CONSTITUTION OF NEW MEXICO. ARTICLE XVI. MINES AND MINING. INSPECTOR OF MINES. SECTION 1. There shall be an inspector of mines, who shall be appointed by the governor, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, for a term of four years, and whose duties and salary shall be as prescribed by law. MINING REGULATIONS HIBITED. EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN PRO SEC. 2. The legislature shall enact laws requiring the proper ventilation of mines, the construction and maintenance of escapement shafts or slopes, and the adoption and use of appliances necessary to protect the health and secure the safety of employes therein. No children under the age of fourteen years shall be employed in mines. §5362. Inspections-refusal to allow. Office and instruments. STATE INSPECTOR OF MINES-HOW APPOINTED. SEC. 48. The state engineer, the governor and the president of the school of mines shall constitute a board of examiners, who shall examine all applicants for the appointment to the office of state inspector of mines as to their qualifications to hold said Said board shall examine all such applicants and the governor shall, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint some qualified person so examined to said office. office. §5363. QUALIFICATIONS. SEC. 49. No person shall be eligible to hold said office unless he be a citizen of the United States, at least thirty years of age, a resident of New Mexico for one year next preceding his appointment, and shall have had at least three years experience in the workings of coal mines in New Mexico, and at least five years of practical experience in the workings of coal mines in the United States, and have a practical knowledge of mining engineering, of mine timbering, of the different systems of working and ventilating coal mines, of the nature and properties of noxious and poisonous gases of mines, and of the methods of dispelling the same and guarding against explosions, and shall not be interested financially or otherwise in any coal mine or company operating any coal mine in the State. SEC. 50. The inspector shall give bond to the state in the sum of three thousand dollars ($3,000.00), and shall receive as compensation for his services the sum of two thousand dollars ($2,000.00) per annum, payable monthly, and in addition actual and necessary transportation and traveling expenses. Vouchers covering such expenses for each month, accompanied by sub-vouchers for the items thereof whenever practical, excepting railroad fares, shall be submitted to the state auditor by the inspector before any account of the inspector shall be allowed. §5365. DUTIES-APPEAL FROM ORDER. SEC. 51. The duties of the inspector shall be as follows, towit: He shall: (1) Make a careful and thorough inspection of every coal mine operated in the State as often as in his opinion may be necessary. (2) Proceed without delay to any mine within the State when he learns of any explosion or other catastrophe therein by which lives of men are jeopardized or in which fatalities have occurred, and render such aid as he can in the rescue of persons within the mine and in the protection of rescuers from danger. (3) Shall give notice to the owners, operators or managers of any coal mine wherein he shall find improper construction or that said mine is not furnished with reasonable and proper machinery and appliances for the safety of miners and other employes, that said mine is unsafe, stating in what particular the same is unsafe, and shall require said owners, operator or managers to provide such additional machinery, slopes, entries, means of escape, ventilation or other appliances necessary to the safety of miners and other employes of said mine within a period to be named in said notice. (4) Shall inspect and pass upon the adequacy and safety of all hoisting apparatus in mines, and may demand a test of safety catches or clutches upon such hoisting apparatus as often as once in every three months or whenever he may believe such hoisting apparatus to be defective; he shall conduct said test by detachment of the rope or cable at a point in the shaft or above the shaft where the cage may be arrested in its fall with as little wreckage of property as possible if the safety catches or clutches should prove defective. (5) He shall arrange a uniform system of mine bell signals after consultation with the engineers in charge of hoisting apparatus and the operators of mines within the State, and shall at once furnish a copy of the same to each mine owner, operator or manager within the State. (6) Shall make an annual report to the governor on or before the first day of December of each year; which said report shall contain a review of the official acts of the inspector; statistics of the number of persons employed in and about the coal mines in the State and of the production and the estimated value thereof, and a resume of the mining conditions generally existing in the State during the said year. (7) The Inspector is hereby given authority at all reasonable times to enter and inspect any coal mine in the State and the workings and machinery belonging thereto in such manner as not to impede or obstruct the workings of the mine: to make inquiry into the state of the mine, works and machinery thereof, the ventilation and mode of lighting the same, and all matters and things connected with and relating to the safety of employes in and about the mines, and especially to the end that the provisions of law shall be complied with by the owners, operators or managers thereof; to require that some person of practical experience and responsibility representing the owner, operator, or manager shall accompany the said inspector upon such trips of inspection through the mine in order that the inspector may point out and specify any defects in the mine, in the methods of mining and in the equipment and construction thereof, which defects may violate any of the provisions of law. And to require that the owner, operator or manager shall at all times furnish means necessary for such entry, inspection, examination and inquiry. |