _ ~~e m~n v~_~s compet_ent, pro':ide h~m \ldLil Hgrnr worK. ne again Impressed on the Minister the necessity of giving local officers more control, because if they could do little things on their own initiative the running of the trains would ?e much more up-to-da.te, and many httle gnevances would be rectified For <>xample, little grievances in connection with the loading of trucks, or with respect to appliances required for coping with traffic wuld be very well attended to by the traffi~ .manager on the spot instead of referring the mattGr to Brisbane, when, after inquiry and lengthy correspondence, the officers down here might grant it or not. He thought t.he traffic m.an~ger or maink'nance inspector in tho .d,stnct should be allowed a certain amount of expenditure to provide for these contingen­·Cies. He was pleased that the Government had recognised the services of Mr. Fraser during the time the Cairns line was almost \lashed away.

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: I did, a.nd I did not forget the inspectors or the men either.

:Ur. MANN : And there was the traffic manager, who had a trying time in endtavour­ing to get the goods through while the line ·was stopped. It wa.s not an easy thing to act as a rubber streak between the public and the Commissioner when the line was blocked and the people were trying to get their goods away. It was alleged that through influence with the office down here some firms were, given special conce-,sions over other

':firms;. at least, he had heard from the people m Ca1rns that the regulations were all in favour of the big firms, and practically wiped out the smaller men in regard to sending t;oods away. That should be left to the traffit manager in the district. The Minister shook 'his head.

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: \Vhy should it be so? ·

Mr. MANN : All the small storekeepers .alleged that the regulations penalised them to a greater extent than they did the big :merchants. That ¥.as a mistake. We should

always encourage the small man more tha.n the large man, who could stand loss of trade for a while but it wa.s serious for a small man who c,;uld not send his goo<?.s along the line, whilst a big firm, if they lost a. month or so, did riot suffer to the same extent.

Mr. LESINA (Clermont): He would like to give, one or two facts i.n refer.enoe t.o a matter which he mentioned in the House on 20th September last. He had received a letter from the department, dated 6th October, signed by 1\Tr. Steer, a.nd stating~

"Referrint; to your . t~tenu:nt in the I-Iouse on 20th ultirnv, rcgardjng the number of hours workrd by rne-r, on the Pinkenba wharf on 18th idc.n1 in c mneciioD witb the handling of butter, I am dirEcted tJ inform you th,:..t the General Traffic Manager is unaware of tlv.J occurrence referrE'd ta, but if you will gi \'e the nan1es of tllf' men the 1nattC'r 1vi1l be further looked into.'!

He had not personally interviewed any of the men in connection with the statement referred to. He had not reoeived information from anybody who worked there. but it was a newsp_aper parru,gra.ph on which he had founded his remarks.

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: We were trying to get at the truth.

Mr. LESINA: He had not got any personal assurance as to the accuracy of the statement. 'Yhe information was to the effect that these porters work in the freezing chambers a.nd have no proper clothing provided. They a.re paid 9:ld. an hour, day, night, holiday, or Good Friday labour-Sundays, time a.nd a half, and the complaint was that some months ago certain men who worked from 9 a.m. until 8 p.m. on Monday last were ordered back at 3.30 a..m. on Tuesday, and they had to sign agreeing to do, so. · If they didn't do that. they would have got the sack. The l\Jinister wa.nted the names. but he could not give the names because he did not know the men. but he would trv a.nd get the infor­mation for the Minister.· He might say, in explanation of his statement. that unloading the frozen cargo from the railway trucks at Pinkenba was very heavy work, just as heavy as the waterside worker was engaged in on the wharf at Pinkenba unloading cargo

from railway trucks when they [5 p.m.] got ls. 6d. per hour and 2s. 6d.

overtime, and double time, or 3s. per hour, on a holiday. The railwa.y men had to pa.ss a chest measurement standard. They had to be 5 feet 6 inches in height and medically and physically sound; in fact, thev must be ,-eritabk, A pollos, and these per.sons only got 9~d. per hour.

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: Rather cheap for an Apollo?

l\lr. LESINA: Yes. Now, the wharf bbourcr need only be a man of, say, 4 feot 4 inches in hei!l'ht, with a chest like a lady's waist, blind in one e~·e, and colour-blind in the other. (Laughter.) He might not be able to read or writn, but had to count on his fingers~Oaughter)~and this man would get ls. 6d. an hour, 2s. 6d. an hour overtime, and 3s. an hour for holidavs. That was because he was an organi~ed 'unionist.

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWA'lcS: H would be a small man 4 feet 4 inches in height. Do you mean 4 fe'lt 4 inches wide? (Laughter.)

Mr. LESINA: He had seen many wharf labourers who were not much over 4 feet, and who were bow-legged and heavily built.

Mr. Lesina.]

lil76 [ASSEMBLY.] Suppl_y.

They "\Vcrc putting on men< who came from the old countrv. and the junior member for Rockhampton mentioned where they were putting on immigrants to work in the Railway Department.

Tho SECRETARY FOR HAIL WAYS: Thcv ate not spindle-shanked or bow-legged. ·

Mr. LESINA: It seemed strange that the men who had to pass the medical and physical standard should not get as much as tho nw.1 out· ido tho scr ,-ice. The reason was that one body of mcu wore organised and tho raihn1y servants \>l'ro not. "\Vith their sectional unionism a11d tlF-•ir system of striking, tho rail way n1en would never be able to , dYanco their posi~ions. They wanted to b2co::nc class-conscious industrial unionists, because at prc9ent they only killed each other by their methods of strikes. If the Minister would not give these men tho increased aniount aH an act of justice) he should do it as an act of benevolence. H appeared to be an extmordinary thing that the men working for a private firm should get so much more than the State servant for doing exactly tho s,une \vork, especially as tho rai]w,t;<" men were bound by regula­tions. Sometimes it was possible to waive these rcgulationc, and he noticed from a letter rec"ived by the junior member fot Rockhampton that b•:o men named Curtis and Harden, who failed to comply with the tests on 29th December last, were told to npply again and thccv would be passed.

Tho SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: Perhaps they have grown since then. They might have been young men.

Mr. LESINA: If the regulation did not work well, it should be abolished altogether, as it only opened the door for political influence when some men could get into tho service without passing the regulations and others could not do so. If they allowed that sort of thing to continue, some hard­working constituent of: a men1ber \Yould int0rview his member, or the Minister. and be able to he ve tho regulation suspended in his case, as was dono in the c1se of Harden and Curti- Men should be em­ployed on their merits only. He knew one man 6 feet high who could not do, as much work as a man 5 fei't 6 inches.

The o:lECRE'rARY FOR HAIL WAYS: How could small mr•n uncouple wagons? Your 4 feet 4 inches friend could not do it.

:VIr. LESINA: There were small men who 'vere occupying stools in tho office. Thev had sma11 men in Parliam~nt-for in­stan.ce, the senior member· for Charters Towers, Mr. :.Iullan, and tho junior rnember for Ipswich. Mr. Blair.

Mr. :\1uLLAX: I believe that tho police arc being promoted now because of their weight. (Laughter.) At any rate, one sub­inspector was promoted because of his •:eight-his avoirdupois weight. (Laughter.)

Mr. LESINA: That showed the kind of regul tions that the:~· •,ere introducing. One man was promoted because of his height and another because of his \\·eight. (Laugh. ter.) He did not think the Chinese, with all their contradietory system of economics, could beat that. There were a number of men engaged at Roma street who had to take the numbers of trains, trucks, and wagons, and thcy were constantly on the move. That was because they were under­staffed. These men were paid 6s. 6d. and 7s. a day, and had to work eight or nine

f Mr. Lesina.

hours a day and even longer, and they got no time for meals. This was a matter that the Commissioner and Minister should take into consideration. These 1nen were run­ning up and do\vn all day, and in time they becan1c as expert runners as a Japanese jinrickshavv coon. (Laughter.) Some of them v:ould make good Marathon runners. (Laughter.) If some enterprising "sport" went down to the Roma-street sheds and saw the..:o "nu1nber" men running up and down he would b. able to spot a :Marathon winner, a,· the hlC!l had plenty of training down there. (Laughter.) It was not right i,hat men should haxe to nm after their work in that way. The ·8 men felt, together with the oilers, that they ran a great risk owing to h:ck of pl·oper >•ignalling there. In fact, a man named Gilligan lost his life becausr there v.-as no signalling. A proper place v:a, provided for chc c•ngine and car­riag·c cleaners, but not for the oilers. This vYas Gilligan's case- He fJ.w the C wa,gon in the shed.

The SECRETARY FOR R.ULWAYS: \Vhen did this happen?

::Vlr. LESIXA: Some months ag·o. The dnJc of the occurrence would be in the office. Qjlli~an, it a.ppcared, sighted a. C wag·oD: on the line in the shed. a few feet off the stop-block, and, as the line wa.s cl<.:•.,r for, c:hout 300 vards, he went to work \i·ith a will. He seemed to have been oiling the brake-whee•!. on the end of the wagon nearest the stop-block, just about the time some trucks wer0 shunted on to the line. With his mind on his work, he did not see> thB danger that was rolling slo·" ly. but surely, upon him, and he was squashed het\\'ean the buffer and the stop-blo.ck before he realised what had happened. The poor fellow passed aw·ay within a cDuple of hours from the ilme he was caught in the death-trap. A signal mio-ht have saved his life>. Provision for <)ili'ng, s.i.rnl~ar t:o that vvhich Inaint.._'1ins in thf clcaning-sht ds, ·would certainly h .,s:'n the dancrer o1 a number of ,v.ag·ons being s-o11t raci1Jg ~1to stationarJ trucks at -;v-hich 1nen rnio·hc l1o \VOrking, as Gilligan was in the­Uo~na-street shecl. He understood that the crane which was used at Roma Street Station ,,·as rather out of date and ramshackle, and the 1nen engage-d in ·working it ;~,·ere only paid 6s. 6d. a day. He believed it •yas a 10-ton cralle. but it "as often ctll<';l upon to liL half as n1uch again. It tcok four men to ork it. and they had to stand on a plate \vh-r~re there w~ts only roo1n for b"' o. It appeared to be a sc-andalous thing to ask men to risk their li,·es for 6s. 6d. a day.

The bell indicated that the hon. member's time had expired.

;y1r. LESINA (continuing) said that he understood there were no proper grips in connection with the crane, although there, were tm1s of them l::ing rotting into ol J iron ir. other places. With reg·ard to the carriage­cleaners, he un<lorstood that they were only 1 aid 6s. 6d. a day for doing the disagree­' ble and fllthv work that was associated .,,·ith the cleaning of the carriages. The work was. so much disliked that, if there was a shortage of hands and others were wanted, there wars a scatter in the yard, as none of them ,,~anted to be sent to " Siberia.,'' as it was called by the men. There was certainly room for i1nprovement. ~o provision was ,made for the destruction of the filthy waste at the sheds. The Government might install a small incinerator and cremate the stuff,

Supply. [6 0CTOllER.j Supply. 1377

because aon1e o£ tho \Yo~.tern and Northern carriages ;v-cre in a filthy eondition when Lhoy cu:r ~ i~1to the clr'aning~shcd. There was no drainage at tho yards

1 and the

ground wrcs ,aturated, and the men had cither to staml in wet boob or else work in their lxue fc2t. Tho n•.tttn·, to v.hich he had rciC'rred were not big ones; they ·were not Jikotv to turn .a Governnu:mt out of offic·•, or to lead to the impeachment of a ~Iinistcr or a lonnni:--··ioncr, but if th_y y,·pro l'"8tifi2d th-::n V'·Ju:d 1nean a con-ten'b:~d scr>:ico. ~

Mr. BRE~-i::\'A='J (l!acld ·mp r•• ~Yorth): Before -de :lin~ ·with n1att"rs aif{.Cting his BlcctoratP. he "'i-,h~ .1 to rcfor to some of the statementf:l m·:. le bv th:._• hon. rncmber fer Clermont. The hon memb(r must haye been rni .inion:~( d ro~;nnliLg port0rs hand­ling butter at Pinkcnlw.

I>.Ir. LE·~{I:\A: the waterside workers handliug; th{' at Finkcnba, und th"- y nrc r id the m-,n hand-ling it in t:w -Phcds.

l\ir. BRE:\::.~~:1~ unctpr·~cocl the hon. Ju_:rn~ bnr to sav that portt~rs \Ycr~~ :;: 'lt do·.,·n to Pinkenha

0

with tho Gutter, and that they \Yero ,,-orking in the h·eczing and chilling I'ooms ·a J..ongsidc th- Quc,~nsland J\Icat Ex~ port and AgPnc:7 CoJn.)any's 1n-en, and only receivPd a v: ry SL~a~l pittanc..-~ cornparecl \Vith t}w 1<~1'~0 SUt::~S raid to tlw COP pan:(s 1ncn. ~o---, in th. first plac;, the llailv . . L:­Departrno:nt ncYer sent porters do,vn to Pin-kenha wittl 2t all. Thov a tallY~ c:ctk on}.' , _!JC':er v cithor tll0 fref ·ln~- or '-'w chilling 1 <HU:-> or handled buttcr.c Ali the lwndling· was done by the con1p...:r:v' Int '1 .. ,If all the hon. l11Cinber's statP , · \Yith re:;arcl to thfe hctrd,_'lips which the etu-)lo:·cc- had to undergo

-(he ,c Tll!C SUUl'l ~, then his stnt-cn1ent:~ "·ere o~J{:'l1 to doubt. Coming now to lnattC'l ,,-fic-cting: his {) ,-n 0lcctora.tc,

;)JX ()' lllOllths ago, durin r tho o: the Con1n1issioner, 1lr. Thnl-

1on, he l','C''iYcd h·o~n th- d0_wrtru-P11t p-.:otr:i.-.; tl~at ::t w:lrsh1n·id,. c: IYDn~d ln' vidL·J ~ ' Chahn{ ''S. -;-Ic 11 r ·1 n i~1for nl d the \Yf'ighbTid.~~ had be~·n pur,..hn·~cc1 son1.c titnD ago, hut it had not yet b0r;n rcc:-~in)cl at :Thiount Chalntcrs. It \Yas

.a very Sf'rioEs 111:lh<'r, diffcrenc-::.1 w :-rc frcquentlH -cron-oin(.t the Grea; Fitzroy ·ronrr\~y t. dr~·_l_ ·~wn y-ho ·'-'upplied tlH; c·-·npnny limP'· to:'.'.e \Yith respect to '\Yeig11 t3, rr"j for a. tinw the con1~ p.uny 'vas receiving none at all. Ther-e ha-d been sufficiont tin1c~ for tho w0ighbridge to he instalk.J. and he \Yould Ilk(; 1nuch lf it v. as cr0{'t-cd a~ fKJ01l ·~~ In Table :'--To. 15 thp Commissionc·r gave tho r·evPnue anc1 f'XD0nditurP figtn·ps for tho diff·en nt rnihv •ncl \YC'l'P Dn,... or two point.-; on ' h0 1_ to con1n1f nt regarding- the raih,-a~'S .in hi,;; 0l'-·~tor.at0. Ile found tha• tlw Ye'lOoon R 'ihm'' had hoen TUnnin_g for not cit~itc thr0c- Y~1 rs. Lns.L year th';' rx·H:rr1i:-urc was £1.800 rnorc HJ'--11 for th-0 lll'f_;..·,r1ing ~-f'ar. Tbc- rr>Yenuo \Yas CPrt-ainly £1.000 lT!orc Hw.n during· the prr­vious :vrar, 1)nt tlw ('i1pital cxpenl1c.1 on tb~ line during l:ul· :· •ar, inc~u·lling rolling­stock, wo .. £2.600. He "·ou:cl like to kno"· the 11PCPssit.;..,. for that ('Xncnditure, heeausc. whilo the: r,,Yenno for 1910-U \Vas £1.000 more than the prr~vions ~'C'ar, th-; pcrccntng{~ of net revenue to C'"~,pital \YQS consi.clerab1v less, being £4 7s. lOd., as against £5 9s. 5d.

1911-4 Q

the previous year. \Vhen this line was propc Pel, it "as 'aid that it would not pay axle-grease; but it paid £9 8s. 5d. P'"r cent. the fir:'t YeHr, £5 P". 5d. per cent. tho second '''ar. an~! £4 7 . 10d. per cent. the third ~·car. On the liL·o Irom Archer Park to Fnru Park the re~, cntF' ·was £340 greatet last _'3T thu_n ·uhe 1WCYious year, 1vhilo the p:·_'Cen: -of lH ~ ~l'UYenur: 'to Cf!..~)ihtl ,_,-~::ts £1 lL·. greater.

Th~J SECHLT.;ll~Y FOH R .. \IL'.VAYS: That sho'i-VJ cconoruic_~'! nutnagctnc nt.

}h. BREN?\AX: It od economical :n1::!.:!: :tgcE _: ·--.•· in ··~ ,- • the ex pen· ditmc '· 'S le·<s £2,300 the year bdorc. In fin' ycarJ the percentage of net rcvrn1w to capit-,Jl had rison f:!"om 9s. Sd. to £3 3s. 2d., which as a ennsidt'rJ.bL' increa:;e. One thiug he \Yished to ask \Vas ho-w tho Y.,.cppoon lin' ··,ffec, d the Emu Purk line, brcau·-o he thou".ht thJ traffic fron1 the :lcplH'on line ll<lFsing OYC'r tho E1rln Park liru-' "\VH' th-~ 1nain t tuso of the incrca'"e.

l'OH n .. UL\:AYS: The propor-t~on ~·pphJll lin;_~ traf!ic that l'llllq

o,·,.r _\-t·ch( ~· Park to En1u Park line :is credited to that par{ icular section.

JHr. I3RE:l\XAN: So that tho inc:-'ase in the revenue of the ..:-\rchcr Park line was Llrt;ely due to th·· Y l'ppoon line.

r~rhc :5ECHET.\R FOR R.uL-"WAYS: I suppose so.

:C!r. BEE.:\"NAX: Tho Broadmount lin<> for tho ilrst th~'CC: ~cars \Y%1 s a clcJd loFs;

in I~~~D9-10 it. lHti.._~ :::.- Gel. per cent., and 1910-J 1 it paid 16 9d. per cent. flu

'vas glad to say that, with this c-~::ccption, th~ railwaY3 in his clcoturato \Yore succE:'+ ful lint ~. "

:1Ir. COLLI:\'S (Ihrke) thought a lot of l~e tj1nc 0( "Upicd in Parlianwnt Yvith rail­\Yay llH_,-l's grie\-7 anc,Js could l ~ saved if the ruih\ lllOtl ·, ould bc•corn'"" thoroughly

or if the :11ini~ tor ,,-ould gr·ant io unionists and rnake the1n

org 1 • ~·:· l-Ie \Ya.s going to teH the r:1 ih·" ay If' 'n thct was tho best thing they could do. Ho did not want them to. waste his time with those small matters. It would be better for tho :.Vlinister, for Parliament, and for the country if tho men were thoroughly organised and preference \Verc gi Yen to unioni~ts.

Tho SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: I thought you were alv;ays telling them to org&mse.

::\lr. COLLIXS: So he was; but tho to be afraid. Then was a

which '"cmcd to frighten them. should be broken, and that bad

Re· ulation 18 shou:d be' broken by th'O men.

Tho SECEET.iRY FOR HAIL WAYS: There is quite " number of as·ocicttions in t.he Rail­" ay Dcpartn1cnt.

?,.:r. COLI..II\8 said they \rcrc not organ· ic.cd as the,· should he. IIc "Could rather deal \Yi1 h an organi'·r:'d body than \Vith a di. 0rganis:'d body. 1-Ic ncYc'r :rn::t a civil ~ :rY .1nt that dicl not stc n1 to have a griev­ar..ce; and the~ onh.T y. av to rerned~.T it 'vas for thun to organlf:c ns~d '.!.Y exac'tly v:hat the>- \Yanted.

:\Ir. ~ .. L\ Y !Flinrlrrs) '.ns thoroug·hly in accord with what the hon. member for Burke said. He (:Hr. :\lay) had a righ~ to spfak for

Mr. Jfay.]

l3i8 Suppl,IJ. [ASSEMBLY.] Supply.

the lcngthsmen, seeing- that he ha.d in his electorate the greatest len"th of railway and the greatest number of lcngthsn1€n. The question of pay had uheady been fully dealt with; and he no.w wished to refer to the question of accommodation. He beliend that houses should be built for the lengthsmen in certain villages as they were established on any of the great lengths of railway. Thcv were told that in the near future they were to have petrol motors on the line•·. It would be a good thing to have petrol patrol trains to

CJ"rry the lcngthsmen to the [5.30 p.m.] places where they had to work.

They might have to camp a nig·ht hem and a night there, but they could re­turn to their homes twice, or at least once, a week, and spend the Sundays in their own homes, and by that means the whole of the married men could be concentrated in one camp, and they would be able to pmvide schooling facilities for their children. Al­though the itinerant b:mchers were doing good work in the country, they v. ere not as good as the regular schools. He had spoken to several high officials in the R ~ilway De· partment on the matter, and thev stated such a scheme mig·ht bD v. or ked. If they had such a petrol patrol system for the lcngthsm<en, it auld be of immense advantage in the case of heavy floods, whcm all the men had to be concentrated at the one point. In o: e instance at Julia Creek every a.vailab:.e 1nan was sent to that spot to pnt the lin ' into a state of efficiency. He did no.t ish to detain the Committee, bnt he wished to make a little explanation with regard to the incident when the Chairman c:cl!ecl him to order the other evcnin.~·- The hon. mem­b::_•r for \Voolloonga.bba 1nade sorne :r .. 1ost. ir~congruqus stat.ements in regard to the question of contract l'tT··WJ tlL· day~labour systcn1; he was making an indictn1ent ~ ag..tinst. the whole of the Government engineers and Government officials, hence his (:/,Ir. C\Iay's) thirteen interjections in defence of those Government engineers and Go-r.:rnnlent o.flicials.

The SECRETARY FOR RAILW.HS: Thirt:;·­nine, I think; not thirteen.

l\lr. :\lAY: The Chairman stated thirt-.:en within a very short period. He (1\Ir. 1\Iay) might have been rather strong in interject· ing, but he could not help it, bccau ,, be knew the engineers did their v ork weil. Lately there had been some talk about a movabl" crane attached to a t uck, and he hoped when it did come into operation, the department would send o.ne to the North. All those things were provided for the South, and the poor neglected North ·,, 'tS left until the last before they got what was really necessary.

* l\lr. BARBER (Bu11dabery) : The other night he had referred to the fact that he had received a communication from a con­siderable number of men belonging to the ~1amtenance Branch, and they had asked him to ventilat<J their grievance in reference to the bad accommodation, and on looking up the lctb;r he found it came from No. 69 Flying Gang.

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: Does not their work necessitate tent living?

Mr. BARBER: They required some huts. The letter referred to tho bad condition of the h4ts.

The SECRETARY FOB RAILWAYS: Where a bouts is it 7

[Mr. JJfay.

