JUNE 18.] THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 1161

after specified for every full number of fifty miners bona fide engaged in mining operations on the new field at the expiration of twelve months after the date of the discovery.

120. If the reward is offered by the Government, such rates shall be as follows:—

(1.) £50 where the new field (whether of gold, silver, tin, copper, or diamonds) is distant not less than three miles from the nearest known similar field at the date of the discovery, whether such similar field was then being worked or not.

(2.) £37 10s. where such new field is distant less than three miles and not less than one mile from such similar field.

(3.) £25 where such new field consists of (a) the discovery of a new lead or lode, distant less than one mile and not less than half a mile from the nearest known lead or lode at the date of the discovery, whether such known lead or lode was then being worked or not; or (b), the recovery of an old lead or lode which, at the date of the recovery, had been lost.

121. If the reward is offered by a local authority, such rates shall be those hereinbefore specified, or such modification thereof as, with the approval of the Minister, the local authority thinks fit to make.

THE BOARD OF EXAMINERS AND CERTIFICATED MINE-MANAGERS AND BATTERY SUPERINTENDENTS.

The Board.

122. With respect to the Board of Examiners the following provisions shall apply:—

(1.) At all meetings of the Board the quorum shall be four, and the Chairman appointed by the Governor shall preside: Provided that if at any meeting the Chairman is absent, the members present may appoint one of their number to act as chairman at such meeting in his stead, and, whilst so acting, the person so appointed shall have all the powers of the Chairman.

(2.) Each member of the Board who is not otherwise employed in any department of the public service shall receive by way of travelling-expenses the sum of £1 11s. for each day’s absence from his place of abode for the purpose of attending at a meeting of the Board, including the day of his leaving his place of abode, but not the day of his return thereto.

(3.) He shall also be repaid all sums properly expended by him for fares by railway, coach, or steamer in travelling for the purpose of such attendance.

Certificates by Examination.

123. The examinations for certificates as mine-managers or battery superintendents shall be held at such times and places as are appointed by the Board, and with respect to such examinations the following provisions shall apply:—

(1.) For the better conduct of the examinations the Board may appoint supervisors, with such functions and powers as the Board thinks fit.

(2.) Every candidate for a certificate by examination shall, at least one month before the date fixed for the examination, make application in that behalf to “The Secretary of the Board of Examiners under the Mining Act,” at Wellington.

(3.) The application may be in the form numbered 93 in the Seventh Schedule hereto.

(4.) For the purpose of enabling the Board to determine whether the candidate possesses the requisite practical experience, his application shall specify with sufficient particularity for identification and reference the respective mines in which he has been employed, and the period and nature of his employment therein, including, in the case of a battery superintendent’s certificate, the nature of the chemical process used in the mine, and of the machinery and appliances connected therewith.

(5.) For the purposes of section 190 of the Mining Act the requisite practical experience of a candidate for a battery superintendent’s certificate shall be actual employment for not less than twelve months in the working of the chemical process used in the mine, and of the machinery and appliances connected therewith.

(6.) The evidence in writing from previous employers in proof of the nature and extent of the candidate’s practical experience, to be supplied to the Board as required by section 190 of the Mining Act, shall be so supplied at the same time as the application is forwarded, or as soon thereafter as is possible.

(7.) The subjects of examination for certificates as mine-managers shall consist of two Parts, as follows:—

Part 1.—For First- or Second-class Certificates.

(a.) The laying-out and construction of shafts, chambers, main drives or levels, adits, uprises, and stopes.

(b.) The timbering of shafts, adits, main drives or levels, passes, stopes, and generally the systems of timbering mines and filling up old workings.

(c.) The ventilation of mines and composition of gases.

(d.) Tapping water in mines, and the mode of constructing dams in underground workings to keep the water back.

(e.) Blasting and the use of explosives.

(f.) A knowledge of arithmetic and the method of keeping mining accounts.

(g.) A knowledge of Part V. of “The Mining Act, 1898,”—oral.

Part 2.—For First-class Certificates.

(h.) Pumping appliances and the drainage of mines.

(i.) The haulage in shafts and on underground planes; also the strength of haulage ropes and chains.

(j.) The effect that faults, slides, and mullock-bars have on lodes, and how to ascertain the direction of slides and heaves.

(k.) A knowledge of underground surveying, and of making plans of the underground workings, showing the dip or inclination and strike of the reefs or lodes.

(l.) A knowledge of the different rocks where gold, silver, tin, copper, zinc, lead, and antimony are found, and the formation of lodes and leads.

(8.) A candidate for a first-class certificate shall be entitled thereto if he passes