1 REVIEW BY SECTIONS,
2 PUNJAB MINES.
3 Differences in Contingent
4 charges explained,
5 Additions and improve-
6 ments in the Mayo
7 Mines.
8 Accidents in the Mayo
9 Mines.
10 REPORT ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE NORTHERN INDIA
11 The contingent charges of the division were in 1894-95
12 Rs. 1,66,310, and in 1895-96 Rs. 1,72,461, being an increase of
13 Rs. 6,151, out of which the cost of excavating salt to supply
14 the trade with, the sales beng much larger than in 1894-95, is
15 responsible for Rs. 4,935. With reference to the other items
16 the following details explain the causes of increase or decrease: —
17 Increases.—Service postage, Rs 201, caused by the revi-
18 val of the trade in through-traffic salt. Service telegrams,
19 Rs. 6. Rewards to captors of contraband salt, Rs. 268, owing
20 to an increased number of seizures having been made during the |
21 year. Through-traffic charges, Rs. 8,766, because, during the
22 year, the salt thus cleared increased from maunds 15,36,222
23 to maunds 18,387,537.
24 Decreases.—Rs, 12 and Rs. 22, in travelling allowan-
25 ces and conveyance of tents’and records, respectively, and
26 Rs. 63 in the item of purchase and repairs of tents. Rs. 184
27 in house-rent, as quarters were built for the departmen-
28 tal subordinates at Attock, and the quarters rented from
29 the railway were given up. Hot weather charges, Rs. 3. Mis-
30 cellaneous, Rs. 2,030, because the Mayo Mines were not so
31 often lit up at the expense of Government for inspection by
32 high officials (the only such visit during 1895-96 having
33 been paid by the Honorable Sir James Westland, K. C. S.I.,
34 Financial Member of Council), and because no weighing
35 machines were bought in 1895-96, whereas the outlay in the
36 preceding year on this account was Rs. 636. Petty con-
37 struction and repairs, Rs. 5,712. This item amounted in
38 1894-95 to Rs. 45,525, and in the year just ended to Rs. 39,818 ;
39 but in the former year the sum of Rs. 17,500 was paid to
40 the Manager of the North-West Railway as the share due
41 from the Salt Department for the joint scheme of supplying
42 the Khewra settlement and railway station with drinking
43 water from the Khewra glen. On the other hand, the up-keep
44 of the wagon tramway, and the renewal of the permanent-way
45 and rolling-stock, and mine improvements, cost more than in
46 1894-95 by Rs. 10,880. :
47 .13. In the Mayo Mines at Khewra short tunnels aggre-
48 gating 606 running feet were driven to serve for air or travelling
49 ways. The new tramway was carried forward 5% feet, and the
50 drift in No. 20, or Buggy Mine, 49 feet. All the dangerous
51 ways in the mines requiring fencing were securely fenced. The
52 lining of Thompson’s tunnel with masonry sides and timber roof
53 was completed, and the way through is now quite safe through-
54 outits whole length. The surface drainage of the Mine hill
55 was kept in working order at a cost of Rs. 549. The larger
56 expenditure incurred in repairing and renewing the permanent-
57 way of the wagon tramway includes an item of Rs. 10,554,
58 the cost of rails obtained from the Bombay, Baroda and Central
59 India Railway, and another of Rs. 1,657, the cost ofa new
60 chain for the self-acting incline inside the mine.
61 14. One fatal and two serious accidents took place in the
62 Mayo Mines during 1895-96. In one case one miner was killed
63 and another hurt while they were sharpening their tools, by a
64 female carrier accidentally dropping her load from an upper
65 pathway on to the ground below near. them. The block of salt
66 broke up, and the pieces scattered, striking one man on the
67 head and fracturing his skull, and striking the other on the left
68 side, and fracturing a rib. The man whose skull was fractured
69 (8 )