:\lr. BARBER: 1\o. 69 Flying Gang, Wes· tern line. The other night he had stated in error it \va in the Celnral districL The letter was as follows :-

"Dear Sir,~ I take the privil0ge of writing to you, trusting you will help us in our ailn e:on\ ,- rnillg the C::liDP on thb \-.:::tion, \Yhicll nre a disgrace, and nvt fit for hun1an beings to li \·e in. The ln:ts are far too Blllall and are beyond repair. '.1'he 111...11 haYG to placa their food and ::;torE:~ undl'r the :,unJ,c.:;, HO as to enable then1 to get in;_) the roon1~. There is no convenience \Vhateyer; "•'e 2.re C"Jl11pe1l,:d to have our 1ueals in the san1e roon1 ::1s \Ve sleep. Sorne huts have not even door- to them, and often \<hen \Ye arrive back at can1p after being nw~tY during the da:r ;ve die: JYer that our stores, etc., have been ~;.::attered about by goats and fowls." He believed out in the West the r;oat herd \Yas very prolific-very numerous. ·

'· Surely s01nethinf,; can be done to improve thing:;, and I don't think it would be a large item if we were provid.~.::d 1vi1.h larger huts to live in, and kitchc1s •,et apart L-r c cJking purposer,, I trusr: ou \\ill do us the f ·vour by helping us in our C',use. Thanking you in anticipation,

"Your• truly." That letter was signee! by between twenty and thirty men. In the \Y estern c\;,c" ricts the sumn1er heat was very inten::.e, and \Yhcn men had to "co.w their hod and stores uncle;· their bunks and had to eat and sleep in the sarne rooJn it vas not conduciYe to their health. \Yhen it was discoycred that a ChiL::~n1an had sto,ved al' av a bunch o.r two of banana.s under his bed· for the purpose of ripening them, they felt somec· hat indig­nant, and in the small huts in the \\'est, with the intense heat beating down on them, he was sure the food verv soon dcterio::.·ated. He ho.ped the Minister \\·auld ma.ke inguiri" and sec if ",omethiug conld be done.

Tho SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: Among other things, the hon. member for Kennedy brought up the question of no extra clays for holida/-111aking \-hen th! 11! _n \H_Te

going North. lie C:\lr. Page-·) pointed out that the reguL,lion:, covered extra traYelling da:; s for men ,,-hen the;· "·ere traYe!li;1g east or travelling south. That was for n1en in tho far \Y e ~t t avel1i1•g' ea.3t to the coast or F'Juth if the.,_, '-rcr8 in the ~ orth. Tho housing of lcn6tll-men had been brought up again by quite a nnn1ber of bon. lYlCinbers. Ilc \Yould rep]) again, as he had replied before, that he hac! looked into the matter several times, and although he was ve:·y anxious indeed to give the be-t conditions he possibly could for the housing· of the cmployen of the Railway Department, there \;ere certain rulu that they must get some return for the money that was expended on housing. Some d tho men objected to pay 5 per cent. for interest and redemption on the capital c,,st involved. He did not agree with their attitude, but he would again go into the matter and see if it was possible to work out some scheme by which the constant demand for accommoda­tion could he mot.

Mr. LAXD : ·why not house them alto­gether?

'The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: They could not house them all together.

Mr. LAND: I do not mean to put them all in one house.

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: \/\There, however, there \Vas accon1modation for lengthsmen such as that described by the hon. member for Bundaberg, the matter should receive attention. The hon. member

81!pp1y. [6 0CTOBER.l Supp1,y. 1379

for Gympie, Mr. Ryland, spoke about tho wage-, paid to railway men in 1\cw Zealand :and the oxtrmnely low rates and f~res charged there as con1pared ·with tho rat,:s and fan::; in QLwonsland. He would point out to the Committee that New Zealand had 371J>rsons per n1ilc, ·while Q'-;censland had orlly 156 !Jersons per mile, and that tho earnings per mile in Xew Zealand were £1,202, >Yhile in Queen•Jand they were only £719. New Zea­land could therefore afford to charge almost 50 per cont. lower rates than were chrrrged in Queensland; but, a3 a matter of fact, they did nothing of the sort, and he thought tho hon. member >Yas really trying to make out too good o. case. ::-\ow Zealand had more than twice tho number of persons per mile that we had, and her railways earned almost twice as much as our railways earned.

::\1r. CoLLIXS: They must be putting their land to a better LLO than we are.

The SECRETARY FOR RAIL'W AYS: No; the secret was that No·,· Zealand was a s1nali, S( lf-contained colony consisting of a couple or throe islands, while Queensland cmnprised an inunense territory which they were cndc:wouring to open by means of railways. The hon. member need not be afnid that the neonle whom the ra.ilwa,·s were built to SCl:YC ~WOre making the coffi­plaint he thought they were. The hon. mom. ber had no experience in the 1natter hin1-self, becalise he did not send anything over tho rc1ihyays. Speaking generally, tho people whom the railv. <1ys served were exceedingly contented ',-ith the manner in >vhich thev were treak.J by the department, The hon. 'junior member for Rockhampton brought up the question of extended lca,~e to raihvay n1cn, and he (~lr. Paget) brought up the que' tion of retiring ,llo\Yancc. Extended lc:1vo \Yas given io < 1nployecs in the l-taih,·ay D;'part­niCnt on tl1e Hndorstanding that th,,:-;.~ '-'l'O

~(Hlling 1.- :ck to thc)ir on1ployn Jmt, 2nd ,,-oro not retiring. It \Yas n, priYilege or rcv-ard \Yhich they had ectrncd.

]',h. MAXX : \';auld it not be bette, to say a rccog·niti(n?

The SECRETARY FOR RAILIVAYS: Y cs, it v:as a rGcognition of long service. Although there was a hard-and-fast regula­tion with respect to retiring allowances, yet if an officer Y'as not sixty-five years of age and he had to leave the service on account of ill-health or defective eyc,ight, he was allowed a retiring allowance. Officials in the Railway Department wore naturally on a different basis from officers in the ordinary civil Fcrvico, and ov1ring to the nature of their \Yor1c an allO"~i ance \Yas n1adc in cases 1vhcro men became permanently afflicted or their eyesig-ht became defective: they wore not penalised on account of thoce disabilities. The junior member for Roekhampton men­tioned to him the other day a case in which it was stated that some weeks ago six men in the Maryborough RailwaY yards were discharged, and that new arrivals were put on in their places.

Mr. ADAMSON: I said some new arrivals.

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS : He understood the hon. member to say that six men were discharged and that the same number of newchums were put on, and he (the Minister) promised to inquire into the matter.

Mr. AD.DISON: I haYe a letter from the department on the subject, but I told the ::Ylinistor that I was not satisfied with the reply received.

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: He wa'"' not aware that the hon. member had rcceiYcd a reply to his inquiry, but as he had rccci vod a reply he need not refer fur­ther to the matter. 'With regard to lengths­men's >vagcs, when a sum of about £25,000 1Yas voted by Parlian1cnt last year over and above the ordinary classification increases, there was no intention to apply that n1one:· in any other way than in bringin5 up the ,<·ages of men to 7s. a day. Thoro was no intention of 11aying any of that money to men receiving over that amount. He made that state1nont, not once, but several times. He was unable to make it when tho Railway Estimates were going "hrough last year, because members of the Committen took up all the time discussing the Estimates of other departments, and when the Estimates for the Raih, ay DoparLrncnt caine on the closure came clown.

Mr. ::'.JTRPHY: \Yho was responsible for that?

The SECRETARY FOR RAIL\VAYS: The nwmbers of the Committee. The rate paid to n1e!1 in the Southern diYision in 1908-9 was 6s. 6d. a day_; in 1909-10, 7s. a day; and in 1J10-1L 7s. 6d. a day. In the Ccntn~l diYi .ion for tho san1e years the_ rates were 'Is., 7' 6d., and Ss. a day, and m the ;\Jorthcrn diYision Ss., Ss., and 6s. 6d. a day. \Yith regard to Gilligan, he had no record of it) but it \Yonld lL oba 1·Jly be in the office. Tho hon. n-• mbcr for l\orth Rockhampton had referred trJ a wcighbridge at ~1cunt ChalnL~r~, and he \Vi, hPd to giYc the infor­c_a { ic -1 to tile han. 1nembcr. It was rat.her n happy coiJlc~dci!Ct', pcrhap , that it was a r tb _, t a 20-ton 1n•ighbridgc should h do',n: ~1t ::_aunt Chnlmcrs, and he

•d n tn.inuic for ihnt; bnt on further ioL n Jninute "·as bron&ht before

Lto: Eing only, for the putting do"Yll a ~o-tc 1 .,,-,,ighbriclge instead.

idr. Bm:xxAK: It -hould haYc been done fi \~e or six n1onths ago.

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: It would be ordered.

:\<lr. BRE"XAN: It should be there now.

The SEC'RETARY FOR RAILWAYS: They were going to substitute a 40-ton weigh­bridge. All he kenw of the matter was that the weighbridge was ordered. The hon. member for Flinders and the hon. member for Bundaberg both brought up a matter of lengthsmen's wages, which he had already referred to.

Mr. ~llTLI,AN: Now that the Minister had replied he did not v, ant to speak on this Yoic, but to get something more definite on one ma'tor to which he had referrcd­thut was the providing of suitable housing ac ommodation for the lengthsmen. He understood that the Minister had made an offer that he >Yas prepared to provide houses for those men who were prepared to pay 5 per cent. on the capital cost.

Tho SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: I was pre­pared to do that two years ago, and still tho men would not come in. I do not seem to be able to bring them to it.

Mr. MULLAN: Had all the men to agree to that, or could individuals apply?

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: Any indi­viduals.

Mr. Mullan.]

1830 SuppT.v. [ASSE:YIBLY.J Supply.

Mr. l\TCLLAK: If a man undertook to pay 5 per cr-nt. on the capital coc~t of a suitable- houS(\ the ~linister \VD prepared to build him a house.

The SECRETARY FOH RAIL~WAYS: Y cc Ques~ion put and pa"scd.

:\tECI:L'Xl(AL E:\GI::\EERIXG B_:_1_\:\'C:I.

Tho SECRET"~RY FOR RAIL\VAYS moYed that £693.910 be granted lor the ":.Iecha.nical Engineering Branch." That \Yas Schtdule U. 1his ',·,as a net in:::rcase of £116,015. r:l'hr illcrea_::s \YCTC as follows:-­In tho bout-horn di \Ti~<on, :Cu3,185; in tho Central di,-ision, £20,235; in tho :\'orthorn division, J.-iacka;~, £2,916; at Bo\Yen, £440; at Towns\·illc, £10,685; Caims, £5,327; Cookt,)wn, £802; and 1\orrulnton, £202. Following up tho information that hn had given on the other YOtL'J, he \VOnld like to sav that in the :' ~echanical En.- i!'_Cel'ing BranCh the total special clasjification and an1ondod cla~ "ification increases for tho year was £45,,~21. The ordinary clas _ _;iftca· tio~ increa'+'1 un~er the n gulation~ r.aifcc~eJ 1,2o2 per JllS, auu oJnount- 1.l to £.,,.6CJ: the amended classification, which took effect from 1st JLrlv !a. t, 3,200 persons, £35,126: and tlw special incrcasr affcd~'d 50 ]Wr­sons, £.1,009; n1ah::ing a total of increases in th and ectlarics of £45,421. He had a de:al of inforn1Btion here, \vhiuh he giY'-, if hon. 1 C'rnbcrs wj~hed, but for the Jl101lE'nt he \Yon1d content hin1sol£ by moYing the Yote.

::\lr. D. HL'~TER (Woo 77 oollrta7J/)([): This was a Yoto in p hich he \,as -p r ,· rnuch iatcr­C":Jcd, as it C'Jnbodi-d tl c on; L~._~caliug with tho lp::i1Yi,:h \vork~- hops. . , _

]\lr. LF._L:A: l:Lv·o w-.: not finl'nctl \:it·l_1

~\~r. D. II C~'.CEH.: Xu; thC'" .... hnd not fin-ished \\ long \Y<'~;.' l-Ie ihought,

in all the States of not bo under the rc·

1g no profit and loss ;r , hat "''~as un the~ vahw of \\'01 k

''"as turnC'd cut. The :2.Iinist r, whPn :-:.rH­ing ou tbi~ question, quoted frmn tho South ..:\nstra1ian Auditor-General's report, and thi~ wa''l \\·hat the .._\_uditor-General's report said-

" The cost of the earning' in the separutetl:: in a-.:1y of

the State, and in South -:ot b2 do·~c bf-':;1.u-- the

an~ 110t kr~1t dj dn·-t fron1 aCL'OUnting for tlL r 1 ihva: s

The "En lv<•ctin:~· \Yorld '' had again dra.·. n attention to this report. The P'lginc--:E'Tiug journal~ v::crc referring to onr Y:or1::shops, and saying i·hnt no and lm,- acco1~11t \'HIS l'\·er plac •.-1 in _.Auditor-GC'ncrn]'s report. .A. yf'.J,r or two ar,:-o this y. ork ;vas Ul1\.~ert tkeH by Plll' rlt_ r;artlnent. an\l th~-:,8 who l'i-ero on 1t \Ycro, he tnou. ·qt)

,·cry oon1p (L:al with it. ::\Ir. I{ing spoke Yery of the ;york Yrhif'h \YUS done by ;\Ir. and the statemcmts which he then gB."G US hs cl nc·ver yet b0en C'J1Jt:·ndirtcd in any dct.,il. The othor day whilc.t the :Mini<cr was going into this c;~I,_f1tion, he \\ t~ rather an1w3 ·d io fit!d that be had to f!l'i- thr:; assistance of the ~,·"nior n1e1:)ber for Ip::'~:ich to tnrn up this report of the Auditor-Gcnerd of South :wsh·a!ia.

Tho SECRET.\RY FOR RAIL>VAYS: ! had not to g:ot his assi .tance-hc carne and offered 1\ tJluntarily.

[Mr Mullan.

l\Ir. D. HlJNTER: He thanked tho hon. JHOlnbcr for it, Lecauso he had not been al)lu to find it hin1\elf. The si.1h>2ncnt ''"~'; 1n Hansard.

The SECH<.T~\RY ,~oR H.Uf.WAYS: I said I had not had tin>; to Ie-ok it up.

~\lr. D. IIC~\TEH: That he had time· to look it and tb.o -·:niur fo:· lpSV/ich \'i·a·J OlE' \Yho h_,d giYC·ll 1"0

hiu1. Thi.s \Ya:3 u, ca3u of going frorn houo to find Ol<t, bv a ~linistcr in connection with his O\Yn dPpa;·-tn~Pnt. It \Yas not a ver,·.- nic~­spec:: ... telo, in nuy c.1se. llo thought th0 =\lin­istec·, \Yhen :• subjc:t y J.: u:nct r dis( :1s3icn, should dl up on tho wholo of tho ckt~\il, dcpartn•cnt, and know ho\v to anSi'"Cl' accordingly.

1ir. :&luRPHl": 'fh~tJ is itnllcnsihle in o_t big dcpadulcnt like the Ra.ihnL' Dc;Jartn1cnt.

The :-:~r-~RET.-\R~- }'OR ltUL\~TAYS: I can put thr~ rule eYer things a,! •.Yell as you.

l\lr. D. HV:\ITER: H shou:d not lum be .::n p{_}s·-,iblo in a ca_sc Eke this. the J\-Iinis-Ler was speaking it wa:> a.nlLlBing tlnt. all the he \ Y:cre conlin-r frorn the side, ho ,,·as P~10\. ing thut hut--_!·c so- iali vn1>: ~nt Y1'U fin._.n:::ial succtE·",; but when ho VYOllt o_a hu \YUS boand t-J a chnit that nftc1·

all tlw:T ht.1d gone bac'._ to t! cir old sy~tmn. Tb, t r, port of tho South Australian \ndi­tor-Guncral \\'US sent 1 J hiin Lc:vre th1t st.It''tnl'nt Y, ::u nutde bv ;v_rr. I{inu· and ~11'. I~dgar, and he told us ln th._ repo:·t that -the basis of the 1.vholo rrorh: \'as done on a 63~ chars~- \:Vht n tl1c llouso adjourned for ten. !tc llC\\'ing-- that lJu~·is cf the ~alc<:.l<l~io~' •.-,hie ~,~us gi,~ n to the South ..:\u.;tralian GoYf'tnrnent WL' _, c-~nt. The yuc ~-

t ion c,ho lid [7 p.m.]

\Ti,·toria t-hey only dun-ged 23.5 pr l' cent._ in Queensland they cDargcd 33~ p~CJl' cent., and in \Yc ;t AtLh·tllia the_ cb ,l;;e l 57.18

Cf-~i '-e c~:idcnt that 110 l'UlB­

fj '<tlc tlc o.::.ght to go into

'l' ntat 1·er-oi-f~1ct wav and settle once for what should bo the per-centD<je charges in the J~ailway Dr:part1ncnt. T-wo ye,,rs a~o t-;",:o n1en 1- ere engaged on this '.,~ork, tv::o n1en appointed by the Go­n.:-rnmc ::.1t, a ~d tho pn·, :::~nt 1Iinjstcr \Y<:iS the first to direct his (:\lr. Hunter's) attention to t:,~:ir \Yod;::. l-Ie (.~\lr. IIanier) went \-..-ith iho hon. 1ncnibcr for \Va1·wick to the \', rk. ~"-' ,d consic1crc-l it 1:_yj .. o t.hc information rccciY~cl should be pre-Sf -1ied to the lluusc. On the follo,,:ing day, the 1\Iini~tcr for Rai!wa: s happonocl to be p]\.;cnt, he n:ovcd for a retcrn in con­

th~) Ips :c.:h vYorkshop;;, as big. IYOle raj.;,cd-pcrhaps he \YU.3 of a turn of ·tnind·----;w

nJr. LEKK0K: "S11Spicion haunL the gLlilty mind." (Laughter.)

:\Ir. D. HP:\ITT'H: But it "~ould rai'c an:-,Jne's suspicion:.~ to kno\v that tho R:t.il­way J)epartmc nt 'n~ro assidnously 1·inging~ up all day t0 tr;Y to ~Yet hi1n not to rnove for that rctnrn \\ :1ile the l\{ini:;;L'l' ·was ab­.~cat. I-Ie h<1d a ve ·u.- [,OOd idea of whnt \\as going· to happen, an--:l he knew that iZ the MinicJer \Yas there that he .,-ould haYo ca!l'ecl •· :0-~ot forn1hl" to the n1otinn. a·1d the I-Iouse wa-, nov: in pos;r-:,sion of the paper he called for at the prcJcnt time. This '·'a~,

Suppl!J· [6 OcroBEn.] Suppl;y. HSl

what Mr. King had to sav about the matter. llc did not put it into f£anwrd last ye:cr but he put it in this year- ' . " It. ha ~ been shown in the course of the lllY<'~tigatwn that the shop charges of 33;t., per cent. for loan \Yorl~s is very much belo.; the rc 0 1 c~st, and it is ec,tilnated on the basis of .1?.:-:t year·.; tl...:.ure ..... (-t:o 20th June, 1908) that this amount is -.::hart by £2'>,000 of the r,-.} yost of loan \Vorks-tha t is, revenue has J:~.a ~J stand a charge of £25 000 for the year \Vllich propC"rly shm~.ld h~iYE' been a charge on loan exp~enditurv. 'l'his f·hould be adjusted, and l:Jan <ULl r Yenue rnade to siand utch their legitlmatr; charge• .. "

It was rather remarkable that on that vcar there wa' J~69,000 from loan ac JLmt·~ on ac:;ount _ _of the Ipswich \Vorkshops, and an­other £~5,000 ihat we spent out of revenue willch Lroug·ht the cots up to not £63 000 but £94,000. Then 11r. l<::il1g r;ointed out- ' . " Th_is can be done withGut : llo ,~r·ing any ~?c:re(~~~ on the reyenue f'',tirnatcli, but decrease. fh~~ :~;~.~~~:_:~3S ~or thL yeal' we1·e nwck up in

Gru, ·s a.mouut

Crr::dit V.l ~·ks due 10r lo~tll £2±6,-133

('9,600

,. 1 :: 1-!AL~~?.unt pro• ldcd as pel' prin' ~cl e~~timate, "" I v,._ :::\,),

a:~cE: rtained for 1vvre chirgH1 to lc~Ul at,d,

L.Jl' :-, L.x·s dt prt dation and the pa:, _!_l.tellt of a j first in_ talrnent for I (L'l·~ .. tiun of ,tW'l, IVrittLn olf, the eJti-nwte \, ould appear thu;::;-

Gross an1LUllt

Depreciation

Instalment No. 1 of Juan den1ption

re-

£246,4t:3

12,498

3,929

£262,910 Credit work done fvr lu2.n ac­

cording to asccl'taintJ l1er-centages £S±,C lO

£1G8,HO

He. wanted hon. n;ernbcrs to take particule,r no_hce . of tlrs. \\- h1le they were tn:iug to r~\ 0 the ."·ages. of n1en '";or king ol1 tl-,L ir diflerent lmes, they 'Cere unable j,) do so unleP-3 they had the money. :;\'c"', that £2.5,000 would haye gone a long w,,v !o 1aise the wages of the mBn working on 'tho lines, but 1t wa, added to the loan pro1·idcd for that busine3s up in Ipswich that was cJid to be such a huge success. The hgur;os l'."f"re £69,000 and £94,000. It was amusin~r to hear that the railway locomotives turned out at the Ipswich workshops cost onlv £68 or £69 per ton; but if, in the _first place, the £69,000 charged to the Ipswoch workshops should really be £94,000, then it was reasonable to say that the £69 per ton should al<n be £94 per ton. He wanted to disabuse anybody's mmd as to what he wanted to do in connec­tion with the Ips'vich worh·hops. All he wanted to do was to get a true account of the work done there. '

l\:Ir. O'S[TLLIVAN: You are the jackal for the private enterpriSe lion.

l\Ir. D. HUKTEE: He might bo the jackal of the private enterprise ass; but he had taken tho trouble to rec:lwn it up for him­self. wh'ch was more than the hon. member for Kennedv had done. or anybody else, lw­cause thf' information had never be'!n given in the House 1cf'fore. nnd no one i1:qui1·ed whether it was true or not. A statement

appeared in the Jioreton Leader about a cer­tain gentlcmcm who furnished this report. It was :\lr. Edgar who furnished the report, and he went to a lot of trouble over it., and he was hdr! up by the cUoreton Leader to ridiculP, and described us a calanlitv-hov;lDr. That was tile wav th<:<v treated a ;·nan who -, _ts tryir~ to do {lis dt{ty, and endEavouril1g to · -,o,· ho·> they could make th£ Ipswich \vork~hops pay. If ihey were goir1g to have socialistic f'nterpri_,es in· this country, and thPy \V--rc' going to n1akc sociali.r.-!n a ,c;:;uccc~s, the rnan \vas no hie nd of socialism who tried to hide anythln_~'· It \Va_ best to bring every­thiw; into the lig-ht of day, and that \\·as what he >Yas doing in c-mnection ·-1 ith the Ipswich '· orlu:hops. He had no special in­terest in the Jnatter, because, as he said be­fore. thev eonld neYel have the workd1ops in \\,.uolloon"rab1-" :.~ ln1t he only \Y ~nted to hlld out wh c-t was the trnc eta to of affaire. _-\.gain, it T -hown Jtsi· ve1r that it "'~:as not po. ,'blo to work on a 33: rer cent. rate there. As a ILatter of fact, );1r. Edgar p,hcnvccl them thnt rrt one shon--t11e ·foundry shop-they coulr1 "ork on a 3{) Pl <'ent. bosis. while the

n1illin~ plant ~~·m1ld reqnir0 a dlr<?'ct eh-rg·' on 1v- aes to n1f'f't the contingencies a;- ] .. ast 182 JON ce·1t. HNo "a.~ what 2\Tr. Eclu-ar ~aid on the tnatter-

" It is 8h~urd tn rn:1nuiacturc tnaterial in our shops· if ·- t1 can buy it 25 _per cent. less 'ut;lr~c. yet if we do not add on thr proPET , urPharc:cs, which in some n1onths VliJl pro­l<i bly total 4 f) p0r cent., wp are apparently .... >tting 0nt stuff for 25 per cent. less th'ln out­side prices. v hile we are actually paJ-:,.ing 20 per c:._,nt. above .::uch price.s."

