1900 - Coalmininghistorypa.org

cxxviii MINING LAWS OF PENNSYLVANIA. Off. Doc.
than ninety per centum, and such certificate shall be valid only when
signed by four of the members of the examining board.
Section 4. The qualification of candidates for said office of inspectors
of mines to be inquired into and certified by said examiners,
shall be as follows, namely: They shall be citizens of Pennsylvania,
of temperate habits, of good repute as men of personal integrity, and
shall have attained the age of thirty years, and shall have had at
least five years of practical experience in working of or in the workings
of the bituminous mines of Pennsylvania immediately preceding
their examination, and shall have had practical experience with
tire-damp inside the mines of this country, and upon examination
shall give evidence of such theoretical as well as practical knowledge
and general intelligence respecting mines and mining and
the working and ventliation thereof, and all noxious mine gases,
and will satisfy the examiners of their capability and fitness for the
duties imposed upon inspectors of mines by the provisions of this
act. And the examining board shall immediately after the examination,
furnish to each person who came before it to be examined, a
copy of all questions whether oral or written, which were given at
the examination on printed slips
of paper and to be marked solved,
right, imperfect or wrong, as the case may be, together with a certificate
of competency to each candidate who shall have made at
least ninety per centum.
Section 5. The board of examiners may, also at their meeting, or
when at any time called by the Governor together for an extra meeting,
divide the bituminous coal regions of the State into inspection
districts, no district to contain less than sixty nor more than eighty
mines, and as nearly as possible equalizing the labor to be performed
by each inspector, and at any subsequent calling of the board
of examiners this division may be revised as experience may prove
to be advisable.
Section 6. The board of examiners shall each receive ten dollars
per day for each day actually employed, and all
necessary expenses,
to be paid out of the State Treasury. Upon the filing of the certificate
of the examining board in the office of the Secretary of the
Commonwealth, the Governor shall, from the names so certified,
commission one person to be inspector of mines for each district as
fixed by the examiners in pursuance of this supplementary act,
whose commission shall be for a full term of four years from the
fifteenth day of May following: Always provided however, The highest
candidate or candidates in percentage shall have priority to be
commissioned for a full term or unexpired term before those candidates
of lower percentage, and in case of a tie percentage the oldest
candidate shall be commissioned.
Section 7. As often as vacancies occur in said office of inspectors
of mines, the Governor shall commission for the unexpired term