TRANSCRIPT

What were conditions like in the mine?

In Malagash?

Yes.

Oh not that bad.

So you said you worked 8 hour shifts, any 12 hours shifts at all?

Occasionally if there was overtime, yes. At one time we worked 8 hours shifts, 6 days a week. But about 1951 the union negotiated, trying to get a five day week but we got a 5 and a half day a week and that didn't work too good. It only worked for one year. Because we only worked 4 hours on Saturday morning and 4 hours on Saturday afternoon, the afternoon shift. And we spent more time cleaning up than we did working. So they changed that system to a five day week.

Now were there any accidents at the mine at all?

Oh yes.

Do you remember any stories about those?

Yes. A Patriquin fella got killed at the shaft one time. He went?. He thought that the skip was coming up, apparently it had gone up past the opening at the underground, at the loading station, and he went to look down to see if the skip was coming and of course it came down and hit him. And another fella made a mistake, one of the bosses actually Anderson was his name. He had dynamite on his belt and they think he might have made the mistake of having dynamite caps to.

The caps, that's what you used to?.

That's what you used to light the dynamite. And he had an accident and blew himself up.

Were there any explosions down the mine or anything apart from the guy??

No. There wasn't any natural gas or anything at the mine.