The RECRETARV FOR RAILWAYc: That was vvhilst t~tf'v \vcre making a preliminary in­'Pstigation·.

~Ir. D. I!l}NTER: Bilt jt hatl not been alterN!. Then :\Ir. Ediar continued-

"Tt is a11 the "\Yorld O\,.Pl' an ac ,~,pted theory that on the proper distribution o-e the indirec't f'Xl1f'TH'tit11re kno\<n a3 surch:?rgP depends whether the e~ tabl~c:;h1nent concerned is going to pay it·. way or g-t into the hands of its crt·ditors, "'nd although -v.·e ar;• not on the sarne status a"' a private conc\~rn, it is just as v:eli to follow t0 smne exte>nt ordinary business ~..,1rtho(1 , so t}·at WP \Vi11 always kna\v \\hether it is !)aying us to manufacture or not."

\\"hat hon. member would quarrel with that sontiment" If the Ipswich workshops had to tender for the work that was done there, thev would be able to arrive at the true cost. Th~t was donE' in South Australia and in some other countric·s. The shops had to tender for work. and if they did not tender to do it for less than private firms, they lost it. That. "as a fair proposition. But here they gave the work to the Ipswich workshops 1"it-hout rcgLu:d to \Vagf·s board::;' awards, and then on the basis of 33~ per cent.-which tho experts said was absolutely too low-they gave the workshops the credit of manufactur­ing locomoti.-es at £68 per ton, whilst private firms had to pay £80 per ton. Sometimes hon. members said that there was a timber ring in Brisbane, and he was interested to find in the report something about the saw­milling pbnt in the Ipswich workshops.

The bell indicated that the hon. member's time had expired.

:\Ir. D. HUNTER said that. he would take five 111inutes more, rc;:;erving five n1inutes for

JJ1 r. D. Hunter.]

1382 Supply. [ASSEMBLY.] Supply.

use later on. On tho basis of 33~ per cent., hardwood worl<ed out at 15s. 1d. per luO superficial feet, and at 1C2 per cent.-which \vas proved to be the correct basis on 1.vhiCh it should bo calculated-it v. or ked out at £1 per 100 supedicial feet. On the 331 per ce:1t. basis, pine worked ont at 12P. Bel. per 100 superficial feet, and on the 1"2 p~' cent; besis it >Yorked out at leo. ~.cJ. Cocla•.· workcc! out at £2 4s. Bel. on the 33~ per c~nt. basis and at £2 9s. 4d. on the 1:.2 per cent. 'oa~c~. He would now read the conduclin[, portiOn of the report. :\fr. Edgar pe1t it wry clearly when he said-

" The abo,-c figurl? +1 il1u'~irntc the dii'fcrencc in the cost ( -:1t in our mill per 100 ~ur:: rficial rmd"'':' ths 33 1

,

cJ~:tr-::-·"', :..:.~; ag8.inst the rropm·, d chargt) of 182 per cent. It will be rt tdily t-·--:.en c-·8.t the I·-tV2r are a nearer a'· :-Jroarh to tlle ont: ide nutrk~ L price-; for the dL-d:rent kind-- than t1': forme::~ .. ,

I-Ie wished hon. n1en1h .. rs who .... ,·ere interested in that soc:, listie th<'OJ'Y would just compare the figures he had quoted with the price., of tin1ber in Bri;:;bane t>:''O yenrs ugo, and then see 'vhcther tin1her had gone up vcr: nnlCh; and whc·ther they v. ere ·able to do work or buy timh€1· in the Ipswich ',\orkshop• rnuch cheaper than private enterprise. I-lo had not brought the matter up with any idra of doing anything· against tho. Ipswich worbhops. They had '<Hne splendid men there, and everything poinkd to greater efficioncv in the futuro. Thcv had a <rood works ,;:,anager. and in the a~co:mtant 'they had a man who ,;as anxious to find out the true state of affairs. and he hoped that evcrv lion. member would see that he "as e,;­couraged in his work until th~y were able to find out with absolute certaint.v tho cost of evervthing- tha.t was turned out bv the work­shop.'. He did not think thov should ask for more: he did not t11ink thev should be con­tented with less. HB hoped that at the earliest possible moment the :\Iini-·t0r wonk! require an annual statement from the Com­missioner of what v.as done in the workshops, the cost of the work, and its value. He might. have ruffled the :'\Iinister a little--

The SECRETARY FOil flAIL WAYS: No.

I\Ir. D. H'CNTER: But it was not with the intention of hurting anyone. bnt with a desire to arrive at the truth, and if he had shown it up in a way that he .wished--

Mr. THEODORE: Apologise!

J\Ir. D. HUNT'ER: He would not apologise eYen to the hon. membp;· for \Voothakata. (Laughter.) He had seen some things that that hon. member had dono in the past that he would not care to have dono. He would rather be a straight goer than pursuo the tac­tics that the hon. member had done. He, would rather be out of Parliament altogether than stand up and support a thine· which he be­lieved to be absolutely wrong. It had been proved that the 33~ per cent. basis was a wrong basis. and they had told the people of South Australia distinctlv th; t thev would inquire into the whole affaii·. ·

The bell indic'1ted that the hon. member's time had expired.

The SECRETARY FOR RAIL\VAYS: If no other hon. member wished to speak, he would hke to give the Committee some

[Mr. D. Hunter.

information about thr matter to whi~h tlL hon. member for \\T oollo~mgabba had roierrfc~. The hon. member had his opm10nt with re,e,-. nee to the information that tj; 0Itms~er should have. and probably al,so, tho mfcnna;~o.n tLlt he (:\h. Hunter) woulct naYo n he >'cle ~rini~.t-\-:::.r. But circue· Jtances altcr~d cases, m1 d after he replied the other evemng when hc- quoted the information they. had ~ent to the )mclit Ofl:lce in South Au ':raha-which w~s ncccs ,arily two years old now-he thought It - as adYisablo to ask the accountant at the J pS\1 ich ,v0rkshop·" to giYe hn~ a stat.emcnt sho··. in!..!.' ho\V the cost~. \vcro bmng taken out at thf' "rcs·nt time, and as the cost of locom~ti~es of tho C16 type . had .pecmlly c1·npp :d up, a._nd .as the Ips,vich 'vorksh-1-ops price: nccescanly mcl~1ded tho profit thau a priY ,.+o fi1·m >Yas cnhtled to, he aoked 11r. ;;de.,. to giyc him tho specific cost of those Jocomoti>·es. There had been a gTed deal of cornnwnt aLout no cost of land being. taken into consideration in the £135,0CO whiCh the Ips\) >:h '/OrkshopC) co::;"· \Yell, th~ o1·r::;·1n'_tl ,-aluo of the land was almost nothmg, as .It w .. ,s under flood marl<. He would 9uote hom ~Ir. 'Edgar'f: statement on the subject-

,, e·:cstion D{ lanr.Z: The land on ';hich the -.,.york~,horL· ar ~ built wa~ originalhT of yery liLtle >:aluc. A large anwunt of money '"as spl nt in n:_aking uy the ground. As, a rnatter of fact, a yenr large perc:entn -:_.e of tue [round i;-; 1nad-:o up frmil the nuteria~ taken frorn the

·=c a1. at the rc'".r of the shops. TI;te cost this rnaking-up v;- ~Ls yery largely r.n exce:::-· of tl1e actual ~- alue of the lat>d, and rs includEd ln the a certuincd cost of the work­shops.

" In::> !·a c:;: T:le dcpartlnent only insures the tilnl· r st.ction of the works, a:1d accepts UH-' :d··k on thu balanee, dC'pending on a l :operly-organi~ed fire brigade and efficient w:tter B·tpply, ho ~ N, hydrants, and patent ?·\:tin gut, her..; to cvpe \Vith any outbreak of fire.

"Rutcs charged, and p;.rt of th·' cr·

:(l.rc~.;;: Only \Vater rates are­amount so paid is included as of wor1~: turned out."

With re·.pect to those three items, it might be fair!. claimed that the owners of pnvate shops tl1rning out the same class of engines were under Fomewhat greater charge;,. They 1night 1w~\t' to pay interest on a big amount representing tl c cost of the ground; they would ulso probably have msu~a:1ce nsks; and thev mnst na•' some mumcipal rates, which t·lw Government did not pay. But where they had a capital value-not a written-up capital, and, unfortunately, not a w:.·itten do,,-n one-of £485,000, surely . the percentage on that. when they subd1V1~ed the enormou,; quantity of work done durmg the' twelve months, woul<;!. not be very much. \Vith respect to the wntmg down, before :llr. King left thG department he ~ad many consultations with him respectmg th1s matter, and the advisability of trying to bring out separate accounts every year for the . shops. He understood that thov should wnte off from the Inswieh worksnops-speaking from memory-either £126,000 or £136,000.

:\1r. D. HuxTER: Are you going to throw it away or not?

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: The position was this: \Vhen they st.arted to analvse the account· -when l\Ir. Kmg and ~\fr. ·Edgar went rlay after day and w<:ek after week ancl month after month trymf!' to get at the bottom of it--they found tha.t

Supply. [tl OcToBER.] Suppl_y. 1383

the old shops, which had absolutely dis­appeared, wore included in the cost o£ tho new shops. If they brought the capital value of the Ipswich workshops down to \d1at he would do ac. a btuincss man, the sum of £126,000 would be written off from building and machinery that had been ·scrapped: and there 'Voulrl alw be an annual writing off for ordmary dcpr0ciation. Before :\Ir. Kidston left office, he had several consultations with him as a preliminar,• to seeing whethcl' he could not devise some means of writing off that sun1 ~o as to bring the accounh of the shops to sornething like. a fair business basis. And, to show ·that he took an interest in matters such as this, hE' might mention. that ·when he 1\ as in oppos·ition. year in and yf'ar out, 1.·:hen the Estirnates \Vere on, he brought up f~1e nl(lttPr of th"J balance-sheet of the Go\ ~rnmPnt Printing- OfficR; and no,v-as a l'<:'Sl!lt of his cr'ticism, he believed-the ralance­Rhf'Pt 1va<::. prcs?ntrd in snch a manner as to coYer all the cost~. inrluding- int~'>l'f''·t and depreciation. Co,rin·: 1,c,ck to thB Ipswich shon··', he ,-;·otdd rc8d th~ follo',Yin( pnrH-,u­lar3·:-

" F1ch ~rrtin•1 of th0 lwns L-·ndf" h" it- ,,_,If. Thi is neres'nrv. hP'""'ilU P th(-~·p ran1101- f<'' iln~· aP:tl,n-y lWt<';Pf-D, ~fly, th~> hfli1Pr rl'OD E'O'lin­TIH"nt, with <:'xnc?niY~~ rlad;~J·rry, rr 0 tllf' pnint Ph:ln. "\Vh·-ff' theL' i~ 11,., m; ,.-.~1~i1r'TY ;,t -11.

"BYE'rY n1achinc is l';ibly Idtcrf'd and :numbPrr·d, +'10 1" :tr>r dt nntil1g thp hnp in \Vhirh in tnlll?d, ilH1 the 1'1"11hPr for r3,nr"in~~ up rep8irs. The t :)·.t of n1air~te--·nnr' 0f eYC'"~Y rnac~1ine is kept ~- n. rate, and the work in the shop ronC'Cl'1l""d (a;. d~n'1iPd by the cti~-!:"in~ui· h­in~ lett:~r) is: r~~::l~- ~d ~-,·itb surh f:C· t.

"A('cident pay, payn.rni -; l~'Hlt r the \Yorkers' CmnpPn aUnn Al t, hcdidayr::. rxtendu1 leave, and all such itcrns 1,vere charged up in nrriv­ing at the c1st of the engines und.fr notice.

·' The que-.tion '\\'R.S asked, '\Yhy lu: d P1B ( 1st ~·.- "lE' ct0·.,·n sli.e;htly '? Tt n1usi b(' borne in n1ind that, during the last year or two. the staff has been increa~ed by approximately 40 per cent., while the capitn l value has practically been nt a standstill: 40 per cf'nt. n1ore Dh'n means a Yast increase in tile output with the satne plant, and the logic..:·l re·~ult to be ex­pected is that the co~t of prJdudion will falL

'1 It n1ight be rem1rk d that a v,rorks cannot

turn m·:t '/·ork at n r ..:ar:otutble on account of t'~e hiEh Phol) ch,•rf, ..,~. '.C~:- or:e of thA :on~nwne __ t ~allach "~ rxtant, T;l8 pr~1ae factor 111 ctrterm1n1ng the sh:;p charg('·.; ic; the machin­er:-·. the inter(_ _;t and f1 "'PrE'ciation on :o;ante, and th·-· e6st of ~lpkeep. But the Inrrchin('fY is put ther for the p-:.rrpof.;p of d:=dn.~ awav with e~penS!iye labour, and a; the labour Charc-eU ct1rect t•) thn ;'t,rioU", jol-:.s is the t: 1.sis on whith the :=.:~:?P chargE') L..; o.-s<"~'·t:>ct_, it ~tnnds t·J rear--1n that 11 :.:m.t reduce: the b·LQis itself and incrc1·e thE' ~n~,~hinC'~Y. the shop t~Iarg-·c. is hic:-h in l)rohitntwn, but the r 1st of productiOJn gst>s dOiY~ .. One has only to take t<..;'o eilglne~'ring Pc;:;t'lollshment' side b~,- side--nne cmplnving 1..0?0 111--:~n and n fe\v antiqunU?d n1rrchine:-:;, wniJe the ?l;,her has on1:· 750 n1en, but fully f'qurpped w1tn up-to-date. n1achin-::ry. Thf shop charge c~ the latter til be enorn1ous c:>n1-pared t0 th~. former, but it i·· only reasonable to e .• 2"Ject thf- cost of production tJ be lower.

" Th0 power-housp pxpenditure, which is a formidable iten1, is c1Ftrged against the \vork in each shop according to the units of energy p~t' forth to each, the intertst and deprecia­t:m~ on the. powEr-hoUPc' being r'-l ~-"ied on on a similar basi~.

" The water is chargpd to each shop or floor area.''

A~ a matter of fact, when he was with hou. members at the Ipswich workshops about

a fortnight ago. he made inquiries ol the officer in charge of the power

[7.30 p.m.] how the:- allocated the cost of the pep. er that was d1stnbuted

to each shop, and the officer showed him, by Incam:, of a Yt·ry lurge dial, ho-..v he was abL1 to asccrtairl '"hat power in units '\vas c. nt to each one of the shops. To show what troul.>le tho officers now went to in order to tl'Y and '\York out the indircnt expenditure, he h'd hrcd the fol'owing statement pre­pan;·cl :-·' Isn;:nEC'I' Exrr:sDITFRE Co:::,.MON 'TO RAILTYAY

\Yor:T:;:SII(,P'> AXD Fotr'<HSG PAHT 01·, CosTs."

'' Tno1 stm·P cle0.nlng cu1d oiling shop Jchin•T:T; Ume ctrds; a' ·:istance,

,moti\·e _; officj; a. :;i;.+ancc, fore-n1nn ~-rnith ·fi ; assistance, forcnl<Ul boiler-n1 _J.;:er's o"F.c ~; a ,}f3tance, foremc.n turner's offh e; relicdng f(wemcn; tinle]{8€JJerr~. watch­n'len. f't ..... : relif'ving rollin:;-stoc·\_;: inspector; fitteri in drawing office; f'ducationoil and nledi­

"ral exan1inations; att0nding inquiries; em­ploye,"s. rec lrding vo•--,-~s; -,hunting in shops."

Even the cost of employees being given time df to recorcl their voto" \Yao included in the ,.~.corking CO' d.

" I ; touring in shops ; elf aning in shops ; ho1ir1ays ; e t tH1Ed lc>avc; cadets' ler ve; nwurning day."

That vras 1n conn£c1 ;on ·with ICing· Ed1vard's death.

•· A( -idPr.:t pay: h-=ncral p_:_,--thr:; attend-·lnithy furn:JC' ~; attending rawmill

01l)loyeef; under suspension ; to em-vloyr_r:--~ tr8\', lling; ~~r~_ brigadt' !Jl'actice; t~--:orti'hg Y:sitor .. ''

j\lr. XEn:r: That, 'vould be very useful infcnT'Httion if it was printed.

Tho SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: He waR going to get it printed. l-Ie -would cndeavr-olr to ···ct it available for hon. mem-l.:ers t,,~fore nc·~t ~\ycek. ·

At t\Yenty-cight n1inutcs to 8 o'clock,

Tho CHAIRMAN: Linder Standing Order ::\o. 11. I Nll upon the hon. member for Car-. pc'n+",ria to relicYc me in the rh~il\

;).h. :;\r:nrT thereupon took the chair'.-

'liw SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS\ ,,continuing): For the infonnation of han. memC·'l'S, there , .. ere about eighty different it<'lJl, ':'-hich were itemised for tho purpose of g'(Thng the exact cost n~specting inciden­tal expcnsC'J, and he had also another state­ment, and he wo,ld aok the consent oF tile Committee, in order not to waste the time of han. members h,, reading the whole of tho rctum.~. to haYc t.he whole printed in fujJ in Hansrrrrl if he just referred to them.

Ho:~;ouRABLE :\IEJHBERS: Hear, hear!

:\fr. THEODORE: That is a bad practice.

I\lr. FORSYTH : \Y c will get a copy then.

The SECRRTARY FOR RAILWAYS: IIc had not the sii;;i1tcst objection to read the whole, but he did not want to take up the time of the Committee.

:\Ir. D. HuNTER: Will the :\Iinister ·agree to publish the other report in the same W·'Y?

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: All of them.

J\ilr. D. HUNTER: Mr. King's report too?

Hon. W. T. Paget.]

l:lS4 [ASSEMBLY.]

The SECRETARY FOR RAIL\YAYS: I must read that fir.st. I have no objection to (J'Jttinrr .Mr. King's rep.Jrt beside the othcts--

"1.\Ic :.-2.gPi; atten-}ie,~ ap;Jenl bon.rd; ur.-loading CJ-P in tru:;_nent·.; loading rerailing rolliug-Eto,·k; repsir_; ruaking clipp rs; repair·; to , team cm1otiYe C'J~, ~llfCl' 1 S office; m.aking Le tor In .p.:CLJr :r:.nnl-say; rspairs L) fiteam f rnithy; wnr~. iug eleetr·ic eranc ; eunt1ry rC'p~cir.-; tLI(:ph .iH',

Rhop._, etc; thernwn>~ tF :3 in ~~lops; attend­ing n~Jtorc; i!l shop~; 1~r-ktep of t )Ol~ in yards; uph::cep of motor·s in ll op J ; upkeep of water 1notors; portion ·If uhcric<", L r_·;1nwti. e engi­neer's oftiJ·; .1lari: ;-;, \,Tork n1anag;::,r'R ot~ce and .staL; f::::.lary, carriJ.ge fornnan, and eler>: ; s.llnr·. rnHl Ti:;_nekeep8r l\Iulvihill; r- alary, b::>i1~r foren11.11 and c:erk; salary, foren13,11 u·e tor and cl· rk; ~ahry, foreman turnsr· and ( icrk; foreman bladr.mitb.; f.ll;_1ry, hr'-rnan turner; :::al:1ry, ::orem....tn paintc·r and fore1n ,n

.dary, .aw:mi!l forctnan pattorn-n1akt·r·;

inSIF •tor: " in ; g 1s in \\ ; ndYertising f;r

m 1 , -Jenning; ofiice-· ; p:1y elrr.;;:·s allr·\YantP; CRb hire, Ips"'>< lch prty; ru~ of Vo-lt pl.one; 111, dical fer ; LUl'·'- .ripiimL to ::m1 --.azinE<.,: (>-;~vrn fT, worl'~ 1r HPd :J~till< orkf;' Jnanager; ~·s, Ip:·~.:L '1 'Tef'hnic -d College; L- 1t , l'C-

tlring allo\vw1cc; tYP'-\·,·lit(·r, ·. u-'k;-..' mana­g..~r's offic( ard t~~pev,-ritcr repair ; printing c:~nls, etc.; for boiler fhop furnacf'~,; tar for boiler furnace; f'Ubscription to Qttccnslalld Timc<:/J

' l\Ir. 7\.lVRPHY: \Yhat abou.._ th(• Jl ortfon Leader? (Laught€r.)

l\Ir. GUNN: \Vhat about the TVorku·?

The SECRETARY FOR Jl.AILY\')I.YS: It might be there, but h€ could not find it in writinr::.

"R,-pairf- to- nu1chinery in shop~; COlnpen­sation to en1ployu.o;; CO' t of 'vater used in shops; c0st of working power-house; cost of fuel Uf:cd in ;:-,hops; upkeep of tool in shops; stationery, works manag•_jr'.s o:ffir::o; , tationery, kcon ')ti\·e engin~er's of-nee; pap .. ·r for Q('t~c­tor clocks; unif0rn1' for watcl1111·.n; mnithv coal; furnace coal ; salary, 1 1c !l1otiYe tore~­kP'-- per and sta['; ";,~ag;~ s to f-toreinen: portion of t..al::.ries, co1nptroller of ston ':l ; to expenses, clerical stnff, storps: Rtationcry used in ~to res office ; salaries, drafts1nen ; portion of back P<1'\ charged to loan and wa.g;::s of cadets in dra"-;:ing o:fr1ce; stationery u. eel in dravdng office; to intErest on ctpital <.ost; to depre­ciation."

\Vith respect to the coct of the Cl6 engines that was tho subject of di>~:ussion the other evening, he had the most minute details respecting th<? cost of those en :ines that were built in the Ipswich workshops.

Mr. FOLEY: Did vou have that prc,parecl to satisfy the hon." mcmb€r for ""o,olloon­g~bba?

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: Ho was trying- to get, if possible, at the truth of things. (Hear, ht,ar !)

~Ir. D. HUNTER: Thov do not want that.

The SECRETARY FOR RAIL\'' A YS: He was trying, as far as possible, to get at the truth, because he was snre that the officers of the department would not wilfully mislead him and allow him to mislead, not only members of the Committee, but the public as well. (Hear, h<?ar !) Thf're were thirkon shops in that statement, and they run from the boiler shop to the t-erminus.

