AGY-5048 | Miners' Accident Relief Board

Full description

The New South Wales Miners' Accident Relief Board  was constituted from 1 January 1901 under the Miners’ Accident Relief Act, 1900 (Act No.42, 1900). (1) The Regulations under the Act were gazetted on 17 December 1900 but these were repealed on 1 May 1901 with slightly amended Regulations adopted. (2)
 
The New South Wales Miners' Accident Relief Fund was to be established with contributions deducted from the miner's weekly pay, to provide assistance to those disabled in mining accidents, and also for family members of deceased persons. The fund was to be administered by the Miners' Accident Relief Board, which was to consist of 6 persons appointed by the Governor-in-Council, including a Chairman and 5 persons representative of owners of coal and shale mines, owners of other mines, persons employed in coal and shale mines, persons employed in other mines, and from the Department of Mines. The Act applied to mines in or about which fifteen or more persons were employed. (3)

The Board was to meet at the Department of Mines at such times as required by the Minister, with Minutes to be kept of all proceedings. Any 3 members of the Board could form a quorum, and if the Chairman was not present at any meetings the members could choose one of their number to act temporarily as Chairman of the Board. (5)

Allowances from the Fund were payable to the deceased's widow, while unmarried, to each child until the age of fourteen years or if unmarried to the mother of the deceased or,  if she was deceased, to the sister or sisters of the deceased. Funeral allowances were also payable. (6)

Under the Miners' Accident Relief (Amendment) Act, 1901 (Act No.71, 1901) payment of allowances was extended to include payments to the deceased father if he had been dependent upon the son for support, to the sisters only if they were unmarried and had been dependent upon the deceased for support, and to the miner himself where permanent disablement resulted from the accident. (7)

In 1902 the fund had 'grown in both importance and in usefulness'. There were 154 mines subject to the Act, there were 113 fatal accidents reported and there were 2,852 non-fatal accidents. (8)

The Miners' Accident Relief (Validating) Act, 1904 (Act No.13, 1904) validated the appointments of officers of the Board who had been appointed without the recommendation of the Public Service Board and validated all acts done by committees for a mine which had not been constituted under the principal Act. (9)

The Act was further amended in 1910. This gave the Miniser the powere to dissolve a committee or remove a member or officer of a committee for a mine. It also permitted the granting of allowances to any check-weighman or pickman contributing to the committee for the mine who was deceased or disabled by a mining accident and clarified entitlements of fathers, mothers and sisters of the deceased. It further allowed mines where less than fifteen persons, but more than five, were employed to become contributors to the fund. (10)

The Miners' Accident Relief (Amendment) Act, 1912 (Act No.69, 1912) revised the constitution of the Board. There were to be five members, one of whom was the Under Secretary for Mines and chairman of the Board and the others were to be representatives of the owners of coal and shale mines, the owners of other mines, the persons employed in or about coal or shale mines and the person employed in or about other mines. The Act also reduced the number of men employed by a mine to which the Act applied to ten. (11)

The New South Wales Miners' Accident Relief Board was dissolved by the Miners' Accident Relief (Repeal) Act, 1916 (Act No.46, 1916) from the date of commencement of the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1916 (Act No.71, 1916). This came into effect from 1 July 1917.  The Act also closed the Miners' Accident Relief Fund, the balance of which was to be paid into the Consolidated Revenue Fund. The Act also provided for the Secretary for Mines to grant allowances under the former Acts, notwithstanding their repeal, out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund. (12)

The report on the Miners' Accident Relief Fund for 1917 reported that the fund had operated for 16 and a half years during which:
'there were admitted 954 claims in respect of death by accidents. The dependents, to whom extended benefits were granted, were 649 adults and 1,212 children. The number of disablements by accident during the same period was 79,887. The expenditure paid during the term of the Board's administration amounted to £550,172 2s. 7d. - a sum indicative of a very large measure of relief to persons who would otherwise have felt much more keenly the pinch of misfortune.' (13)

Under the Miners' Accident Relief (Supplemental) Act, 1928 (Act No.13, 1928) from 1 April 1928 additional allowances were to be paid out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund were granted to those in receipt of an allowance under the 1916 Act. (14) Payment of allowances under the 1916 Act continued to be reported in the Department of Mines Annual Report until at least 1938. (15)

Endnotes
(1) Miners' Accident Relief Act, 1900 (Act No.42, 1900), ss.1, 8 .
(2) NSW Government Gazette No.1157, 17 December 1900, p.9773-9780; ibid. No.369, 1 May 1901, pp.3545-3551.
(3) Annual Report of the Department of Mines for the year 1900, pp.70-71 in Votes and Proceedings 1901 Vol. 4, pp.1296-1297; Miners' Accident Relief Act, 1900 (Act No.42, 1900), ss. 9, 12 .
(5) NSW Government Gazette No.369, 1 May 1901, p.3547.
(6) Miners' Accident Relief Act 1900, Schedule.
(7) Miners' Accident Relief Act (Amendment), 1901 (Act No.71, 1901), s.10.
(8) Annual Report of the Department of Mines, New South Wales, for the year 1902, pp.60, 134 in Votes and Proceedings, 1903 Vol. 6, p.64, 138.
(9) Miners' Accident Relief (Validating) Act, 1904 (Act No.13, 1904), ss.2, 3.
(10) Miners' Accident Relief (Amendment) Act, 1910 (Act No.16, 1910), ss. 4, 5, 13, 15, 16.
(11) Miners' Accident Relief (Amendment) Act, 1912 (Act No.69, 1912), s.4, 7.
(12) Miners' Accident Relief (Repeal) Act, 1916 (Act No.46, 1916), ss. 2, 5, 6-9; NSW Government Gazette No.87, 15 June 1917, p.3023; ibid. No.107, 20 July 1917, p.3665; ibid. No.109, 20 July 1917, p.3783.
(13) Annual Report of the Department of Mines, New South Wales, for the year 1917, p.185 in NSW Parliamentary Papers, 1918 Vol. 3, p.569.
(14) Miners' Accident Relief (Supplemental) Act, 1928 (Act No.13, 1928), ss.1-3.
(15) Annual Report of the Department of Mines, New South Wales, for the year 1938, p.42 in NSW Parliamentary Papers, 1938-39-40 Vol. 4, p.1412.