THE MINER'S OCCUPATION.
[To TEE Darren OP TUN " SPECTATOR."] Sut—Seeing that you have always kindly allowed me the privi- lege of a hearing in your valuable columns. I venture to give you the truth about our colliers in relation to the question as to whether the lives they live are particularly dangerous. When I was a strident at the Doke of Norfolk's Mennery C011iery at Sheffield in 1878, and was at that time-one of:those who volunteered their services after the great Swaithe main explosion near Barnsley, then most certainly -the Miller's life was a most dangerous one. Since [non, having -been one of the 'Government Inspectors of 'Mines, and having visited most of our colliery diet-Mete, having worked underground as a miner and been at very many accidents and explosions, I can safely assert that the risk to life has steadily and very rapidly 'diminished, and that at the present day the risk is far, far smaller than in very many other trades and .professions, .amounting to at most two or three per thousand, sometimes less. The colliers in our beet districts live underground under healthy conditions, good lighting, 'generally electric, in all the main ways, good sanitary arrangements, and when they come to the surface, good housing and washing arrangements, though perhaps these last might be improved on, -and a leaf taken from the Belgian, German, and French coalfields, where the colliers are obliged to take a daily hot bath, and are given a change of clothes. It is therefore hypocritical nonsense to claim that the collier is badly treated and subject to great risks to health and life. I deny it absolutely, and can prove it to any Commission after over forty years' underground experience.—I am, Sir, be., EDGAR P. Ramose, Hem. Inst. Min. and Met., Late Chief Government inspector of Mines, Transvaal.
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