[Hrm. W. T. Paget,

~6. -o ·o,.o t-:;rfl

Supply,

!::; ~ ooo "' "' ""

1,;"' c "'"' I ~~, ,.._ ·~ ~

~ r: CA~ "' ' ~-

;:: ~ '"';:::: ~

'" :% 000

"' ~)::; "' "" li.l

8uppl.J!· [G OcronEn.l Suppl,1;. 1385

So that he n1ight fair~y \_Jalrn 011 behalf of the offic'rs of the depai'tm: 1t thai· \hey had ?ndca",rour--c1 to go a stPp forward in that In[on:nation than the info ·n1atio.r! snppli0d tho other €""~"_~-·ning. Tlh re 1v·~.s nothin:. al'~ut the 33~ per c~nt. ·

l\Ir. D. I-IrXTER: Yon dirl la.-·t night.

The SECRETARY FOR IUIL\'\T\YR: That •.'>aq a t- ''1 fon">.--"d. l:T0 did not pr·e-­tencl to ce infallible in all thing-s, and if he 'found he quot.rd soLc .. hing- that T/_ as not qnite corre2t., if he ha -~ thf' onLortunitv hB ·ahvays aY-e th0 lnfo.rrna.t-ion l'iQ];_t, np io Clat-:.... (Hear, hear!\ '\Yhile he •.ms in the R ailv. a.y Department h·' should JFYer 1" . : i,fi. cl un· til +hry hsJ th0 Ips1Yirh Jrkshop· on an n.hso1LtPlv S·011ncl b~lsir f,~oti~HT. (Ifrar, hPar !) ·

~rr. n. TTt:T~TER: T 1;-;l I::; ~111 w'~ bnYC a ril!ht to a.sk.

The SECRETARY FOR I<AIL\VAYS: 'Th("'.T had 1 ,) bn:ci1w· ~-) run sho)Js \Yith 1,3CJ or 1, ··!Q n:"" : if thong·ht tho::e n10n WC'r<' · )t c .rni g ,,._tg~ That "iva,~ the' poiut. The l11C'D V\('rc' pn-i{1 their \YR[!( s for tl-linrr nnd il- -;yas not. nt "11 in th~i;· i' should ],~ Y Jn~iclf'rPd ih:n the-Y 1·1~ llC; doing· the \York for whi( h Hw·--.- "'f r(' pa ~d. , lie wa:=: quitP Certain thnt t}w Offi("'- l'~ cnnrgC' of +h dcna1tm ·nt bad th,; • of n:C''H· h0rs of th0 f1n'11:11itt, -:__~_ his con-"f!.dcncc-, ar d he- fplt ,.r0 th.-i his r-onfirl0ncc IY~~ not mi--;;p]ntf'd. Jf mt'n"~b rs clr-:;ir0d anc' furth.•r infonnat~on c·i·ing i-llC' yot0, hC fihonld he YC'r7 happ:v give it.

::llr. F0R"YTH: Th · nwn hv thP :\:ini·tpr '"''~ ~,-0~·; 'n,nd uSe-fuL bnt it 1-YonJrl. h~: -i·,1 'O~sih]P for nH'm· lwrs to rro into H1" c'c• 1 ikd itPms until thrv had i'lftn in nri;!t. ,~,~hat t~0 ~Iinlc;tPl' harl done' 1-vaR the ,..,0ITC"t thing- fro1n a busi­ness noint of Yi<>w. H "'anted to finrl out Pxa·~t1v how the '' ork v.·as dont' in the Ip.•>'vich work::·hop~. nne! Y hat it cos~ a-_:; conl· r-arcd with the cost of Rin1ilar \V(>tk done in other shons in Tirisba11P. find "ls-:--wh<?1Y' and if it v a.s found that the . work don~ i~ the Tpswi< h wmkshops \Yas rlonP •cheaper than thn Ran10 cla~, nf 1-vork wrrs dono 'Elsewhcrt\ n~C'm1Ars \\'1)nld be nl0a~>"d and ::-nl-~.i~,fif'(1. \Vha hP ncn ... t~l'tdRrl ro~f-' to ~)wale nbout '"''c th0 fe• t that ·;he mcf! of £126.000 was to bn \Hih<'n r,ff thP cnnital uccount, ·which nov: od i1t £'1-85,000. 'That \-vas a YCr)r large arnount i J write off fo1' hnildin!!S whirh W·nrc not tL·'f<' at all, hut th0 cost of which \Yas includ0d in tlw snm of £485,000, and it would 111uke n bir· djfff'r­Pnc~ in the' a(;connt-. Lookin2," at t·l1e r11at.tc1' f:ro!n a pnr0l:v busiw~s.:; point of Yif'\V, it seemed to him a largo amount· to writc off for depreciation at one time. The Minister Btatcd that the depreciation rang-ed from 2~ to 15 per cent. It was only during the last fiftpon years that large snn» of n1onc_y bad b_ef'J!- spent at the Ips,vich ,;·ork­,,hops on bUJldmll's and mo.chincrY. If we wanted to flo th0 fair thing, ,;.c ehould write off a certain atnount for dcpr0ciation everY Yi?'ftr. The n~11ounL- \-You1d Yarv ac­cord.ing to the life of a manhine, bu't tho aYPra.:c nJl round should not b0 less than 5 per cent., as the aYerar.ct- life of a n1achine was about twentY years. \Yhcn a st., .. amship O\Vnc-r got a nc1-v ve::sol he- \Vrote off a c-•r· tain amount for depreciation the Y<'ry first year, because he reckoned that under ordin-

n:·y conditions the life of th• YO ,_ . .:_"'! \-Yonld oe twenty years. Son10 perso~1s said the aYora;c lifo wns flft' "ll Y'"ll~"' Conf""qn0ntl.v ~ bipowncl'.; ·wrote off cyery _1 car frou1 5 to

·8 p(?r cent. for ({(•pn•ci[l.tion, and if tlwy hC'lcl their ycsecl at tlw end of thn time n1cntioncd it stnod at prarticall,v nothing in !h.,-:., Cook~. T·1at -,, ns the position vvhid1 \Hl waJtted to ~:;et into '~'ith regard to the Ipsv'eh voc>rkshcps. If -~me• cf thn 1111l.C'hincs u:-or-d 1"Jv)T0 }a<ctpJ longer than hvenh· :"·are, nll the l>ett0r. bnt •.vc should 1\Titc- off 0!1 an rl.\'('fU§'C' 5 lV'r ('f 'Jt. rc-r yeftr, ·which won1c1 rnc :n frnm f:20,000 io ;r;25.000 annua1h'. FfP \Vntdd SH;rg( _t {o ih~ l\li•1ist~~r for T(:l.ihvaY- tlr~t, '' iih i.11 c0n­

~,ent. of hi;:; col!Pap-u' ·, if thn ra ilv,·ayp; p;lH1'Xed a profit of £7.5,000 or -s1on,r00 nc··-:t. ?C'RI\

nft0r paying intc.·rst nrd working C\:p"n::-:e<:;, ;n:o-J· nrl of ~JJn,"'·inr a1J th-t, n1one:.· to go into i ~10 t'OllS-·)1 itl:1.t0d rC'Yf'nnc, he p;houid usc £20.000 or £25,000 of o\Je ammmt tm,·ards •.,Titing- off tlw £126.000. If thnt werP donC\ for four or fb:e Yr rs thP whole amount v ')Uld he 'Yipcc1 . and th0n, havi11g- got down to bcclrocl:::, \ ·orkshors \Vr·nld be P•.tablish0d on a thorm~' hl'"; b·,·-drwss basis. It \Yonlc-l bf' t-oo ~nuch to ;y~rv• off th whole £126,000 in one y~·ar, hn~ tlH'.Y ~'ti~Iht v0rv easilY do it by 'nnnnul in~tn1'llC'nt~. n~ h'o had · Pnp:gC'<:;trd.' If d0prr·ciahon was not \Vr}'if'll of!:' in f 1Jat Y\'a:'-·, l"d' rnulfl 1lOt have n f:1ir balancc•-f:hr·C't. ~ot 'oulrl it bn p:-d-jcfaC'torv t0 hor). n!r•mh"rfi kno\v that thP \York~hons wctC' turnin~ out work as well as it could be turned ont. in other shops, bnt \vc-re also doing it. more dwapl:v than the:>' could g<'t it done hv gi 1·ing it to other sl1ops, but. ]t. \Youk1 al~o ~,atisf,v thr en1-plovl':>S, who ···ould l'e nk'lscd to know that 1h 'ir \York L ~nlt• d sn,...,..t•s~fu}h~. H0 v,Ta-: per­·onallY ver:>· plca··'d to han· th information th0 l\Iinister had 9'1~.~0n tho f;on1n1ittre, as it woulrl he interesting to cvory member of the House.

Tlw SECRF:TARY FOR RAILWAYS: Tlv'n' T n-.; jusi- 011c piC'C'f' of infonnation he should lik:f' to giY(~ tlv:. Cn,nn1ittt~"· The hon. n1c1nbor for Clm·n1ont inqui1· 'd about n n1nn nan1!"'d rQillig•ln, wl1o -~.as ki1lcd in th" Roma-,'rect varrl He (the '\Iinistcr) had not the infom1ntion at hand at the moment in ordnr to rPnlv t:o tho hon. n1(-n1br-r, but hf' noi--Y found 'on inqnjr:v that Gilligan ,~-as ki11cd throug-h not obs0rving wagons boing F.ihnnt0d ba,..,::. Full coynpen· sation-£376--~>·as paid, and •·l'crything pos­sible don0 for the 1-Yido\\". ~o special wa.rn­lng "\VRS giYPn when the v·a:;vns wcrf' ~0t back. lwcam' the men conic! not sec Gilli­gan, who, ait.houa-h he ;yas in such a posi­tion as to be hiddnn fro•n Yicw, did not JWotent. hirneelf by 0xhibitinrr a. danger Pig-nal. Tht·re was no need for him to stand in such a place of danp:n as he did, rirrht in front of the buffer. Yerv unforhmateh-, th,· mnn was killPd, and h;ll <'ompcnsation was paid to his wife and family-namely, £376.

Question put and passed.

RTOR'.R BRANCH.

The SECRE.TARY FOR RAILWAYS moved that £12,868 l'e r:Tant.ec1 for the "Stores Branch "--Schcrlulf' D. This 1--vas an increase over last veor of £2.734-an increase in the SonlhPrn eli vision of £1,792; in the Central d;vision, £.'.18: in tho Northern d;vision, J.Tackav £20. at Townsville £409, and at Cairn<- £95. The toial increases in

lion. W.T. Pagct.J

1386 Snpplp. [ASSEMBLY.] SuppllJ.

the f~ :!aries in thi' department, including the classification increa-,cs 1 an1e~pded c~assificatiqn, and special incmases amounted to £717.

Question put and passed.

CHIEF OFFICE.

The SECRETARY FOR "li::'\ES (lion .• T. G. Appel, Al?icrt) mon·d that £7,975 be granted for ··Chief Office." In tl!is wJte there \Yas an increase over tl~e prev1r)US yz_ar of £1,625, 1', hich ''a;; to a f'reat {~xteut o\ving to tl1e tntn·-fer of the topograplwr fron1 the G-colo.c:ical :3urve:v OfE< :.' to the he::~d ofiL 2. 1-fon. lll;!Inbcrs y;;ould notice that in connection T\'ith the -[""nder Sccretar".r, thO increase ~~Tan ted last year, 'vhiPh o·:. 'ing to a printer's UTOl' did not appear in the E~ti-1n:1tes. now app('al~ed, in cvnsequt•nce of whic:1 the l~ndcr Seci·etarv's salarv \Yas £800. Thcr.n Waf; a1so an incrc.:Se to ~[~·. ::\IarslwH, the chief cleric of £30, his ,.a!a.ry being in­err 1.-ecl from ±:5CO to £530; to :'-Ir. Alder an incre11::·r:· of £50-£:-5~.0 to £350: to ~>lr. Che­shire an iLC·rc :lS' of .£10-£~20 to £230; a sitni!ar incrc-.se to ~Ir. Ga_nblf', a ~imihr in­cret-,se to .:\fr. -:',facr)h2rson. an iJ!C'rC'ase oJ £20 to the junior, :\[r. Schmidt-from £?0 to f'90 -c-and an incre:lc<' of £20 to J\Ir. Greenfield. There \Yas an incrca.~:- of £10 to :'.fr. T(11ox, £20 to :\fr. Cacfell. aud a.n increa'<" of £10 to the junior, ~11. ~fa.cna1nara. The present salary of t-he Q'f'ological suryfly drp_ftsn}an, chief ofiice, 'vhich now appeared under this ite.m, a"!Tionnt0d :o £570: there Yras like''7 iso the topogranhrr-a ne\v appointn10nt to be made at £3JO, p1·ovision for nine months onl;,7 apnc>arin~· on tbese E-;timat-P~. The topol'raplwr was proviclccl for unrlrr thp geological su.rYf')-7 yo"r 1 hut no,,r appeatPd in the chief office. th~ an1onnt bPillf.: £225 Jor tlw nine months. Th-0ro w:1s liln·1.,·i~' an increas~ to the nlc-..;senger of £10. an increase in postaQ'e and inclclcntals of £300, and an incr:-)a;;;:e of £200 ]11 railway farC'R, printing, etc .. makinrr u total incrca•,(' on this vear's E.stimates of £1.625. ,

:\fr. COLLINS noticed that the inc case to the TJ nclcr Secrctarv was £100.

:\Ir. J\frRPHY: It, wa· lric· year.

:11r. COLLIXS: This was th~ first time it had con1c h<: rore Par1ia:rnent.

The S_F.CRF.TARY FOR :\fiNFS: I made· the statctnrnt last Yea;~· that it ''Tas inad\·crt('ntlY o.mitt.- 1. and {··oulcl be pa.id for fro:n cm;­ting€ncie~~.

:\lr. COLLI);S would iikc to d.-aw th.• :.\linist.er'.,~ attcution to the nun1Ler of 1ca~~s on the Etheridge that had been taken up, and on which the ld nur conditions were not being fulfi]ecl. He had an opportunity of asking the ::\Iinister certain qu€stions. the repl_v to which \Yas to some cxttnt f. :ltisfac­to.ry, but in the annual'r0port of the cli'part­ment it appcar2d that there were leases at Gilberton on which practically no work "·as be· ng done. I-tc was not in a position to Eay as to who were· tbe holcl0rs of the leases. but no large company or syndic ate should h0 allowed to ho,ld n;round for any length of time unless they did some work on it, because they were blocking the pro.grc's of the district. In his electorate, th0 Oaks Rush was dcve!opin:c; fairly well. They had wa.itcd on the :\Iinis'·er and asked for a full State battcrv to b~ established in that centre, to enable· th~m to develop it faster, and the reply they !TOt was more satisfastory than any they had ever received from any :\finister for :\fines in

!lion. W. T. Paget.

QuPenslaml. (Hear, hear~) That fic,ld wao, in a tra.nsitiDn stag,_;; it \Vas passing from individual owners to companies, and he hoped the l\Iinic,tcr would watch very car.efully, and see that. the co1npanies did not get exemp­tions, becau·''" the fi,,Jd ''as somewhat limited. He hoped the companies would be made to wo1·k their lease''· ThPre ',\ere several 6-acre leases, and ··C>mc people were inclined to think tha the area. should be increased. The reefs on thai field were nearly vc·rtical, there­fore a 6-acre !e .. ·C' on the Oaks Rush \\as (qual to c:1 18 or 25 acre lease on Charters To,vcrs. where the reef .1 '\Ve_o flat, and the prol ;tbilit:-;T ·.vas that th_ y~ r. onld nc>Yer pC't out of the Jc>a'_·<" at th0 Oaks. The gcologiC'Ul

~taff ca.rne nnck~r this vote. He [8 p.n1.] ViTas no' in the h~>hit of advocat-

inrr bi~~· nlarj0s for any Govern­ment. officia~s. ~ bnt, he noticrd that there \Vas no increase fnr Jfr. Dun-;tan. who ,,-as ~~till dcnvn a.t £500. That offic,:.:· was underpaid comnttred y·irh thP .~1lo·-ri~ts in the other Rtat~;;;: anrl cr:n:;idPrin.: thai· Qnf>~n.]and, csmcia.llv Korth 0n<0ll''~lmL had cvPl'.' ln~o~ 1TiineraL and \Yas a. t~ig· n1ineral fiP1d. ther • \nls plenty o.f l'OOm for p·po]o('[ical .p--nmin::tion, anr1 0~1 tlwt a{·count :..Ir. Dun­sta.n's ,a\ rv ~hon1 d h.f' inrreas0"l.

~J l'. THEODORE: :f-I0 hr S InOrP ,,-ork to do th:d1 all"'- other g-cnlo~ist in _'\u~tra1ia.

I\lr. COLLIXS: ::ur. I)un~tan's ~alar:v should be bro~1crht nn to the 1cvel of the geologists in H10 oth(,r States. l-IP '-Yas a capnblc ill~ n. equal to c•.n:,,one in the Aus-tralian <'nith. and tlwv knew that h0 had ~~·ood \York. ~

Mr. :\H:LLAX '"as of opinicn that tho 111iiling indu:-'tr~-. considering- its i!~111ortance, '\YHS not n~( -,iYing that consic1 'rahon at the hands of tlw Sta1·c to '"hich it 1.vas entitled.

:\lr. l\LIY: Xo. It i' stancd.

:\Ir. i\IrLLAX: He >Yns quite prepared to h0nr frorn rhc GoYt'Tnlncnt that th,•t wa~ an old hackncvcd state1ncnt, but \Yhcn the~Y had r grievar;cc of that kind thcv had to k('f'P bai1lJn('ring a\Yay at t.h0 GoYcrnrnent to r0mrclv that grie..-ance· The n1ining in~ dustr\ ... ,y·as OllC' of tl"'E' n1ost in1port.a.nt in the State, and '"h0n they J.\':T the considcra· tion shown to other indw'•!rics th.~-.7 could src that 1nining \Yns n"~ H'C'"'h-ing. anything like i1· '> fair .:-haro of financial consrdcrution. The l\linis1-,, · had p1acrd on the Estin1atcs for th0 vctr th0 snn:1 of £17,00D. coYcring prosp.~cti'ng, roac-1.-:, and bridges. There \Yas on!:' £2,000 for j)l'OSJWCtin/2', which was a YCr'' e: wll sum ind< •d. There >Yas also £10,000 do•rr1 ns loans in aid of deep sink­ing. but that \\' :< ., ycrY small inclcnd for RU~h fr0lds ns Charters To'\Yers; Gyn1pie, and Cro: don.

::Vlr. ::V!rRPH\'; That nwans £20.000, as it wili bo £1 fm £1. I3ut it will not sink many deep shaft;,

Mr. ]',fCLLAC\': It would not be sufficimt to test one deep lode. It was up to the Government to do more for the mining industrv than thaL He "'"' not blaming tho present Minister, who no doubt got all ho could from the Cnbinct, but limitation' were imposed on bim. On looking at it from the point· of view of tho Government policy, the policy \\·as Jared;~- dictated by the prepond0rancc of the Yoting pmYer of tho South, which did not vic\\' mining from· that svmpathotic standpoint to which it was: entitled. For years tho mining industry did a great deal of the development of the

Suppl,IJ. [6 OcTOBEll.] 8upp1y. 1387

agricultural indn.try bJ providing Q good 1narkct for agri ~nltural produce. Thel'o was a dependcnc~ bctwcs•n tho two indvs~ tries. That was 1nore particularly the < .-•• ~·~~ 111 tho cady Jays, before "-c \Y~nt in for export on an extonsiYo ~calc of our agricul­tu:ral produce.

}ir. ::\IrHPHY: Look \Yhat Chart··rs To\Yers did for the Darlinfl' Downc !

:\lr. :\lGLL_.A::\: Y P' ; but ~-incc the export of butter, chcc.::>e, ancl bacon to hoiYw uutr­kcts was also prc.!itublc, the far,ners >Wre not, Fo rnuch conc.?rncd about tL-.: goldfields as they used to be, Lut 0YUl yc:t tho t" old· fields consun1cd aH cnonnous a:uount o£ f~.r1ners' produce. Corn~ng down to tho par'­!Ictdar 111aUcr of th~-- Yote, he drew tho ::\IiE-1Ster·~ att·:lntion to tho no· :~:ion of tho Char­tc•rs· Towm P(:hcol o£ ~1inc ~- The School of :'dine; was doing exceptionally good \Vork.

The SECRLTARY ron :,lD~ES: I-Iear, hear! Excellent work.

. :\Ir. :,n . .'LLA::\: He was glad to have the endo1 ,eulent oJ' the .Jlini:::.ter for th<-t. T~c stan<:lard o£ efficiency there was Ycry l~1gh, m1l: \VCJS not sul,pasS'eJ 111 .Austra­lm, '"0 he understood from 1110 -t conl­

petent j udg0s, RLd it was regre-tful to &ce ,nch a u .cful and efficient c.tablic;h. mcnt handicapped in tho .,·av that it was. \Yhiist tiv handicap had" been verv severe. m the past, it promised to be fcft more m the future, bccau•e of tho fact that t~hey proposed to affiliate the Charters To·.orers ~chool of :\I me' wrth the l'niversih of Queensland .. and if it was to 'be afli!;atcd and that h1gh standard of eflicienc• was to be 1~ainLined, _the handir.uns und~r which the ;:ochool of }lmcs now suff,, red should be ren;oYe~l. It ·was a ren1arkablc fact that wh1le tho .cnde.avour to establish f'':pcri­nH~~tal en~1nc0nng and ore-dressing labora­tories recC:lYcd the sympathy of the Minis­ter for :\lmc e and Premier while thev were at Charters Towu·s, yet :\lr. Pooic, the dn·ertor of the School of :\line' was unable to go in for them mYing to the fact that tlw Go\·crnn1c->nt 'Ycrc not pr~parcd to spend the additional sum of about £4,000. To show ~he _un~ortunato handicap under which the mst1tutwn laboured, he would just quote

,a !Ow extmcts from the rcnort of tho nre­scnt director. Before doing so, he ,,-i~hcrl to say that the. School. of Mines •ms singu· larly fortunate In ser:1.nng the SZTYi-:E'·,,,, since it~ inception, of such able and distingui<=;hcd chrcctors. The director said-

" I an1 sorry to state tb,, t pro vi "·icn has not :.·et be· n Inadc or prnmiREd for tlw E' Ltbli,h­lnent. of e~:periinental <.'Hgineering and or-­dn. ~nng laboratorie':. A lin1itE:d an1ount of ex­per'Ill1en.taJ hu:;truction in the te:.ting, etc., of the varwus types of poy, c-r plants-yiz., stean1, gas and elef'trical--n1ay bG arran..,.ed to be .given at privatE' plantR. 01·e-dre~c;ing plants 1n different di,,tricts; 1nay be Yi ited at consider­able expen-,,o. Doth of the::o:c> CO'lrf'es cannot, howe-.-Pr, be c •m-id ·red bE'tter than unaYoid­abJ- makf-3hifts. '1'hl' experi1nental \vork in the properties and testing of Innterials n1ust, unfortunately, be entirf'ly held in abeyanc<~ for the present. The nf'r:e:~sity for an f'XJ)f·ri­ll1ental engineering laboratory has been urged so often and so forcibly u~c:tt there appuus to be no advantage in ag1in traversing the queB­tion be:'ond P8intiug out that Inn.t silnilar institution~ have an equip1nent, even if incon1-plete, to enable then1 to undertake such in1por­tant instrurti0n. SeYeral Australivn schools of tn!nes, which do not reach in othrr reRpe,-.ts the educational con1pletenef';s and efficiency of

the Charter.~ T·i'>\'ers Schc.ol of ~lines, have thG advauLage of havin;. an c <pcriln.e:tltal ore­cln: ''ing 1nil!, E'',-cn if 1he ·c0r··~ dQ{ ILt '.") out:::ide that of the treatme 1't of g ;ld orf _,, The S._ ,te C•f Q-_H•ns!-lnd, which has a largfT raP,g~ rf comntt-rcial GrE nnU of c n11pl::-x ore :1f no eomL r~eial ~ nlU(' tLan any otlH?l' St.._.te

in _t.~u.·a_;tl~lti·~r/=~~, t~\~·;. t~\~u1~d\~~~\~~~,.~ n~f ~l·~ of "'"i1.te~...: or eLsewher1.. The ad­

. nd 'altle of a rompn:htw;;ive ore->-'dng P b0th tJ th- Illilling _ _;tudpnt of t' e of and the r1ineral indu~-try of the St h', has bet n prJintcd out in Ea l'licr reportr--; .. ,

The ·cncler :-..:,1-L''etar~-, in his r0port. confi·,-n1€d ~\lr. Poo!e's stat 'n1ent in these \Vords--

he (l\lr. Poole) b. yond which

he is desir-cour.se ~ in n1ining

for tho~.: who, not nt can devote the

their st.udies. I\Ir. Pool~ hope·,,, witl~ the m ns at llis disposal, 'o be able- t•) inaP ~ur. tc these rourscs during. the present year, nlthot: :;h the '" ..111t of experi­l11ental enginterin.;:- aih1 ore-dressing labora­torie··, so often asked for, will restrict the full reali.~ation of the ff'hen1e."

