i66 THE INiDIA-N EIMIPIRE [CHAP.
has progressed, the record is distinctly satisfactory. There has
been not only a very low death-rate from isolated accidents in
Indian coal-mines, but at the same time a general absence of
those disasters which have caused European communities to
impose legislation for the protection of the miner.
During the past six years the death-rate from accidents at
Indian collieries has averaged o.88 per thousand persons
employed, while the yearly rate has varied between o.68 and
1.32. The death-rate in India is thus slightly more than half
the rate in the United Kingdom, and almost exactly half of
the average for the British Empire, which was I.53 in i9OI
and 1.54 in I902. It also compares favourably with the rates
in the principal foreign coal-mining countries. In Austria the
rates for I9O0 and 1902 were 1.39 and I.6o per thousand
respectively; in Germany 2-22 and 1.93; in Belgium I102 and
Io07; in France I.2I and I.o9; in Holland 1.47 and 1.27;
and in the United States 3.1o and 3.25.
Death-rate The death-rate per thousand employed does not, however,
itmh cald fairly show the cost in lives of the coal obtained; and the
produc- Indian returns, calculated on this basis, give a less favourable
tion. result than the average for the rest of the Empire. The only
country with which the Indian results can be directly compared
is Cape Colony, where the output per person employed varies
between 7I and 75 tons per annum, and the loss of life per
million tons of coal raised is about twice as great as in India.
Death-rate The vital statistics for gold and mica mines in India are
from ac(i-
dents on slightly less satisfactory. The average death-rate on the Kolir
the Kolar gold-field during the past six years has been 2.43 per thousand
fields, persons employed, 13.67 per million tons of ore raised, and
3.13 for every hundred thousand pounds worth of gold re-
covered.
Death-rate At the mica mines the death-rate from accidents, for an
from actci- average employment of 9,I65 workers during the three years
dents at
mica since the mines have come under the Indian Mines Act, has
mines. been I.o5 per thousand; but the results are not sufficiently
uniform to permit of a general conclusion as to the risk to life
in mica-mining, for out of a total of twenty-nine deaths for the
whole period of three years, sixteen occurred in Nellore
District in 190oi.
Legisla- In consequence of the growth of the mining industry, and
tion. the rapidly increasing employment of labour, arrangements
were made by Government in I894 for the preliminary inspec-
tion of the chief mining areas, and as the outcome of the data
so obtained it was decided in I9OI to pass an Act for the
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