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QUALITY OF THE CAGE SHOES.

The quality of the steel from which the cage shoes had been cast was condemned in severe terms by Dr. Rosenhain, who, when examining Mr. Main, described them as consisting of a large number of blowholes with metal between.

Mr. Main considered the shoes were of a quality sufficient for the work they had to do, but it did not appear from the evidence that the makers had any definite standard in writing by which the quality was fixed or measured.

Professor Louis gave it as his opinion that the shoes were amply good enough for their job, but of the five shoes, A, B, C, D and X, examined at the National Physical Laboratory, he would have rejected two — X because of its content of Manganese, and A because there were more blowholes than he thought a casting of the kind should show.

Mr. Herron said that the cage shoes became mixed up in stock and that it was quite impossible, after a batch was put into the storehouse, to say by whom they were supplied. He explained that he had never had occasion to reject any cage shoe at any time, and that, not only had he never received any complaint in reference to the shoes in use at Medomsley Colliery, but also he had never received any complaint in reference to the shoes in use at any of the other collieries of Messrs. the Consett Iron Company, Limited; but, at the same time, he had never actually tested a shoe.

The Enginewright had never rejected a shoe, and the blacksmith considered they were all good, hard-natured, and he had never known one to break.

In regard to the bolts by which the shoes were attached to the cages, no one had ever known one to break or to come out.