Tl1at should proYc conclu~iyely to tbe }linis­ter. if any doubt previo:usly. existed in hi mind. that those laboratories should be ef.t.ablished forthwith if the School of ::\'lines was to be broT)Jt np t.o the desired standurd of pfficiency, ancl if it was to be made a3 useful as it should! be as an institution affiliated with the "Cniver jty of Queensland.

:\I'r. }h-RPHY: What do they give for echolar:ohip·•·?

I1Ir. :\ICLI.AX: The a.mount set do··· n this year was £350. a1,d there was £30 for bur­saries-six at £5 ,each.

:\Ir. :\IuRPHY: \Yhat would a lad on the Etheridge or Croydon get if he won a scholar· hip?

~,Jr. MCLLAX: £50 a year.

:\Ir. }[URPH""': It is surprising to me that more lads do not try t~ win scholarships.

The bell indicated that the hon. member's time had expired.

:\Ir. :\ICLL.\.X: In pmof of his as .crtion tha.t rhc rnini11g i:ndustr_y was tlL~ " Cinde­l·cla" of the industries of the Sta.te. ho \Yould just refer to the apparPnt neglect of that ver:v ituportant branch of the }Jines DPp:nt nent. the G.eologir.al Survey D.cpart­ll1C'nt, and he 'vo 1 -:ld quote a.n extract fro,nl 1-lte 1'8!-'Jrt of ::\Ir. Dunstan, the Government G.cologist-

,, Of rEf ye-ars Yer;r little 8Y'>tenuttic geo-l0gir 1~ rc~·ctrrh \'.-ork h<.,' bEen c:.rried out by t! e Qnee:a~lan-1 :,un-cy ;taL, und this, natur­ally enou§:·b, has produced sorne adverse criti­cisnl anwng2t n1emb rs of other State geolo­gi '>l .' Ul'Yt-. and frmn those a·.~ociated with R')llthern 1l:1iYer~itifS and n1useurns. On be­l~alf of the :-:un·e}~ stall as a whole, some e-xplanat.ion i:'i dr--1irable, that our position in the n1ntte-..· be clearly understood.

"It is well known. in the first place, that our staff is e:x-ceedingly snwll for the l·arge nrea oYer which our \York extends, and were it t\vice as lar::.' ther9 'vould still remain a large portion of thP St·tte ,,:Jlich could not possibly be examined, eYen cursorily, for n1any years to CO,'DE,

" In the scc,nU place there is a super­abundancf' of \vork closely aRsociated with m.ining developm• nts wl1ich haR to receive inunediate attention. Officer•', often have tO' make e:xan1inations of n1ineral-bearing country just sufficient to meet the requirements of

Mr. Mullan.]

13~8 Suppl;lj. [A881£MHLY.J Suppl!J.

those inunCdiatcl' intcrE·,tcd in nresent de­velopmnlt;-;, and i10t \Vith a view ~of working om:: fc:aLlH'0's \\ hich will be u~"tful in after

fJ~1mdilnes an iudivitlual 1nilH? ha;.; to c·:mnined and r<:-portP·1 upon, \Vhilo the

allc '" ance ',;ill not permit of the country Yicinity JJ,-'in-;;;· '-:::m:-~idcn•tl at all, and.

yeL gc:J!Jgical infon:::.u1tion lJHCt:.rning the c nYironm: 11t~ of a !Tii.!.l mi ,·ht, in futun' dt' :cbv nt ·, lJc of tllr: utm1: t i::.n~)ort:u1ce. To attempt t _) do s.v:-·t, 1naJ.i(· r illogiCal vmrk v ::- flnll tCJ be_, :~bsoJutcly out of th(~ que~::>tion, Ull]L- it ~ ; t hrely \- ith snme \Vorl-;: being e:-mductt d in '.''>here ruining operar >n:~ arc

That ICY{ :i.lL _1 a regrettable affairs. and h'-' hop"d the ~\finistcr ist )1r. Dunstan by givillfS' hirn incrcm"~ in his scaff. .A topoi of Char-tE:rs TowPrs \vas cJIFicler-able time a co, but) ~::_!l'Yc': Ol le::r'\·ing· the Go-v.___, nn1.Pnt ,~rvict' to tnku rnore remuneratiYc e Hrlo_,n; nt, th wa.s abandon.,d. and it 1Jacl lwen hu,~· np tho gTc::ttPr part of this yPar.

The SECRETARY FOR ~"IIN"ES: \-Yf' htYe lTI.lc:e provision for another ap11oint-Jnent.

3Ir. }fCLL.:-\N: \\"hen our-~ the• k W<-1···

conunciJC"''d, he thought it hould been -com:inucd; and \Yhcn it wa j ( Jllll11C'llcccl a:sain, he hoped it \"l·ould be c )ntinnpd until completion. As he ·::isllPcl J·o refer to some other matto>·s, particularly the ropmt of the Royal Co1nmifllsion on }IinerR' Ph:hisis. oTI the next vote, he '''ould not delav the Cnn· mittee longer at present. ~

:Ylr. ML:RPHY (Croydon) said he had been askLd to bring under r~oticc a case ot hardship experienced by an oid l':ortherner. Mr. :\1ichael Ganley, in connection "·ith the 1\finin~S on PriTate Land Act. :\Ir. Ganley held an nllotnH'nt for nJanY vears at Cliarters Towers. \Yhcn L!w A·,', WES

plL::"' cd a special proYiso \YU ~ in crt~'d dPal­ittg '"ith those allot:ruent.; o:1 Chari( rs To~~:c!·,s. J\Ir. Ganlcv ho]d hi., nllot.nent frmn about, 1887. r"r." had hc'rt' a letter· datrd 19th l\oyc):nber, 1397, y,_-hi< h ho vou]d rend---

"19th 1897. ~' l\Ir. 1-Tkh,~cl Ga11ley, C:·o~

"D~.._nr Sir,---T l·aYe ptn-1:-t. cd :.Lll<JtTI1> ~n X, 3 of !-2ction 2!3, in Church st1·ee1. Cl art,•r.-.: T01"· 1 ;, adjoining ·.:-our allotmC'nt. ~\s you are aware, I arn also thE" owner of o_llotmcnt Xo. 1, 2nd I llOW purpo~r puttiiJg up 2" ~ence rou1Hl three sirlc:; of ~·our Rllotm~nt, antl liaYe to 1·eque-·t you to pay half of the C''J,•:. An htrly reply will oblit..,~.

"Your· f~ithfully, ''E. \V. :~VIILI'>:::.J)

In 1897 J\Iichael Ganley \Yas thus wdl knmvn to haYo his rcsid0ncc in Cro"' don. C2-rtain receipts from tho clerk of , tho Charters TowNs Citv Council ·,hawed that it was perfectly well known that :Yir. Ganlev was a resident of Crovdon. The reason tl;at he referred to these· ff'atures of the case was that unclor the Mining; on Pri,-ate I.cmd Act tho owner of an allotment \:ho had the right to apply for a lease had to be afforded an opportunity of going; before the warden's court to have the mineral value of his htnd a'·'Csscd. ?vir. Ganlo. naturallY expected that if an0• application' ,,·as to be mado for his allotment at Charic•rs Towers he \Yonld rccciYo the notic'"' und·~'r the- Act: but that notice was addrcss0d to :VIr. Gan]c.,. at Charters Towers, posted at Charters Towers, and ren1ained at Charters Towe''R; and that gentleman never received anv in­formation that an application was made for his allotment.

[Mr. Mullan.

An HONOLilABLE MDIBEH: Had he no agPnt at Charters Towers?

Mr. MuRPHY: Ho had no D.gent at Charters TmYers. He had al" ays forwarded the rates for his allotrnont on Charters To\'.·ers direct fran::. Croydon, where he had heen in bn.:.ines::.; ior a number of yHll';::. Not havir::.g received a r:.otice, he was unaware t.hat- anY application was L~ing 1nado for his allohn· l1t, a.:.::.d conS{· quently \va.s debarred frorn applying to the court to .haYc:_.thc va~ue of tho land ar:;ses..:cd. \ftf'twards, diSCOY ''1Dg that an a.pplication had heC'n put in, he conl­Inunicatr:d ..,,:ith the J\~inc•fl Dcpartnu~nt, and l· u<iYccl hYo or three leiters from the L'nder

1'h(· lvlirF'S Dcparbnent. coni­'' ith J\Iarslaud a·· d :!'vlarsland,

acting for the ~Iills:s Day Dawn :\lines. Lmited, and they Sf nt letter to :\lr. G ,nlcy :-

" 2.::nd _\pril, lBll.

\Yllef'h' right, " S. ·nlUEl st! 1 et, Cro.ydon.

"De>ar Sir,--Our lients, ills D v I)<J.'.Vl1

1Jr:.ited G!lcl =··~in , Limited, ha,·e rcLeiveLl a letter frOlll the nernrtmtnt of )Tinr·· Dri banP, ( '1\~eria · a eopy 0f a leth·r tlH' Htll F'vb!·uary laf--t, \\Titt' n b./ you tJ :J.iini -t•c-r for :Yline ,, Bri bane.

"In that letter y~)u ha,-c 1nadc f:vnF~ state­lTl-::. 1ts \Yhich (Iwrhaps fro111 y,Jur \vant of knowl·-·i~..;2) are not in accordanc"') with the fa-cts.

'· Furthermore, you o1liUcd to infonn th~;; ::\Tincc; l)ppartrnrnt that you had b e-n pre­viouslY of:'0J'ed b.; our client a r mn for the 1niniu~ ri-- hts undC'r your allotment sirnilar to t.uns they ,~ <::Tc paying for mining rights El!d<C'r nf'icl;_t·•ttring allotnt: ilt·-, a ad that you llnd dcl'linE'U t'H' ofl"er.

''In mal.;;in;; the nppliL:ttion for lease r ~­ferred to, we were a_rting for the l\Ii11' Uni: -~d C ~nnnany, and :::trictly cmnpliEd \vith the pro­vi ·:ioiL ... cf the -:\lining on Private Land. Act 2nd the regulations thcrcunrl-= r.

"-y--ou are unde-r 8n entire rn1 ~pprchen: ion in vour contention that subsection (3) of f.(~ction 15 ·1·enuin-· an nvp1icant for a rnining t:c.ne-111e!~t t'J a plaint to haYe the fllpp;._-:ed Yalue of the ~Jr 1nineral f'Uppo, cd to be under H a sse~- '"'d by t~~~; \Varden's court.

" Y.,.hat an appli: ::tnt for private land is reruirecl to do u~ to give noti!"'e cf the applica­tb:'lil as preFr:rihPd to th·~ actual occupaut . of the land, or if th,, lana is raca11t to a:fiix nottce in f.'o:me con~;picuous place on the land.

" :\otic-2 of the application is also to be sent by registtred letter through the post offic"_, to every person who a]J'}Je! TS by the rate-7 Jol;: the,_ in force of the local authority '\dthin vdlO~f· area the land is rttuabd to b,~ the 0\.\-nsr or occnpier of the land.

'· Jn your case, as in all oth<.'rs, a cateful sear h Yia<; 1nade of tl1e ratebook of the Chartcn; Tnwers City Counril, bPing the appro­priat(' lot ·tl authority, and r0pir~ of entr_ie,_, relating to the laEdS> in respect of \Vhlch n1ining tenen1ents were propo· ed to be applied for w;::re takd1.

" In vour c.1se there is nothing "\Vhatever on the r:1tf book to 'ho•·; thnt you wer'- residing : t Cro: d0n, nr at any other place than Chartl:'r::; Tower:, and therefore in f-;trict cmn­nlianr~ with tl·c- .law the re:~L-:tercd letter \vas Posted to you with the Charters To\ver J

addrr ,,s. "Had w..,. kno\vn that you were rEsident at

Croydon -ire would have p!Jsted you a duplicate addre~c;cd to Croydon.

" Furthern1ore, notic;> of the application was posted on the land within a period of two days after lodging the applic 1tiOn, and was continu­ously kept so posted until after the applica­tion was heard.

[6 OCTOBER.] Suppl.'J.

<~You v:ill, therefore, Pe th~1t thtore L ab<}­Iutely no foundation for y n1r a• enitHB l nnl­prisNl in the foiio·wing paragrapho..; in your h•ttcr to the 1\Iini·t::::r .,.ur 1-liru:s--that i·::. to suy-

" (1) I-Iovl t11cy 1nu t haY:J smiled ',·hsn lhC'y L ~tit bn·-•~ through that chann 1, kn,v.ic; that I~,,~- in Croyd::.n.

" (:2) On lt'>:iewing tbe whole n1att< r, I ft'l'l l };lfldc- ·1t } on \Vill not rdlow the adyantage that is e· identiy being tri('d to 1 0 taken of n1e, and that

will, a- ::Iinist"'r adn1ini'>t2rin.; ; <11''; that an

injusti~ e ( sucb as perp,,-trab'd, uo HL.tter by 1n .s b(~ cngineerE'd.

"If you f-'till adhrre to the· r: st ternents, the· e is an P'tcl of the matter, ar~d our clif'nt' 1.-:ili decline "!::1 d( ,11 Ydth you in auy shape 01 form.

'' On the oth .:r hand, ,,·c haYc w;'itten, and oa y,_-:-n .·re pr-_partrl to ''-rite: to th partmcnt, and tJ LL", n, ., 11dng our t 1ientf<, \Vit11dT, \ving thc:::e 1ts, fl'H1 a;Jologisin_ .. ; for haYin;;- 111- de then cur c1ients will, pur-ly <1': a yoluntnry act nf gl'ace, mHl not ;'·-· rcer ,:ni that h'l\ e no•,v any 1e ... 1l ri_gl::.t ~unl of £.~Pi, ·which is after as they ha H' b nt UlHler lreeh0ld lJ.nc1~; y ur allot1~1t:nt.

"TllE~-T wnuld (~1 thi-· Jr11p1y the, r-· J:"'L · ,_, that Y011 \'\·oul.:-1 hnYc a pl.:drlt v,-ithilJ t!.H' prcPcrihc:.1. tilne lutd you not for ~-n~.r.e rf'~·~--nn nr oeH'l', wbir~l L~~~ nJthin_;- to do -.;dth them, inad1·crt0nt~y lo t yc.ur tight f"J

t•l do. " Yours truly,

The c·c' 1plaint of ·:-,r,., Ganlev ;vas ih"t lv kno ;'>-!1 to the Charters~ ToY\ 1·:-:; Cit.v il to ha-C' bcC'n a rC'sid{'nt in the Gnlf

for nbnnt a qnadC'r of a rc\~u}arl,~ f: Pi- l1ic: fro.u C:ro~.-don to

To\Yl'l:.; Citv C'-rnnci1; and tl-c im'Jt(''"l0n 1 iF•n, and wns ln1p!( - t 1 ::\Iills: Da---;' Da. ~ n, Lim-itNl, wen th ·t he \\Ta.:;

deut Rn(l hr took C"<C

th0 hi'" tlv not~- cc.. bc'r-- .... 11 the that th0 11n1tl('1 J of nC'ighbonrhood of rccE"iYing for i-ll"Li ns high r· £100 fnr rig-hte. H~ had brot. 'ht tb•t .ti<'r ll)l bee lll •• ho thottght Mr. Ganley had good

n ,J' )ll :-o (_ ,;npiain t~1ut he \Yas [8.30 p.HL] a lc· cr ! j the of the

nc·c,' -.:--"ry 11oti. , (~\[r. :\Inrphy) r!_ot prepared to fd,Y, as l\L·. Ganlc:y F-,jd hi:, lcLcr, that th;Jt o1nission was ab~o1utcly v.-i1ful, _ lthough it \'-a<: m'r­tainh· strun.:re that the town clerk in Char-

'To•s, -· \Yho had been n'c~-~iYing ratL -:J

a in Croydon for n1any :. :__' t r.~. should have no not€· in his ratobook of tlu~ addrc•.• .. of tho 1wrson 1Yl1o owned that allot­Ill Jt. Ile thoug-ht in n:.ost tnunioipal bodicsj if the clerk \Yas recPiving ratC:'s frotn any pcrt.oll at a di,_L"ncc lw '.':onid D1<1kl~ a nole of that pC>r' Jrt's addrc :; in order to Pend hin1 the Yaluation notict and rate notic-~R. ~y1r. Gn.nk~T had been n good rnan~,T ~·cars en Charte;·s To'.~ 0r:-:, and he \\·as under the inlprcf'sion that he had nc4 rC'cciYcd a. fail' dt al in the matter. Ile had post. cl him {2\h. i\lnrphy) a cov.' of the last lc\;·.'1' rc, ceiY•.'d. from tho 2\!incs Department, and it

was onlv fair to the de)arttnent that that letter slwuld be included \Vith tho others­It \VllS as follmn:-

'' Departnlc'lt of Mines, " Bri ·t,ane, 7th June, 1911.

'' Sir -I haYc> the hnnour to aclnlo\vlc:.dge tllp r~c'eipt of your lctVr of the 11th ultilno, l ,J;-rring copy of ;:: letter frorn ~.fessrs. l\Iars­J -r : anrl }~arc l<liH1, solicitors for J.Ylills's Day D~tY.'n UnitEd Gold ~lining Con1pany, Lin1ited, o ,ering t0 cmnpensate you for the los·~ of the

rights in cr)nncction \Vith your allot­m.ont of .- cf't.ion 28, town of Chnrters Towers~ and to ~-ay that, having sucr--,'-~dcd in inducin6 tll(' cmnpany to off('r to con1pcnsate you for the

thl dP~-.:artn1ent are not justiilfd in pro­fnrtl:!cr in the nwtter.

'· I havr, etc., "A. TI.. ~'L<\CUONALD_, Lnde1· E-::·.:rctary.

"0:r. M. E. Ganley, Croydon."

::\Ir. GanleY dif! not bLmc the JY1[m, De-partm-ent i{l w.1v, hut wrote to th{' de-lHtrLucnt in ho)ie ihat iht'Y ,.,,mid haYe been able to .indnre tlt<-: ~Iills's D1v Da,vn l~nitcd to tlnd rnorc libcrallv ;\-ith ·- hin·l in c 'nno~·-.ion --;',ith th0 lc~~ of hi~ mining right, bc'cau o lw \H', JWI'fcctly sati. Ged that if he had h~,Ll an OtJ]IOrtunity of going before the warden and had the matter dealt with In­that gentleman, and had the ,-aluo of tlle tnining right as-C'3s2d, he \Yould ha,·c got a 1nuch larger suJn tbun the Day Da\.Yl1 people afterwards offered 011 the renr f'''nta.tion of the l\Iin0s D0partment. _-'\cf'0t'cl,in~:' to ~ir. CanlC'~''s conunnnication, Hw },lint's Dcpnrtn1cnt Coln­mani< .tcrl with the :\!ilL's Da:vDawnUnited.

The SECRE'l'ARY FOR ~.[J:\ES: They did.

l\Ir. ~JUH,PIJY: ::\fr. Ganl0v had :n0 r·--H 1" 1 in~ f--ilc'J to tnkr ndH

of th(• _\c1' \Yithin_ _\ct, l~n,,-ittinf:dy

l1e IH -.·cT rccciYecl tal;>) his al 1ot-

o-lt c;)tlrt. Ile f1.Ir. o:'l(l nnt ,_·d·,Ti~,. ~,~,·- Gan­

lPv to <'n1r'r into a ln ~·<t ~C' in conn("'rion .-ith i 1H' n1attr-r. lta 1 br~JUg"~it. tho m~ttce u~) ,, proh~1hly 1Iini-t('l' or the dcpart-

l1ligh~- lH' able to do so:ncthing on );lt'. G- hehn1f. Y>r..-ith rc,..::e1rd to ~Pnera1 rni-~ling lHaH<'r;-;, lw l1ad no gTicv,lnL"S to

{01''·' n:cl. ITc IYHS YPr.\T pleased to ~ro f_tl•it'' <1 ~l:IIllh('l' of orfic ''1 had i''

a.'l 1 that they a gt_ lPJ:a1

:l:lC'"-t C'

~· l:~_n ~~ 1::~1Itri·,:t~ 11i1!~t~ ~~non~ St'ill it as aL nrd for p<'Oplo to say H1at the rnining i1Hiu \Vas dulL EYerybody \Yho i ravcl!rd Qn<'t·n,bncl kn<'W l" ,.r, 'tl:--,,Y0ll tha-t nlinin: ... ; as not Jnl1. ClJ''!ders To\Yf'l'S -,yas dulL Gytnpie ''- :.1s du11, and Croy­dnp_ \Yil dnll.

:Jr. ::,:t~LL\X: Chn,rtc~·s To\n·,'R is looking up.

