1898 - Coalmininghistorypa.org

cxxxviii MINING LAWS OF PENNSYLVANIA. Off. Doc.than ninety per centum, and such certificate shall be valid only whensigned by four of the members of the examining board.Section 4. The qualification of candidates for said office of inspectorsof 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, andshall have attained the age of thirty years, and shall have had atleast five years of practical experience in working of or in the workingsof the bituminous mines of Pennsylvania immediately precedingtheir examination, and shall have had practical experience withtire-damp inside the mines of this country, and upon examinationshall give evidence of such theoretical as well as practical knowledgeand general intelligence respecting mines and mining andthe working and ventilation thereof, and all noxious mine gases,and will satisfy the examiners of their capability and fitness for theduties imposed upon inspectors of mines by the provisions of thisact. And the examining board shall immediately after the examination,furnish to each person who came before it to be examined, acopy of allquestions whether oral or written, which were given atthe examination on printed slips of paper and to be marked solved,right, imperfect or wrong, as the case may be, together with a certificateof competency to each candidate who shall have made atleast ninety per centum.Section 5. The board of examiners may, also at their meeting, orwhen at anj- time called by the Governor together for an extra meetixig,divide the bituminous coal regions of the State into inspectiondistricts, no district to contain less than sixty nor more than eightymines, and as nearly as possible equalizing the labor to be performedby each inspector, and at any subsequent calling of the boardof examiners this division may be revised as experience may proveto be advisable.Section 6. The board of examiners shall each receive ten dollarsper day for each day actually employed, and allnecessary expenses,to be paid out of the State Treasury. Upon the filing of the certificateof the examining board in the office of the Secretary of theCommonwealth, the Governor shall, from the names so certified,commission one person to be inspector of mines for each district asfixed by the examiners in pursuance of this supplementary act,whose commission shall be for a full term of four years from thefifteenth day of May following: Always provided however, The highestcandidate or candidates in percentage shall have priority to becommissioned for a full term or unexpired term before those candidatesof lower percentage, and incandidate shall be commissioned.case of a tie percentage the oldestSection 7. As often as vacancies occur in said office of inspectorsof mines, the Governor shall commission for the unexpired term