:\1•·. MCRPIIY: Heccnt <lcvc!or •ncnt' nt Ch::t.rtcrs. To\Ycrs 1~ on1cl sand tbnt place along· <.Lp;nin, and po,.,ih1y G~·n1pi~ and Croydon rni~ht also look up. Tl1crn was notl1ing to c,H~1plain aLout in connection \\-ith the n:ineral out:n1t.. The nluo was 111llCh larg·er than it wa.s in the prevjous ~'car, an(t a~i the hon. member for Burke had stated, a large arnount of n1oD":V IY~,; hcing sp0nt in his electorate in development work. Tlwro ·wa"' not the slight.eft doubt, so fal~ as :\orth Queensland ·was concerned, that 1nining was

Mr, Mvr]Jhy.J

1890 Supply. [ASSEMBLY.] Supply.

in a flourishing condition. He \Yould like ihe l\lincs J)r~Jarb1lent to get 1nore nwncy, but thev had to blame the Treasurer for that. \Vhcn tho Labour party were sitting behind the GoYcrnmcnt thev WL'llt along to tho then l:'romier, on the on! of bs trip to Europe, and demanded £50,0CO for tho Mines Department, and they got it. Thcv were not sitting behind the GovernmcJ1t now, and they had to be thankful for the amount of money that y as placlll on the Estimates to assist mining. The .1:18,000 on the Estimates meant th:1t those nconle SpOOU!a.ting in mining WO" !cJ ha V·O tfl tlllt

up £1 for £1 in connection with d oE'p sink­ing. The Queensland s0·stem >vas far ahead of any othor systen1 in Australia in that respect. If people on a. g·oldfield were pre­pared to find £1 for £1 it was a guarantee that the 1noncy was being judiciously :;;pent. They cxpectod that over~· -~1 they put into a n1inc would bring thmn a re1narkably good interest. Of course it did not always do that, but when people entered into 'a milling spe,..ulation, as in any other speculaw tion, they hoped to do well out of it.

Mr. \VELSBY: To make a rise.

Mr. MURPHY: That was the object. Mr. \YELSllY: I can g·iye you so~ 10 pare

scrip.

::\Ir. MURPHY was satisfied; he had more spnre t: :rip than the bon n1en1her >You!d care to put in his safe. He hoped tho ::\1inis.or would inouirc into the GanlCv mattBr as 1\Ir. Ganiev "as cmitlecl to th'e , _'.nle arnount from t'he =".rills's Dav Da\vn Dnit0cl as other ncoplc in th._, n0~ighhour~ hood rcc'ivod. lie felt snrc ihc ::Vlinister \Yould do something for :\h. Ganley in that respect.

_ :.\lr. O'SULLIVA::'\: The matter brought before tho Comn1ittee ln~ the hon. rr1en1ber for Croydon prored conclusively that the Labour party wero ri;;-ht wh€n they endea­\ oured to protect the little n1an on Charters Towers against the big sharks at tho time the ~\lining on Pri\ate Land Bill 'vas gains throngh thr>; Hl<t~D. \Yith r-.gard to the Charters Towers School of :\lines, he thought. rt would be a Yen good thing if the ::Hines Dcpartn1Emt topied~ 1 he ~yde1n of the Depaebncnt of ..:\griculture, and ga-.;c then1 a bit of the historv of the men turned out at that :.r;hool, ~ "0 that n1cn1b- l'S 1night k11o-.v h

1ow the sbtclents p~~ogr·t'c,sed in life, "\vhether

b1e Stat-t' was gcttmg Yalue for the n10.10y exp-ended, and wh,-,thcr the~,~ "~rcrc educating­geologists or af:",ayers fo_r 11o·ghbouring Statos and other countries. On tho Address in Reply ho had a lot to say against the curtail­ment of the vote for the Mines Department during· the past few ~ '':)rs, and la·.t yc·ar as well as this year he protested very Ehonglv against the curtailment of the grants. This :year there was an ·ext.ra amount of £1,900 on t.he Estimates for deep sinking, and he hoped that it v auld b0 spent, and that thf' department would not impose s:1ch stringE>nt conditions as regarded mom·y as "· ould make it impo.,cible for many men to tak<' advan­tage of the proposPd advano€s. 'While he would uphold the department in insistiug that the money advanced was properly PX­

pended, as he did not believe in allowing public money to be mic•spent, he certainly thought that every facilit:v should be off<>red those w~o dDsired to test ground by de<>p sinking. He should also like to Sl'e the dc-

pvh. M·urp/;y.

partment as~i:;':. prospectors una ':3tl'Lbgl1ig"

miners, not only with rnoney, Lut v, lth ::3:!1011-

tific ach·ice as to the g-eological nature of count,·y, and the likelihood of iL containing red.•. so rhat the persons interested nig-ht. be pl'L'''enh~d from c,1_>_!'lding hn1e and ll . .:.OllC'Y L'"c:cs-Jy. He had g-reat confidence in th€ departmental officers in this connection; but it scpmed to him that the reports of the geologists which v'ere presented to the House contained but a scant amount of real goo­logical matter. It se3med as if the dcpart-1TIP1lt d;d not \Yish the geologists to pronounce too strong an opinion on tho matt;ers dealt. with in their reports. He thought that was a mistake, ancl tlnt those officers should give the whole of their kno,dedgo of a particular locality or loc~lities, as that would bo a guide- to prospPotors, and might sa..-0 expense to persons proposing to engage in deep sink­ing. Anotlv r 1nattcr to which he should likL~ to scP thr- dcpartn1ent p:i..-e some atten­tion ,~,as that nf pro'.'ir1ing 1nean~ of trans­!10rh_tion for their insp"ctors and geologists. His clPctorat.e :.,ornpri".cd a vr-ry large 1nin;ng area, takin~ in th0 '\Vhole of +he r0untr~v immBdiatelv round Chartrr, Towers: and whrn a m'an had to spend money in pro­v-iding or hirinu- th0 m>Pans of cnnY·E-~ancP f0r an infD0, tm· or g't'olo[!'is1 i·o Yislt and ;nsn0ct h;·--;; rn.ine on sam' d1 t-nJt fi0ld. it. C'o:;:-!- hin1 a v;nsid0rahlf' :;ann. Tl18t ron1d l " aYoid0rl if tho d •p·1rt1T10nt nroYid0cl a 1no+nr-:,- r n • SO'llC oth0v fon'l of tnnnportation f0r th0lr offtt •r"'. Son10tin1C's it hannC'Pf'ii now tl•1+ ·whc•n ·an in::.:p0r-:or had to mah~ a long jon ·ncy for insr-"~ction purpof:cs he did not l'C''Ph h · c1c-::st.innti('n till the S::,turdav eYen-

hi~ \ ork of insncrtion '"'as ~lone in ried 111a11n·_T in or<lei· to catch tho return

t 8al h. That ''" .~ not = .:.1 the best interest of tl1c inc1t1-~r:;-. If the dep:.:.rtn1ent proYided S"!.l\ :1 oHi.ccrs v·i1 h tl1e m.Pnns of tran.;:nortatinn th~',' '·' Cl1lld hnY0 In ore tim0 to dP-Yotr 1·o thf"

· of insncr~lnn. anrl thP supervision of !(_~~ Fotdd he' n1orC' rt>gul?r ar:r1 0fficien'

lhan it ''"''s at the pr0sent time. That had been hi, ,-xpcrience, and also the expc1·ienc2 of those whom ho met in his c'c,:toratc. He hoped that the politi< a! hoar! of the dc-rmrtincnt would 11ot allo\v any curtailment of this vote. He himoolf had gone to the drpartment and asked for a certain amount of assistance under the prospecting vote, and he was told that there was no money a.-ail­able. \Yhen the )cuditor-Gcnoral'3 report c.1me to hand aft:erv. ards, he found tbut eo 1nuch n1oney \'1 as not expended.

The SECRE'rARY FOR ]\fiNES: It has not been in my time.

::\Ir. O'SuLLIVAN: ThP Auditor-General's report showed-

" Loans in aid of deep· sinking in 1nines, £3,G37 4s. 4d."

The SECRETARY FOR i',;DiES: It was all &Tanted, but it was not drawn, because the 1non~.o::· h,tc1 not been expended; it ran into the next year.

::\Ir. O'SrLLIVAN: But the J\Iinister did not rDvotc that? In the !a."t three y<'ars, as ho had nointed out in the debate on th€ Addrec.s in R-eiJly each year, thousands of pounds had laps"d, which had no.-er been re,'oted.

The SECRETARY FOR MINES: I have got that fixed up.

:\h. O'SULLIVc\N was pleas€d to ho::tr that the Minister had fixed it up. Even if £3,000

SuppTy. [t) OCTOBER.] Supp1,y. 1391

or £4.000 more had to be voted it would only bring it up to th~ amount which hac! lap:ocd in tho past. He trusted the> :\linister would US(' his· influence to lrwc these lapsed votes brought up again. If n1ining had be2n as­~!sted as this IIouf";J \Yishf'd to assist it three or fonr years ago. m1d this n1oney spent in developing and h -;ting ground, the industry would have been in a more flouri~hing state. }:_;;; th0 hon. m-E'nlhC'r for Crovdon said. vou could not get a bette, syc:tem ·than a subsidy of £1 for £1. It mid1t han hc·en the means of developing little ·shows t!·:1t v onld have turned out to be bi__ rn-ining propositions, and it would have b 0n m011• {v well spent. 'There >rerc £165 ednm.•es last V< ar und?r the Ar!vanC0S to :\fining .-\ct. rndcr the Ad an adYallC'f' \Va.s madP nf 50 p0r r0nt. of th0 r1.pital cost of in~tnllinrr <1ny plant. Tt "'.Y ~ ~·, yery g-oorl Act. for thnc.C' personR who harl rnrmcv to pl-·nk do,Yn, bnt it. waR not so good 'for those who had not got money, as th0y ·could not comply with the conditions. He thought the: Minister shotc1cl bring in an mnonc1ment Rill, 1nodifying thE:' conditions, ro that th3 monf'V of the State would be better invest eel -Casb hac! he 2n brought under his notic·e whc;·p ncr .on,; had availed !hemsch·cs of th~ advPnt-:g--, of thi' Act who should not haYe been allowed to do so.

The bell indicatcr! that th<:' hon. mcmbPr's tin1""-' had expired.

~fr. 0'8l;LLTVAN: The GoYernntC'nt on1,v held a n1ortgagc oYer tlF~ plant as t' 1C'1uity for the loan, and hrrd no furth0r rceocnoo

the horroY1'Cl'~. Tha+ 1, n.d to flliC'"'tinn~ methods OP. th2 part of 1ncn vd1o had

n.oncv. Th0 small men Y ho wonted a £5C1 or £i,OOO plant to develop their proncrty. could not a;-aii them·.r·lw· of the conrlitions of the Act, although i-h0:-- uight hnve otlwr security which they could plerl[ e to the dcpa t. mont together ;-;·ith the p!anL If we made it ·-o thot the Government could take collateral s~curity, as \vcll as a n1ort;;~,age over the plant, we should thercb: allo•: the small man to take advantag·e of the Ad. He had sticl before that \vhen 'JDv assistanc0 1,', as \Ya.nted the adYicc of tho C:~ycrnn1ent Geolo· gist should be obtained. I-Ic had pnt in an application on bdmH of one of hi-, constitu­ents. subjec' to the insprc':ion of tho Govern· rncnt GeoloJ?;ist, and he g·ot a reply so1no ft:'W n1onths after--c-ards tha·~ the? owner of the lease or claim hac! let the cbim on tribute, and one of iho conditions of the tribute party was to sink it a further 100 fc<·t, therefore i he department did not s~c their way clear to grant any assistance. That was not what he wanted. ·when the department saw that the tribute party had taken the ground over to test it, they should have allowed the depart­mental officer to advise, and that ''ould have been of assistanoo to the Libute party in deciding whether the conr!itions of the surrounrling country was favourable. Those ''ere not acrimonious criticisms; he laid them before the Minister, whom he knew would be sympathetic.

Mr. WINSTANLEY (Cliartrrs Tou·ers) wished to make a few brief o.bservations in connection with mining matters generally. lie was sure it was a matter for regret not -only to those who repr.esented mining consti­tuencies, and those who lived there, but to people outside, that the. !ndustry was not in such a properous co,ndttwn at the present

tin1e a;; it had been. So fal" as the nHiung industrJ g-enerally \YJ.s concerned,

[9 p.1n.] it wa:~ tnaking ::orne pror;n ;.;. The Yaluc o.f last year's n1ineral

production \Vas £3.710.222, au increase, when compared with that of the forme1· year., of £53,658. \Vhi:c there v:as an in en_ :.t::-·~ in 1nineral g-enerally, there was a. decrease in the output of gold. When they considered that the increase of go.ld the ,,·oriel over was in­creasing by leaps ancl bounds, it \Yas a n1aHcr for regret 'that Quen1sland. vYas ~ot. f::haring in the increasr?. Jie- saw l'f.:Dcntly that ::\Ir. \Yinston Chmrhill stater! that the iLcrease in the price of comn1odities 1.v,:;.,s due to a very large c 'tent to the exception-al in­crease in th0 output of go:d the world over. '_i'hat \Vas quite true, as when gold was scarce they oulcl buy mo,re v. ith it, but when gold b:'1'fLTI1e cheap it took a lot 1nore to Luy the same thi1~'4'S. rrhen those \~·ho produced the v N1lr h did not get their fair share of the vvealth they produced, bee au _;n -..., hik• prices l1ad a tendency to rise, ~/TaQ.'es stayed at a fixcerl rat<'. Thev !mel rcc('ntlv had evidence that the goldfielris of Queensland ''ere by no tneans worked out. Fro.m pa t exp.orienco they knew that there was no industry which sprang into a pron1ising and flourishing condition so quickly as the gold inrlustry. In the case of 1nines on Chane_·;::;. To1.vers he hac! known scrip to l:.c (!1'0t< .1 at a few pC'nr ,:~-',-1:-, 6cl. or 1-.;.-and thFre \Vould be an incrcr_;_se in a ·fc\v \Ye::ks y::l!ich v onld run into ponndc, simp'y lwulL ~ of the clevelop­n1ents which took p1ac · quic }, ;y and unex~ pecteclly, and the ·whole neigbLonrhood a.t cncG b01F-6.t.ed by the discoYPry 1-r:nde. Recently the deYclO}Jments at Chart·-rs To.,,;vprs had gone to proye tha.t there :.s ~ ti] .,-o' 1 unclc'l'rlhtth the ~Tonnd thPre, and thc::c fields vverc bv no n10an- \{ork!':-1 out. On~ reason for th,; slump that had takrn plan in the golchniuing indu- try wa··· -when copper pro~ ductio.n ca1ne into prorr1inencl' a. r reat, deal of moneY v-:ts taken fron1 ,.. oldfiC'lcls and inves+ ·,d · jn copJYT. At- that copp~r \YLS

·:.'orth £112 per t.m, and it dropp d to £:i7 r-'r ton, and nO\\' it ,. as Li(rwn to sorr1C't11in(J' like £50. ;;8 that the inYc·.·tor~ found out iha~ tlH'V :1ad gnin~d little, if anything, by n1aking th.B changr fron1 •·ra,lrl to copper. J f it ha.d rc­lnainPd in the vicinitv of £80. the n1ineral production of Queensiand ''·ould have been much better at the pr.escnt limP. Tlw e wer'c things that had to be C·~ntended with. The country that harl the ~reat• Yarict;-' of pro-ducts was in a better -than t::F; country ';vhich only proJur,~d one thin<r. For that re-ason the mining industry ·\as ,entitled to. more consideration than it had received in recent years. be-cans~ the-y h:new that when other thing·s ,rc~re not l>rin('jng bi~· prices and things were not too prospProus, that vvas the time when tho mining industry came to the help of the State, and there v·~s no doubt that it would do the same thing a· ccin. Un­fortnnatelv. thPre \'\ere not the ~a me number of men e1;gag£'d in the n1ining indu~try that there 'Vere some years t<go. In 1006 there were 16,273 men engaged in the industry, and in 1910 the numhcr was 12.342. or something like 4.000 less. It \YaS a matter fo.r regret to find, however, that although there were less men engaged in the industry the number of accidents was about the same. The in­spectors' reports shower! that there were 131 accidents in 1906, a.nr! 130, or only one less, in 1911, when 4.000 less men were en­gager! in the industry. That could be accounted for by the deepN mines, more extended developments, because mining was

!Jfr. Winstanley.]

1392 Supply. [ASSEMBLY.] Supply.

becoming more difficult and complicalcd, and tha.t show.ed that ~cicucc and additional care were ll{~cessary. It was a 1natter for regret that there were so many acciclento. lie hoped that the Rill •.c·hich was passed lw. ion would l:::e th~ rrH J.ns of pr _ venti:1g ) ruan:v fatalitic•. and minor accidents "·hich took place from timo to lime. He was ghd to hear the JUi~1ist{)r infonn his co 1 lea·~-ue tlF\t the topog_._ aphira.l ~ -1r~.·e~' of Chm 1 ers Towels wa.::J no.t going t:} b ~ abandoned alto("Y't ther. l-Ie ~,"a~ up there \Yhen the offirt ~·s of tlH• dPpartnleu:- v .. '_'re carrying· o: the work. and one of these ofli( C'T,; found that he could better hr bim,•-•lf o.nt•.:c10 and so left Uovt rnn:Jent depart-ment. \Yhet-hcT he rP-di~e his exp- -ctr ... tions rp1nain0c1 to be ~ "CT!. It. seeme<l. to be a p::_culiar thin,~ that in a place like Chartl'i -J To'.'i'ers. du1J anLl qnirt as it v·as. co~11pm·ati\·01 y ~pPakiiJ.[;", a nlining­surveyor v.·ou:d lcav a good biltet in a vernmcnt. deparl-n1ent <.~ncl ta:;;:e the ri---k undPrtaking priYa' ': Y'- ork.

Tho 8ELRJ<.TARY FOH ~lr~:r · : lie took ov?r an e •l blish d business.

).fr. "\YINSTAI\LE1.-.-: ITe to0k ov0r ~\Ir. \Yhite's bu:·inc'~s. hut ~\ l r. \YhitP clil1 noi depend wholly on hi·-- surYeying· \York, as he \'as rnanngPr of the Day D <-"'In P.C. as ·welL It. was f;urprisiug to hint th~.t the Lu·-illP<iS of a mining surveyor \vould o-ITc•r an intlucem;:•nt to any n_m.n to lee:~"~.__. the Gov- enn1cnt depart­nlcnt. l-Io onclerintz \Vhcthcr he Vi7::;c;

he "ao entitle~] to for the it. hal'cl]v see1ncd lik --1v lrave ·,·.·hat -·as a Cc f-

what was doubtful. He ':as r lad ~llini.:;trr sav that the work of f, ·ld, "·hie!} was )pft off. ,, onlrl bv ')liJe ot!H'r officlT, , It ,,-as :v h.-;d cornp1cte geolo;,ic1.l

snrn v th '.ir goldfif_·1_d~. (II( ar, 1~.:-ar !) J?lHili.~~~ ~!, • 'car thc_v J~.Hl Ho.val CcE1ml:-:_ swn to inquire the COIL~ition of the 111'211 e.ng-w~cd in th:' n1iuiiJ;; indll~tr:v·.

hrin·~ about a l:,__,ttPr :,t·nb_' of affairs in the past. That C'O'nr.nis;::ion ovel' tlF'" Stat ' and col!cetcd a­

.~;r£'at amom1t of inforn:a.tion---a ;Teat d· :more th '11 he ha(l bPcn a.1•1r i-0: rawl, at any' rato, olt-hon· l1 he lr:d r, ac1 sen1c o"" it.

~,Jr. COLLIXS: They did no1 stGtl in m,­di tric:.

~\~r. '\\~1:'\()T~-\.l\LE~-: The com1nission co~1ld not vi ,-it e,-c_·y plnrr. 'rhr_ had a pretty rough ti mr) but t.lw-: furnished tho Govern;.Jc y;i, \ <-1 grc- t deLl of Yaluable jnforn1ativn, and the quc',tion no··-\- arose in nlining cc ·1stihtencie:3 \Yhat the Govern-ment 1,:;\·crc goin~. to do LJnf"Jrtunately, H1eir expcric!lc(~ of in the past had be\Jn tha~ although thr~v coilrrted a lot of infnnnation and prcsc1h ·-1 their reports, that \'as practiClllv the end of it. In that

D it \-Y<.~s nlOJH:~.· ihro-,>,n fl.\Yay, and he thct wo:1ld not happen so far as the

Phthi is Comn1is~:~ion \-Vas concerned. were' some thinhj that \Yero clearlv

stated in t.hc report, a'r:d he hoped the <1o, part.nwnt \Ymllr1 see that i-hc rc:con1nlC'Ilda­tion~ of the cornm1ss~on w0re car1"ied out, and that tile condition:, nnclcr which men -,·or ked would be irnpro\~ed. Tho principal Inatter affecting Chart~rs To.•.'-~-0rs to v-hich the cornmission drew attention was the need of a proper s0 stem of ventilation. At pre, sent there wa3 nothing that conld by an\ stre';ch of i1nagination, he cu11Pd 'a S·:stc~1 of vcnti,_a.tion. JndiYidnal mining · < nn1-panir- w,~re opposed, for sornc mysterious

[Jir. Winstanley.

rea3on, to a. co1nbinat.ion f,) · tho purpose· of providing vc:1tila~ion. The few rnines that had a mpply of frc,,h nir took all sorts of precautions to keep it, and at the so,me tin1o tried to pn<;:s on th.'ir lHtrl air to other n1incs. If tl'"' ~ lnineo\Yners could not agree an1orc; t.hernselvc-:; upon a systen1 of group­ing the lnines, the Government s.hould step in a.nd give their insp( tors po\ver to deal 'Yith the n1atter. ThC'ro \Yas vcr)7 little doubt fha; an-.T u1one': th:1.t 1nir,ht bo spent in inlprcn-inp.; v the y~ '-It iL tion of the Inines would be money ,wl! spent. Accordin: to the oYiclcncf' of s..___'te c;f the \Vitncsscs, 1nen

to \Yod;;:: h :-t.lf f1e ti n1e thcv o- ,Tin 1 1 the bacl conc1~-

hoti1 for the mee1 them, -\vho c1nplovcd thcn1.

\s t.ht• n1inc.:: got dC'e:-·~r prOblCtn bcc:ttno rncre cornplcx; but. a. lloard \-Yonlcl have to he appointed oa the :amc principle as a l)rainrrge Roard, or tho Government \Yould havC' to .:,~ep in and furni:-.h their i.tl­f'JC'ctors vith the necPssarv a.uthorit--. I--!0-h,ad a .,kct~l Ronlc qt~~=--- tioLS with rCferoncc to tlw iD :~tor .. '. < . u1ine~. hut. uufortun­nTely, t~c infor~1Httion 1v~s nc:t" :· ct ~Yail­able. }J J _, CXi)CJ'lC'ill C l\'<1S t.hat 1t WP J at\Yays better to get gi·icvanccs rcdn"~ :c>d by tllc d<'tHtrtlncnt th .Y~l to parade thctn on the floor of the Chmnbf'r. \Yh-e1eYer he had

the ~In•I-;ter h. had ah-ra~;; anu. !1 ad p)Ym1 the

t<J hin1 f_,il' ;,nc1 j;l~t Lu', the L; hi~ not f'otnc to \\'Onlcl

with the IYt,'"'tt r in I-Ion~c.

Th) heH i!ltli( ntcd that the hon. nicLbcr's linv had expired.

:'llr. \VIK~~TANLEY that be inch::ted to of a ,ist '111· iL~,nc_tors had n giYPn a. fair cleaJ. IIe v:ould It ay· t n1attcr: in the n1eanti1ne h0 -\-:ould '<tv a f(•w "onl about tJw School of }lint~. ~The institution '";a nndonhtedl:,7 c~nins~; goocl worlc. and lt woulcl a e·r·t.:)cl id ·a if thev a.d~)ntcd the

of the han. 111 'n~1:cr fOr l(Pn­i o as-c·crtain w~1at be~

pas;"e:-l throucd1 the qnite ~ n-·rnhcr of

Tho S~TP:ST,\R¥ Ii'OTI 111XES: T,··o of Ur( •n rrc ernn1ovec1 the de~JQ.i.'hucnt-?,lr~ La.un ancl ?\.fr. Fl Youni.

)Tl·. \YIKSTA:-~LEY: I-Io did not think that eYcryonc who p:~ssed through th0 insti­tution was .!:'~·oin ... to .ret a· diplon1a.. any mo,re than CYCt'' stnrJc,nt who ,,·ent to thG 'Cni­v:rRit·v was likC'1v to :rradnate. Still. even if a ~-nan novc'J' ~got ~boYo pick and ~ho~:el yo;·ork, thn kno-v.Jedg-o he gained in the School of Mines v onld be useful to hiw. There ""'vero sam{' ~tudents vd1o only took 1111 one or t ;"o subjects, but onn. n1an v;,·as now t'L1ployed' by tho \Yatc1· nnil SewPrago Board in Bris~ bano ns a surveyor. 1-Ic~ knew of quito a nunJl--.~r Yrho "-C'rtJ in fairly gJorl billets, "·hieh they ncYcr would haye got if t.hcy had not pa,,ed through the Snlwo1 of :\Jines. rrhe Undf··· Secretary, in referring to the schrol, faid-

" The school has: no·t, cmnplctecl ih-: tenth year of its exist<-:mce, and the director, in briefly n·dewing the progre.~·s and ch,)nges during the decade, trat the grnd1i. 1 exten­f'ion of the variou· subjects and ( mr -es. The ; c::;oeiat>:> t'our-• ,,, he think:;:, h:J.YC" no·,.· reachccl a point ~1eyond v.~hich it is not nd\·i:--nblc to proceed; but be is desirous to establish fellow-

Suppl,y. [ G OcToBER.] Suppl,y. 1393

f>hip courses in n1ining and n1etallurgy, in­tHldc:.d for thm·c Y·.rho, n:Jt being iu out~ide emplc.Jynlrnt. can d.evot(' th • wholP of thc>ir ti1ne to their studi8r. ~'Ir. Poole hope--., wi.th the n1euns at hL disposal, to be able to inaugurate the.se cour:::(>:;- during the present year, although tlL· want of experimental engi­neering and ore-drp,,-. ing laboratoriss, su often a eked for, 1vill re -trict the full realisation of the scheme."

The laboratories had bec1 asked for over and over again. He belieYecl the cost would be between £4,000 and £5,000-not a V8i'J

bio- an1ount~and, \Yhile it 1nifrht not, have b~-;,n definitely promised, it ha.rl been tacitly promise cl by both the Secretary for :\Iuvs and the Fremin· when they visited the School of :\[in<'S. Doth of those hon. g.cntlemen smd that thev did not see that there would be any difficult~ about f~·etting· th, nwney; but he was soirv to see that no proyision "\Ya.s ma.de for it oD this vear'R Estimat('S. Ho.v,·c' -'r. the rlenartment' had methods of fincling monev if it was a.nxious to find it, a.ncl it v•.ras ;;ot too ] a,te .for tlF· ~Ilnistr'r to place the monev on th0 Supplementary Es'ima~cs. J n connrc'tion with the prospecting Yote. the lVTiPistcl~ ass111~e-d the bon. n: :n1he-r for J(en­nrdv that thC' Yote lapsed last }-c:w !· a.d bee;1 put on the pre .. cnt Estimates.

The bell indicated that thG hon. member's time had c Kpired.

Mr. \'iT'i:STA:'\LF:Y: He said they \\'ere incluclt•rl in th0 a 1r~onnt of £10.000 put on th0 Estirnnt0·-; this :;·car. In connection wii·h this Yotc, jt ~, cnlf'd to hirn io be a n1istnko to vrant £1.000 or £2.000 to a. company that nerhans ,., not. nblc to sprnd n1oro than h"lf: and j,' . cmld be bdt0r to diYidc the aTTioun1~ rmon,' ",t a ~Yr<:-rrt"r nun1bF~r- \Yhen the moneY '··"e. ,·otc-c1. he thought tho best thir .. ,,. \\'8,: for it to be spent.

Mr. :\IrRPHY: If ir could bt jnclicioush­spent.

Mr. 1\'I:'<;ST \J\iLEY: Yc'. And if it could not be iuciiciousi ~- Sl•cnt bv one cora­pan~· it 'hmlld be by another. ire thought the proopcding vote "·as far jooc; small. On ChartcTS To\YPrS capital could r>0 found to put clown deep mines and extensive driyes; but the outficlc sho'.' s \Y'We the ehmvs that were "·orth looking :tfter. Th~rc \Verc shows opened up yea1.:; ago that paid hand­somclv dm1·n to i·hc water-level, when they had to be left for want of the necessary E'xpen­diturc. A number of them had been taken up again, and were looking exceedingly well, and if this vote y, as divided amongst a. greater mu,ber of people, there might be three o-r four tin1cs tho nnn1ber of those shows \\·orked on the oucskirts of Charters Towe; \Yith regard to the Mining M:t­chinerv /\.clvam cs Act, he thought that if there \vas less red tape, less difficulty m exccutino; a mortga[;G, and less delay, it would sc:YP a. much more useful purpose.

The bell indicated that the hon. member's time had expired.

Mr. RYLAl'\D (Gympie) regretted to notice that there vas a reduction in the amount for geological survey.

The SECRETARY FOR MIKES : I explained that thoso salaries are now charged to the chief office.

Mr. RYLAJ'\D: He was not in the Cham­ber at the time. He approved of the geolo· gical survey, because it kept people from spending money in places where the expen· diture would be practically useless, and let people know where the expenditure of money

1911-4 R

would be useful. 'l'h0 hon. member for }~arke suid tl1 geologists \\ 0rc un~lerpai?, .:nd he agree-! that they should be pa.;d such ,,,1Jaries ::~ \\'onld prc'·ent thPln fro1n g-oing to othur countries. \Vith regard to the votP of £10,000, the condttJons were cttch that it wa" pmctic lly impossible for In any to a--· Jistance. The monBy lapsed and had be re-voted.

The SECRE1'ARY FOR MIXES: All those taking it up wrll get the money promised to them. EYcry proLniso 'vill be honoured.

:lir. RYLA?\ID: Last year there was practically oe1ly :G2,048 spent from the vote.

The SI,CRE'!'A~.Y FOil MIKES: Thev do not spend tho money. They will get it if they ,-;ill · ]Wncl it.

~Ir. RYLAND: \Yith rcr,ard to the com­Jni~8ion appointed to in,:estigate n'lincrs' dis('Uf-PS, and tho -voln1ninous infora1at.ion tl!c.v h:=!d ('Dllectcd, ht_' rrlu,"L sa:;T that, s-o far as he had fonncl time to read their report, it had he< n verv instr.wtive. The big qnes­tion y;,Ta to see LwhaJ conclusions they \Vould co>m to from the evidence adduced and their recOJnlllcndations in regard to miners' ph~ hi ,,i:;;. They had no~ con1e to any definite d0ci,ion, but thev !HtH' a kind of qualified rccc._n11nwncbt.ion. ~ The-,:~ pointed out that

there v, ere ~stages of the di,,~ease [9.30 p.m.] hc!1 the men, if the>· could get

a chan~;·J o£ oc;,__u:;_)at.ion and get a1:·ay fro:n the dust surroundin.v,s of the rn"l.ncs, \\·ould } .Jcon1c thcm::.:.::-'lvc,J again. The>n there w~. rc sorno n1cn suffering frotn tlw disclhC to .euch an extent that, even if the:; could !': t a\Va,l·. tho~· would ncn'r be sufiicicntly IYC'll to carry on the \Vorlc They 11 ere too far gone, and the commission stated ti1at according to the evidence taken and report:; from oth. r parts of Australia and other paris of tho world, it was neces4

sa<·v that those men should be taken from theL 111ines. lf thcv y ere allo~,,·cd to rernain in the 1nines thorO was a tondcrlcy to con14

municatc tho di. Lase to other miners. That \Yas the Ino::t serious part in connection with 1-1i:ncrs' phthisis. 1-io hoped son1e action v oulcl be taken on the report of the com­n1ission. 'l1ho commi:, sion, in their annual rcpm·t, had gin'n oxtracto from reports of scientists and financial expertf·, and actuarial statonlPnts sho\ving ,,~hat ,,~as required. 1\.ir. S. H. Knibbs, in his pamphlet on "Social Insurance," said-

" It is recognised that, in order to adv,__tnce the prosperity of a nation as a \Vhole, and to l'on:::erve it , Yital force~· 1 it i~~ better that a mj fortune falling on an individual hould be di .tributed and brne lightly by the whole c.,mmunity, rath?r thnn that the individual should be crushC'd by the weight of his own rnisfortune."

It would be better for the people generally that the community should be able to make provision for those people who were suffering from disease. The commission aL;o showed what had been cone in other countries of the v;or:d-in Gcrn1any, ;\us tria, LuxU:',lborg, Sweden, France, and Belgium, where the workmen th0msclvcs had contributed a sum and the employees a sum and the State also gaye a contribution. They also said-

" The Au~trian law on insurance against ac('ident-; requires workinen to pay one-tenth and employers nine-tenths; while GC'rmany,. Hungary, Luxe1nburg, Korway, Italy, Finland, and Holland require the whole amount of the contributions to be paid by the employers."

That was, that the industry had to pay on

Mr. Ryland.]

139± Supply. LASSEl\IBLY.] Suppl,y.

the san1e princ!plP as the -\'i,-orkcr~' Cornponsa­tion Act. .Any fund vdv,rc the crnployers and the 'ivorkers t.hcrnselves had to ,ontributc wa:, not on a proper and sound It 1t\ as n_ot built up on the principle equity and justice. A suggc.:ition had been rnaue that the Jiabi!it,, would be met out of invalid pensions. That conic! only apply to a limited extent. Tho Bendigo rdiners' Association passod a rE-)solution in connt-~ct.ion ,,-ith this matter some tirne ago. It \vas this-

"That \Ve a an organi _.·1ti.}n are in fa your of an Act of P ~ rlian1 nt prohibiting n1e11. r utfer­ing frmn n1iners' phthis; frorn -;;:-;orldng undc>r­ground, in order to pren'1nt the t.:;~:r."::ld of the disea:· e, under conditir·n<:; £-:;1:'-Cif.e::1 · erc-:undlr~

"That the whole al:c~:tk:l t·; d..::nlt ~· ith by the Goven-lnl l 'le { lnditiow·~ being-(1) By a :-.:<1natoriun1 for treating minen> suhcring frmn pulmonary tub·, rcnlo:;is : ( :2) That proYi' ion be m~·.dp by GovennnPnt to pro\ .de adu1uatcly miners and their f ''llilie· ; ( 3 l That as an organisation \'ve :,rc our quoL\, to the quarter P('' 111enlber, the to 1 •ntribute a :-1in1i1ar ;·un1, and Government to this sun1 to the extent of £1 enry £1."

p,, did not think that would vvoll, as ls. a quarter froJn the quarter from tho, employer, and 2s. 6d. a quarter from j,he State >vould not be suffi­cient to sec them out of tlw difficulty. Then the experience of South _\_frica was ~;ivcn, wher0 thev brouc'ht in a Bill that the mines should pay all the cost. 'That "'"'' not fav­ourably received by tho IllinPO'iY:ners, and then there was another Bill brougll' in for y0arly contributions frmn the enlplo~-G'~-3 and nline-0\-Vners. That did not n1eot \Yith approval .either, B,nd then the GoYc-·nn1cnt ca1-'1: al·1n.g and mid the only poe ible 'yay out of the difficuult)' wa" for the Stabe to pay it. 'i'ho commission stated-

" The Cornn1onwealth Olrl ' and InYalid Pens.ions Act Uoes not nH·et spc-:ial l'O!l--dhions now dt:alt with, n::> it requir(- ,, in the casf-· of inY:lids, total incapacit:ttion f.r<JJTI work before a pen· ion is granted. It is not, there­fort-, applica; ~e in the present \:ti' of indus­trial i1:1validity a ~surance. ''

That did not moot the case either, bee -1uso. although when of an advanced age they could get thr- pension. thcr0 v.~cro n. largo nun1bor of people who wore not old enou')'h for thn pension. Then reference \-Vas made in the report to the fa~t that several witne-'ses PX­

precsed tho opinion that tho men should be settled on the land-given an opportunity to take up land and work it themselves. He thought that could be done. Althoug'h all the men were not qualified to become agricul­turists, still something could bo dono under a properly State-organised land settlement scheme. Those persons suffering from miners' phthisis would be bettor out in the freoh air, where they would como most in contact with the simple life, the most natmallife to lead. The report also stated-" CONCLUSIONS REGARDING EXCLl:'SION AND

CO:Yf_PENSATION 01!, ~1INERS. n We therefore conRider that the exclusion

fr01n underground work in 1nines of minerR 'SUffering from pulmonary or laryngeal tuber­-culosis is expedient, provided that~

" (a) Effective means ar _, taken ta deal with the predisposing cause; of tuber­culosis amongst 1niners, and with the sourr:e~ of infection by this disease amongst the general population;

[ivir. Ryland.

" ( lJ) 'l h.- practical di ":~t:ulties attaching to nlcclicll exan1~t o.tiou LlHl to the coll£:e'ion ar:l dLtribution of funds, lJl'-'Yiou :lly ref(-•rrcd to, ca·1 be over­com- in an er}uit~:.b1e an., reasonably €COllOllllC IllallllCl'.

That was the conclusion to which the com­n1ission 1 a me after taking a large an1ount of ''Yi:h•nC\'. and ·C n ide~·ing thn flllt'stion in all its bcarinc;; and it '·as for the Government now to a~t upon their recomn1e~ndations, and make proYision for the people \-vho •1ere suf~ fcrina: fron1 milH'r,·' phthisis. Tho Govern~ 1ncn( should. in the fir·~t place, arrm~ge that miners snffpring from the disease ::hould be :--:. ::op.lratt'·d from other \vorkers, and then 1nake pract'cal provision for the sufferers. This \Vas not a national qnPr-:tion, and no contri­lmti"n cJlOn!cl lw l'e(mir0cl from the miners in ordcT to nrovjde thf' nccessar'"~ funds; hnt f e cost cho~rlcl bo borne b"' the State as a whole>, or b)T th0 Commonwealth. It was not ahvaYs noe:sihl0 to sav \Vhcre a n1lner con­tr(lr ·-~d -the discaH'. I-Te hnd known n1incrs on Gvn1ni0 sro t0 \V.f -,t.Prn r'\nstrn lia and )\few South \Yalc-s., and come bac~;: infected with the cl'sra'C'. If thPv made the industry bear tiL cost of providi~1g ~or thosE'> !FClplo -,yho

nnfortunatr:- as be~ aD-iic+cd with phth~.-.-i~. t"lJC' \YouL-l be t:wt

before a nwn \T.'as e:. . .19loycd in a n1ine he \Yould to u~clcrQ'o a medical exmnina-1 ~on, and n only ~·ccrh·in persons y,"ould gr:t en"lp1oyn1Pnt. R::nl1v th2 :rnattcr was one. for {hG Cornmot~\Vf'alth GoYernn1ent to deal \Yith: hnt, the Cnn11nonwenlth taking nn the tb' Sht0 should do something tt) relit '8 tho;-~· 1.:ho were -uifering through the breadwinner of a farnily haYing con­tra.c, cd the c1iscaf'-:e. There \-vcrc n1any faru:lio·" "-', hi·_h were nracticallv on the Yerge of star;~ahon in conscquel1ce of the br·PUlhvinlH'r h:n-in:r been thro\\'D out of em-nlo"': nent i·bis Cll1f'-:C', and son1cthing Ou6-!lt. to L0 ; for the~r relief. \Vith JT ;>;ard to n1in:ing gencr.:Illy. bo \\'as no{ so dmYnheartccl 'Lout its condition or nrospcrity as :on1e p:'r-.m1s appeared to he. The value of la~,.~- Ycnr's vi,·ld of mineral productions \<a~ £53:658 rnhre th:111 that of thp pr0vious vc 1r. and : hourrl1 thf' incrC'ase 1:Vas small the figures wer0 on th" rjght side.

The bell indicated that the hon. member's tome had expired.

).Jr. RYLAC\D ((ont_inning): Low-grade orcs, which it would practically not pa:v to work some time a ·,;o, \vore nO\',- being dealt ,,-ith, and returning fair dividends. The lJ nder s~-.r'retlxv for }lines-, in his report, said- ~

"\.Yith the gradnaJ ""Xhnu ~·inn of its richer ore, GympiP. in rmnmon with other n1ining r-·ntre~:. is confrnnted with th(' quc.t]•,n of how to \\"ork profitr~h1y the- lrr-··,-'r-gradc matc:rial tha~. prt:' it~Plf. and the Yerv general iDtrodudiOll ...,, lor·.1.} Hdapt~ltinn Of thP 011€-nrn Rtope Ori11, and the in~ta1lation of con­r.::ontrating appliancc•c:: at ome of the batV,.rh--s, ;. J.ow that lhc need for thf' ret1uction of n1inlng CO"Gt" ~-end for the adoption of the bt- c:t lllilling practiee i.: rc>cognis('(l. ThP payn1ent by the 8<'lttis.h GympiP last yclr of £20,01)0 in clivi­d_ends fron1 stonP c0ntnining approximately :1 dwt. of fine gold and 1 dwt. of silver. is PvidenC'P of the succe~~ achieved in this direction." H<• thought it was in that direction that we must look for mPans to make our mining nav. W8 must. bring the brain to the aid of the hand, and adopt more efficient machinery. We had great mineral rPsources, and if

Supply. [6 OcToBER.] Supply. 1395

proper means were !aiken to develop it, the result would he the production of a large alllOUllt of 'vealth. rfher€ "\VaS a large area of land around Gympie vvhich contained ,reat possibilit.ics. Cows lor the production ot buttN could he raised on the surface, fruit and other crops raised, and at the same time they could work the mineral below the sur­face. However, as he saw his time had about expired, he would defer further ol··,er­vations ou the subject till another occasion.

:'.lr. COLLIKS: Earlier in the evening he .rderred to the amount of salarv na:d to the Government Geologist. He fo"urid that in South Auotralia t} .J Government Geologist was paid £800 a year, in -Victoria £700, in Kew ::iouth \\'ale:; £u50, and in \\'estern "lus­tralia £75.0; abo, that in ea2h of those States they had a ian·ly large geological otalf. The Uo1·ernment Geoiogtst in Queensland, ::'llr. Dunstan, recei v~oct £500 a, year, there \vere tl\ o assistant geologists at .:L~OO a year each, .and one at £350 per annum. In other words, '·' e had buL four geologists in the whole of (~uoen ,Janel. They all kn• w that theso men did good vorlc They 1_~ ore sent, say, by way of illustration. to mako a renort on the Etheridge. Anyon~ who knew tho Etheridge know that it was one-seventh the size of the State o£ Victoria. One geologist w .mld bo practically lost on the Ethcric!gc. It would take the whole of the lifetime c [ o.1e geolo­gist, or· the whole of the staff. to m;;,ke' a pro~or examination of the -whole o£ t:~e Etheridge.

~Ir. THEODORE: The Etbcridgc~ Y~":tlsh, and Tina roo di ~tricts.

:\Ir. COLLIJ'~S : Y co. The:-- had to pa:-· hurried visits to these places, and could only jtut ex~mirw where there had bc;~n a certain atnount of Y,ork done. \Yhat \Yas r0quirPd wac; a pro;_1cr exan1ination, -,,ith the Yicw of <kr:iding \Yhethcr the cot~ntry v~a, worth tc•-ting. There \,·as .:£2,000 on t1Jc 1n·o.·;J1)l'Cting vote, anJ ~hey could giYo an opinion ~\·hen• that vote conld !Je invc:s{ ;;d -~-,-ilh e;onH' bene­lit to the Stah

r:rbc S:::c~ETA:aY FOR 11AlLV1.\YS: I thonght the EthPridgo ).lines, _Lin1itcd. v,~ere sp(nd­ine; n1onc.'.

iv1r. COLLIKS: II(' ·would hc:n-, to sav abont that. The .. lf1n1tUc JI j, cr cised v the cxpcnsc3 of tho t_;hillagoe Con1pany vor;v severely, and pointc-d out that tho:v \Yore spending nl'arly t11o \Yholc of tho Inonc': on the <;:mrface inste::td of bt>lov\- the surface. He hr,d pnoented a petition ,o tlw Ilou·,, the other clay, asking that a su1n of rnoncy be placed on the Estitnatcs for deep sinking. He v:as not going to con1plain of IYhat had boon spent on th0 Et;lcridg~, l>ccanse thoro had l:i~en .£800 granted to the Durham Con­sols, '.nd there was evorv likelihood of that money being paid back" to the department. because it ;,vas proved that gold existed on tho Etheridge. 'I'hoy were now clown 100 feet deeper, and the reef was still carrying· gold. Tho shaft was 840 feci at the prc<·ent time, and he had no doubt the Government would get their money returned hom that partic•Jlar mine. The bon .member for Kenendy had referred to tho Advances to Mining Act. The Pioneer Company at tho Oaks Rush got an advance of £117, and so far that was the only place in Queensland which had repaid the amount in full that had been advanced under that Act. The short visit that had been paid by Mr. Marks to

the Etheridge-espccially the Oaks Rush­had been tho mcms of deveioping the mineral wealth of this State. :Ylr. Marks in his re­port said-

" ~\..t Kidston the aurifc:·ous are~t of the Oakc:, Goldfield app 2.rs to b wiU1in the limit of a 1nile squart."

The bell indir.tted that the hon. member's titne had expired.

:Mr. COLLI::'\S (continuing): •· x~tlvith:,tanding this rc;triLted area, there is an im::.nensc width of crushed rock which in ;- ~VE.l'<ll pi<h ... 2S has been prov,• l to t~ payably aurifbrou ' The present operations are con­fined tnrdaly to \Yorking sn12.Il Yeins in the c:tP' :1·-d lorn1ation, and are not in any way pro\ lng ~he Yalue of the enclosing n1ass, which in t-~-·vo rf the on I',~ four ( l'O~ ::-~cut·; driven on the field b"'s r·· t-..._uned cru hing· of nearly an

of the ton. crosscuts at feet of the

auriferous is reason to uppos~~ than what ha~_; s >

[l:-ti'ts of the 0 a great \Y>.::.th of silni1 r

exi;;:;ts, though its -.,-alue hr- s yet to be dtmonstrated. It is known to be aur~ferous, and in plactc; i cQrtainly payable though }ow gradn. In YlP\V of the abov-e, oue c~"nnot but take a hopeful view of the future of the Oak .,

The reason he \Y a:; rc'1ding this \Yas to let p':.ol?lo "-ho v., l'C desirous of -jpeculatin:r in llllning knov\- that we had one of the bigg·.:·<·;t fornuttion in the ,. holo of Quec'1sland ::tt tho Oab Hush, outside .i\Iount :\Im·gan, and the Gympie S·cottish. He had an opportunit,­of visiting it '"ith the hon. 111cmbcr fo1· \'~~ oO­thakata in the ear1y ::.tages, before there 'vas a reef di~·;-overed, ·when it \Yas being \Yorkcd ''' alluvial. Ilo had a letter the other dav f:rorn a friend who hact l;Qen 1nining fol­twenty-fi.yf' yea~·s, in ·whid1 h~ faid th--Rt in i:h'"' Oaks Rus}J he bclicv<~d the ruine would require 100 h0ad of stampers to develop it pro:)(' !'J;~.

Mr. TnEODORE to lutYe u State

,,,-auld l : a good thing

:\Jr. COLLI::'\S: Y cs, bcc.mse priYcctcly-O\Yned hat:.;:.,~·i:; ~~vonld not be to crush for the public. This friend of hif had wor!::efl i.t1 :::l~lch rnincs as the Gvrnpie Scot­tish and in \Vest Autralia, ancl" knew ,_,·hat hl' "\Y ~'-·:_; talking abou~- In reference to the .:\fini1F{ Cornrni.:,jon, there Y>'ero some con1-pln'nt. from his electorate because the com, rnif,'·,ion flid not ; .. top on the Etheridge. The7 had tl10rc the Einaslcigh Copper :Vlincs. Oak.:-: Rush, and the n1incq around Charleston and al~0nt Gt orqeto"'.vn. I-Ie kne1.v it \v-as almo t in1pof::, ;blC to get to eve~·y n1ining centre in Qcwcnsland, as it would take hYPlve rnonths i·) do it in a proper n1nnne1'. A lot had been said about what the Chillagoe Company was doing. He hnd intended to quote hom tbe lifumlic J!inel' of 13th Jun~, 1908. but os i1is time was nc11rl·.- exhau,tcd he _,-oulcl not l'ead it. Thev had had the ex­perience of R:aglish cornpUniLs who built fin0 rnansions and vxpensive surface \VOrks. but did very little wod< in the ,,hapc 0f cinkin::; shafte, and the paper pointed out that to some oxh'nt that system had heon adopted by the Chillag-oe Company. 0£ course, it •yas not for him to dictate to the Chillagoe Companv as to how they should spend their money, but the only real deep sinking that had bec>n done had been done b~- local people -bv the Durham Consols-and there was eve'i-y prospect of good payable ground. He noticed that the assistant inspectors of mines

Mr. Collins.]

1396 Supply. [ASSEMBLY.] Suppl,y.

received very low salaries indeed. Mr. Flet­cher Young, who had to do the Croydon and Etheridge, to his mind, did not receive ade­quate remuneration for the work he had to do.

Mr. THEODORE : The whole of the Gulf country.

Mr. COLLINS: Yes. He believed he was one of the beet inspectors we had in QLwcns­land. He was from tho Chartns Towers School of Mines, and he had had practical experience also, and was a Yory good man. He hoped the :\1inister -,·ould soc if he coald not increa:-w ]\Jr. Young's salary.

The bell indicated that tho hon. member's further time had elapsed.

:\Ir. THEODORE (TVoothakata): He would like to call tho :Ylinister's attention to tho ne,v·>papcr report~,, in C)nnection vvith sc.. _cle corrc 'opondence whir~1 passed bet\'.ecn him­self and the 11unguna Co1np'1ny \Vith regard to the shortage of miners in that particdar district. He remembered that tho Minister nlonJ._ioilcd to the~ PreFs representatiYes that he c1 id not intend to take anv actio'!l in th~; 1natter of supplying 1nincrs; or inducing minu-s to emigrate to Queensland for tho purpo· G of ,;up plying that com pan~ . Ho thought tlu.,t he took a \\ isc action in that, because tho shortage of 1.nincr~ ,vas 111oro apparent than real. He know that the Chillagoe-~Iungana ~lint-~ Con1prny had been suffering sotne shortngo o£ labour dur­ing tbe last few rnonths, but it \Ya ,, 1nore or less their o\Yn fault. IIo omphasis"d that point, bcr~au, .~ it fC'CID0d f'trange that at this partic,Ilal' stage of their dcvc1opn1Cnt. when the n1ining industry \Yas declining, rather unfortunately, there \VCrP just; as

n1anv Inin,:-.:ts no·,- c as there '' .~rc [10 p.n1.] a fcL". years ~g-o, but ~01110 of

thel'l had perforce to folio"' some ot:ler 0~ r~upation, while they \H_,u}d l'athf'r follo\Y thvir ordi!-:tary occupation if reason­<>.ble facilities to (lo so 1.\ ere giycn. Tlw ~ltr ·Ht L1inl \Yore not good rninc·" to \York 1n. \VPl'C not attractive Crl(-'ugh, and l1ft:!'t bla.rnc' could be aJt :-(,chcd to tho co.npan~v for not lHoviding better SUlT'Jnncl­

ir.gs. The r~yi.ncs "\V{ re hot and lll1COlllfort­

ablc to work in, the.1 were unhealthy, and being lead nrinC?s they vvero dangorons to a large extent. There '\vas also a dispropor­tionate :,mount of ac.-;idents in the :\1un-' gana Jninc":l. Thu pla('c was not a nice place to Jiye in, bec,3usc the rccidcnts of ~Iungan.1 had to consutno 1nino water with­out it being filtered, cleansed, or purified in any way. All th< ,e things tended to de· trac~ from the tendency to seok crnployrncnt at tho rnin{ 71, and there \Vas a considerable influx and outflow of men to and from tho district. There wa,; a feeling· in the Chilla­goe district th' t the companies had adopted a policy there of employing rnc·n more or less ton1~Joraril:--, and discharg·ing thcrn in order to provide traffic for the Chillagoe Railwcty. It sr' mod unreasonable that such a thing should be done, but the fact remained that batches of n:cn had been put 0'1, and after cer­tain quanti tic, of ore had been sent away, those men would be put off, and later on another batch of rnon woald be put on. The men declined to \\·ork at Mungana becau;;;e it '\Vas da:agcrous crnployrncnt and \vas unattractive.

Tho SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: \Yhat about the fire in the Lady J :: ne?

Mr. THEODORE : 'The fire in the Lady Jane was still burning. That fire, which

lMr. Collins.

broke out 3.. ·couple of years ago, was most Lmfortunato for the dii'trict, and a creep c~:hich afterwards ~Jt in n1ade tho work there arduous and not very pleasant. The 2\.lungana men were paid the lowe't :yagos in the district-lOs. a shift for a, week of forty­seven hours, and that wag the reason that the manag,"ment could not get a Se!pply of good practical miners. The Minister was right in the attitude ho took up in refu :ing to ~\~lp the co1upany to got rnincrs ~·O go .there. l11cro was not a shortage of n1rncrs rn the State, and they would go to ~lungnna to work if the conditions \vcro 1nadc attractive, a,, thcv f)r('fcrrcd to do rnininrr >.vork rather thu.n ~.vo-rk on the surface in° t:Je broilincr sun nt y-ork to which thev were not accus~ tmnc'd. Tho l\lining· Est~in1ates had con1o on rathe:' '1l1< '<nectoclh', and thov had not an opportun!ty o{ going. thoroughly into the rc}lort present{•d lJ:y the 1tlin('r:-' Phthisis Cc n1n1: -;.ion. Tht: report vvas n1ost cotnprc­hensivc; it contained an enorn1ous atnount of n1aterial, n 1d <1 vast an1ount of evidence. The con1n1ission made a pre~ty exhaustive inYcstigation, but. n1Cn1bers had not an opportu>lii','' of going fully i>1to it. He hoped that the :Ylini,ter would tell the Committee what tho Gm emment intended to clo in connPction ,,-it,h the rc~orruncnclations of the conunission.

* The SECl~ET"\ HY FOR :\li:'\ES: One. of tlH' rnoet inlj)Ol'tant rnattcr::; in conncc­hon with the mining ind:.sL·y \Yas the re­dPtnpt.ion of the pr01ni:-:2 nutdc during- last seE ion of thC' arpointn1ent of a cornmission to inq,lirl~ into {he disea.3C' knov n as 111incrs' phthisi>. and he health conditions of thoo·e Pngap:r·cl in the incln,,try. The remit of the in(!uiry ;· ~ c:ornurC'h(_'n-ive, and there: were a ntunbc:r of rec-on1mc•ndation-, e1nbodierl in that r0port \Yhich undoubtedly \Yoult! make for th<' bcnc·fit of minnr, and the lec;,cning. ht' hopc,,1. of that dis<'asc. He, had pointed oc1t hen tlll' :\.line, H.r'gulation ..._\ct IYns under considrration r.hat it would bo pos:.:ible --·o11.Tinp; to the t.ha.L ~\ct. \Ytts h~::~ "'11ccl--'J) lllPn•- m:1tter~ bc'('ll left to regula-tion, t.}pt it p >Rsiblc fron1 tirnc tu time to make anv altc1·ation which thev found to be necec,c,;ary for tlw purpose ,;r cn.rrying out the policy of that 1nc 'uro, and at thee earlio>:t opportunit,· either the r('gulations IYould be arnended or further rP\~ulations drafted to deal \Yith thosP rnat­tcrs which had been recommended by the cornmi~:;;ion.

:\lr. llfULLA::>;: You will have to amend the Act.

The SECRETARY FOR :\II::\'ES: If it were neoc ':sary, they would do it, though he had not arri.-ed at that conclusion >"et- He was undrr tho impression that thev coul·d deal -..vit.h tl1e• recommendations of th~e cmnmission· by arnended regulations. Tho Cmnn1issioncr of Pub;ic Hc~lth had alr~ady taken steps to select a site for that sanatorium to deal \Yi~:h t:'ase~ rccommpnded bv tho commission. Hf' hoped that before the~ House met nC'xt ses"ion progr<'SS would be made in that con­nection, and he had very little doubt hon. mc·mbers would be asked' to malm the ncccs­~ary apprO!lriation for the purpose of erect· ing accommodation to enable them to deal with advanced cases. The amounts placed on tho Estimates for prospecting, deep sink­in!!, and subsidiC's for roads and bridges to !!Old and mineral fields did not comprise all that the State was doing and had done to, a' ,ist the mining industry; The Etheridge·

Supp7_y. [6 OcroBER. J Supply. 1:197

Railway_ had really boon built to assist the nnm~1g mdustry, and it would be generally admitted that tho construction of the line had had that effect.

l\lr. THEODORE: The freights arc too high. ::\lr. }lCLLAX: The line has been built by

a synd1cate.

The SECEETARY FOR ::\IIXES: The State _was responsible for 2~ per cont. upon :a capital exprmdimrP o: £4:00.000. The 1"ail­\va·v fron1 ~orrnanton to Croydon, which hac\ boon bmir at. a cost of £288,400, had also been constructc·d expre··sly for tho pur­pose oi a~~isting the industry, and it n1ust be Larue m mind that it im·olved a loss to the consolidated re,·cnuc of £2.0:+4. Tho Cooktown Railway had al.o b~cn built for tho . purpose of affording aHistanco to the mnnng mclnstrv. The line ::o .t £352 OGO and the: interest 01~1 that cxpc'udituro \Y~: being pa1d out of the consolidated revenue, and thcr~. was ,a.lso

1a loE.3 upon the \Yorking of

the 11Du, V"\ illch 11ad aLo to be paid horn the revenue, amounting to £2,199. Although other Interests ·were scrYcd LL'' ides 1nining, undoubt, dly tho Cairns-Herberton Raiiwav had bee l of lno::;t 111atcrial Yaluc to th8 ll1llUl.L and tho c of thmn who had l1ud opportunity of sccin;; tho fn. 1ght tha:c was ce rricd OYer the line \Yerc ab '."lutcly >a tidied that it afl"ordcd groat a.F:l3t ::-nee to the 1ndustry. The capital ex­pended o:. tho line amounted io £1,445,65:1, ancl the~'l' \\·as .:-> loss an1ounti1H:r to £29 283 whi---,h bad to be paid out ot' the .con'-,,11~ dated revenue. 'Vhon thcv took all those 1nattcrs in1 ' considt.>ration,~ it· rnust be ad­mitLd that the amounts \Vhich appeared on the nJincs Estimates were not all that the State \Yas doing for the a).sistance of that iinporL,l!t indust.r~:. _\t a rernnt cou­fon<lC<" o-r n1ir~ing cngi{H:;>"rs whid1 ''"~'l held jn :\Ielbourne, tho cr1nclusion '·"as arriYec1 at that the rnct hod of assisting r.l10 inclu.-,-try \""<1, llH_' _tns of r::dhYav C<Jrnmunica-t-ion, to enable tho 1niner t'o get to his show and to get the product of his labour to a por+, that he could obhin the greatest a1nottnt b 1(fit fros1 the reu1t of his '"· ,Jrk- The St:_te of Quf'C!J',land had h en carrying out ~nch a policy at a Yery con­siderable capito 1 expenditure and "M to-da:· be,··~,ring a very considErnblo an1ount of loss, through the consolidated revenue for the purpose of giving that acsi:. ance.

n.lr. COLL1:-1S: \Yh:;· not wa:'>· fron1 Townsville to ,,,ers and the r Jil ,·a Y fro:::.1 to :,.=-onnt 1\lorgan?"

Tho SECRET~' RY FOE MINES: He would take iuto con icbration the qur ·.tion of increasing the alal·lc:i paid to the· Go­YcrnJnL·nt gcolo[_, i . .;~s, and if he ''sas satis­fied that they \Yore not receiving tho remun· eration ·which they ought to rer;ciYc, he would 1nake tho nccessarv rcon1n1cndations to his col1e:1guc;;, nnd "fch t 1Ui· c t -'rtain that, if any injustice been done, it would be remedied on tho first occasion when it \Yas posoib)c, for the House to deal with those officers. (I-Icar, hFz.c !) He quite admitted that, owing to the calls upon the geologists, it v,,as to a grc;:d extent in1pos~ sible to earn- out a systematic geological survc:c; and he oonf€ssed he was frequently ico blame in calling tho geologists awa:; from tho work thev were doing at the re­quest of hon. members, and, when he told them what the result would be. they said, ·"Well, let us have that report."

Mr. THEODORE: \Yo say you should gG>t n1ore geologists.

The SECRETARY FOR MIKES: If they had double tho number, while the ::\linister ·~!lowed him:,elf to be influenced by such

appeal-;, the result would be the sa1no. An cifort -.,vas be lng 1nade to carr:"- out a. goolo­gie::tl 'un-ey, and he believed that during the time \vhich would clanso befoTf' next r c~ sion he \Yould bG able to-111ake 80111.0 fur· thor proposition which would rncct the 'vishcs of hon. 111Cn1bors. \Yith regard to t.he topographical at:tLl geographical survey d Charters TmYors, that would be almost immodiatdy recommenced. and would be carried to a co1npletion ·without further in­terruption. The lute topographical surveyor tool; tho 01 nortunit~- of entering into pri­

bc :nee and ~Ir. Lymburn·er. who had in his plUce, \voul(l c-=>ntinue

C'" as ~oon us he \Yas tahle to take \Y~nk in conr:cction wiC1 th-2 :\lines

Rcfcrcl,ce had b·;on made to o£ )fines, nd he might say that

nt \Yll'' vc -"Y proud of that ar, hear !\_,_\·hich V·:c,·, carrying

out Ycry important \YOrk to the advantage State Hncl 1hc be .lilt of tho.3e who

the 1nofe~sion. Scholar-,.·erc offered, but they nearly CYE'ry .'·ear to to take th: .ll up, end

those TC( ~i·,:cd ~Lt~1f~ard qualifi-

shou.ld ha YO. but a.s the to ba -.·e n snJ:-icic l~· n1nnber

of voun,~· m_en to instruct, lJ') apn1·o-., cd of that actlon. - TlH"' further cxnendi+Un~ nee -:>.':\).'1J'V

in connection ,,7 j<- ":1 tht: (-J(1u.ipmcnt of the schoOl had not heen lost sight of, but \vhcn the LTni­Yersity .,-as esta.b1ished the question aros.e as

'.) ~· }l~'tlwr t: ~ c:ullni~':·atiDn of th0 :::.chool of ::\Iinr"' should b0 tran::::en·f-d to the Education D-cpartn1ent. a.r,.J a con1miti·''f', c,ns··~ting o~ P:rofes .or Gil' .. ·,orL :\h. J ack~,on, Chief In -,;Joe tor of ~liw.'s. and ::\lr. J\I')rri .. of the Ecluc:.:.tion Dcpa rt.nlClJ.t, v,,as appointed to conduct an

into tho \Yhole n1aJter. Perhaps it 1c·· well fer him to read :Y1r. J n.ckson's

synopsis of the result of the inquiry-

" REPORT JP CO"':;\I!TT·"'B OF I~QU1RY RE CnAP..TEEs Tolx:;_::-u~ Scnoor. 01-., ~\l:r::-.:Es _\ND P1~oro :-ED X:t::' .- Tbcn:-;:LcAL CoLLEGE.

II I hn~ e the 1 ill10llr to forv- 8 rn her:c.-.:viih copy of the report ~ .. ndcd to by he chair-n: -~n of the con1n1itt _, for the

ctiOll the the :\'lin<:-~

to the n 'thods by could further the

C'duc ·tiDn at Chart.,_ rs n1 tters we~ . S·Jll. into

c:xban·:ti· d('t'1il, it l11[tY be as '' sun1n1ari;::;e the ::_ esult.

'' Statr :1 ·fly, the C'1nclusion una1.1imously arri.Yecl at the is that the School of ~-=inf'': shoulr1 ns :oct prec ent entirely under the the DepartrnPnt e:f ~\lines. ~nd that in ~.:t th,- Dep:-:rtn1ent of Education in ;hnwnt of a new tP,..,hniral co11E'ge the1 should be a division of work in the teachin.' of 1__, clullc ,l subjects bf t~;n'en e~'=' Scl1ool of l\1inc and the proposed new tc:hnlcal college.

" By this :::.1enns the ·_D~_ _._-::.crtlnent will be saY·'d t:i.J.e ity proYiding for the t'-ac~ing of nhysic , and cn..(ineer-ing science, and \Vill he nn clnp1ication of clas· t'"· The alTil.ngement i quite silnple, and only means that for instructir,n of the three above subjects the technical college student crosses over t11e road and takes the class at

Han. J. G. Appel.J

1:398 Supply, ~COUNCIL.] Stanclin,q Rules and 07'ders-.

U1c> s-·llool of ::\.fines. It is nH.re1y a matter of ar:r:1ngil~-~ tilnetablr· bet~,E'C'll the two institu­tion-S.

"All that vvill be nec1~ Departinent of ~line, is

so that c:·l·tain .l

sr;_ry so :Lar as the · will be to

, arranged to a• aE:.tt lc

on d better footiu_,; l11inlng CJUI'.SCS.''

Thoilo reLJll1ll10ndatio.:. ';.: v.:ould be can·ied out at .he c-·9-rliL.:t opportunity.

J.!r. ~.IrLL\X: '\'t~hat about tL £c1,0C'J for the laboratory·;

Tho SECRE'T.l..RY I'OR :,11::\ES: What­over it "\Vas, it ·would be tho ::>,.ddition re nlCndcd by tho conunlttel: of inquiry. hon. r .. ornbor Cro .. Jon brough up ca•.-' of ::tir. ::'\"o one: regrettE_d n1oro than tlw ~\l~ncs that ~··,Ir. G;;nlcY should haY~ 111 conncC'. tion -..viih hi- rs To-..Yers. Frorn tho appeared that :VIr. 'note to the \Varden for ob; aining infor~ mation. The "·ardc:1 fully 1 ·-plied. and gave all the ne( ,~ _nry inforn1atjon. rendy l\1r. G anlc\· nc[dcctcd to do •xith the result 'tha+ ~v.-hat was t.he bon. member for Croydon took place. The matter vas brought under the notice uf the ::\iincs DqJarn.:.wnt, and the rnatter \vas in1-wediately tab n iD hand for the purpose of assisting li-Ir. Ganley. The :Mills Dav Dawn Lnited offered to 'pay :VIr. Ganley th"e same amount as they had paid to other allotment holders-namely. £30, or as an al­ternative to relinquish the le:1se of this par­ticula:· al;otlnt'nt anJ efltnr,'l ir to ::.1r. G .. n.lPY, so that should h- c_tkt'u o:2 tlv• D<'glC'C't l-IC' tl1ought it \YOU}d he fnrth{'f ha\J: h'-"-)n done the dt']Hll'tllll'T1_~- to 11r. Ganlcy.

Que 'tior_ put and paso,cd.

GOL.DFIELDS.

T!J,, SECRET.-\R'i FOR :'IIIXES moved that £23,361 be granted for " Goldfields." The InCrGaso In 1_ho Yote co~nparcd with last year amounted to £181. Tho warden at Chart ~rs Towers recr:iYed an increase fron1 £580 ~o £600, his work haYing increased by tak1ng over the duties of Yisiting warden ?-t Ravenswood. The Inining re~istrar was mcrea.se,J from £240 to £250: th~e assistant from £1?0 to £200; ~,Ir. PoY>er frow £160 to £180; and :Ur. \Y eston from £100 to £110. -~tr Chillagoe the y,-arden recciycd an morea'·P from £360 to £380.

At 10.30 p .. n.,

The TE:\1POHARY C'HAIR\L~;'\T said: Under SLmdmg Order Ko. 306. I must now leave the chair and make my reoort to the B:ouse. ·

The House resumed. The C'HAIR1LU! re­proted progress, and the Committee obtained leave to sit again on Tuesday next.

[Han. J. G . .Appel.

TRE.\SURY BILLS BILL.

THIHD READING.

On rhe motiou of the TREAS CRER. this­Bill was read a third time. and ordered to be transn1itted to the Lc~gisl.ative Council for tlleir Cjncnn·cuce~ by Int:3-sago in tl '~ usual fonn.

~A YIGATIO"" ACTS A:\lE?\D~lENT BILL. THIRD READI?IG.

On the motion of the THEASFRER, this Bill v. a" read '1 third ti1nc, and ordernt} to he rd.urn-;d to the Lcg·islative Council, by rnes­sage in rhe usual for111.

ELECTR [C LIGHT "\ND POWER ACT X\lF?\D~rENT BILL.

THIHD RE.I.DI"(G

On ihc mocion of the THK\SuRER. this Bill ,, '" read a t hircl time, and ordered to. be tran~miLed to ":-he LP-.,islative Cc uncil for their concurrence, by rne~ J ge in the usual form.

PAPER. The l<JllO\Ying paper, laid on the tulle, 1vas

ordered to bc printed :-Report of the En­gineer for :Ffn,rbours and Rivers for the year enrlecl 30th J nne, 1911.

The lfousr adjourned at twenty~four minutes to 11 o'clock.