February 7, 1913.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

293

Scotland.

A prolonged conference of the Scottish Coal Trade
Conciliation Board was held in Glasgow on Tuesday to
consider a claim, by miners for an advance of 25 per
cent, on the 1888 basis and a counterclaim by the
coalmasters for a reduction of 12J per cent. The
parties being unable to agree on the question of the
men’s application, it was decided to submit the matter
to a neutral chairman. A question arose as to the
competency of the application by coalowners for a
reduction, and it was agreed that this matter should
also be referred to arbitration. The two points raised
"will be dealt with separately during the next fortnight.

Limitation of Output.

The miners’ lodges of the country have just received
a report issued by Mr. Thomas Ashton, Manchester,
general secretary of the Miners’ Federation of Great
Britain, regarding the proposed regulation of the output
of coal. • At the International Miners’ Congress, held at
Amsterdam in July of last year, it was decided that the
national secretaries report to the international secretary
(Mr. Ashton) respecting the output, import, export, and
home consumption of coal, and that they suggest what
they consider would be the best means to adopt in order
to regulate the output of coal in the interests of the
community. These reports are to hand, and are
now before the various associations. The international
committee will consider the proposals from the national
secretaries, and will then draft a scheme which, in their
judgment, will be the best to adopt to regulate the output
generally. The British report contains statistics
regarding the output of coal, average selling prices>
exports and imports, and Mr. Ashton submits proposals
for a draft scheme. He says there are various systems
that might be put into operation for regulating the
output, but unless some system of permanent uniformity
can be adopted it is not likely to be successful. “ The
output,” he says, “cannot be successfully regulated by
strikes. I am afraid that our brethren on the Continent
would find a difficulty in getting all their men out and
keeping them out for a week or a fortnight, and unless
we could get all the men out and keep them out for the
length of time the International Committee decided
upon, the strike or stoppage would be a failure. The
most perfect system that could be adopted would be
a uniform working day of not more than eight hours, and
a working week of not more than five days. . . .
It must, however, be clearly understood that even if a
five days a week working policy were generally adopted
internationally, though it might limit output for a time,
it would not permanently regulate the supply of coal.
The International Committee should have power to
recommend at any time a reduction of working days to
four or three per week for a period, and the miners’
unions in the different countries should be strong
enough to carry out the recommendation. This
system, if adopted, would be better than a strike
or the taking of a week or a fortnight’s holiday.”
A long report is printed from the National Federation
of French Miners, the substance of which is a joint
demand for—(1) The five days working policy, with an
eight hours day; (2) a minimum wage for these five
days’ work corresponding to the necessaries of
existence; and (3) joint and international solidarity in
action until the demands of all have been satisfied. The
American report gives merely statistics of output, &c.,
and does not make any recommendation. The Belgian
report considers that “ for the present it seems to us
that the best method of regulating the output of coal
to meet the requirements of the world’s consumers
would be to apply strictly, regularly and in its entirety
the law instituting an eight hours working day in
mines, with its corollary—a period of annual holidays
involving no loss of wages.” The report from
Germany is very exhaustive, but does not make
any recommendation. It concludes :—“ The insuf-
ficient rise of miners’ wages in Germany must be
considered as a consequence of the defeat which the
German miners suffered in the spring of 1912. As is
well known, that defeat of the miners was due to the
blacklegging organised by the ‘ Christian ’ Miners’
Union. The coalowners rely on the ‘ Christians ’
betraying their brethren also in the future, and they
therefore think that there is no necessity of letting the
miners participate in the magnificent profits that the
mines are paying at present.” The concluding report
is from Austria. It gives figures relating to output, &c.,
but considers that it is too soon to discuss the question
of regulating the output of coal, and the miners’ repre-
sentatives in that country, therefore, refrain from
making any practical proposals in that direction.

The Iron, Steel, and Engineering Trades.

As the result of the report by Mr. John M. MacLeod,
C.A., Glasgow, to Messrs. James C. Bishop and James
Gavin, joint secretaries of the Board of Conciliation

between the owners of blastfurnaces in Scotland and
tht? blastfurnacemen as to the price of Scotch pig iron
warrants in the Glasgow market for the months of
November and December 1912, there is a rise of 2J per
cent, in the wages of the workmen.

Messrs. Price, Waterhouse and Co.’s ascertainment in
manufactured iron was this week issued by Messrs.
Winpenny and Cox, secretaries, on behalf of the Board
of Conciliation and Arbitration for the manufactured
iron and steel trades of the North of England. In
accordance with sliding-scale arrangement the wages of
ironworkers for February and March will be the same
as in the previous two months. The accountants’
declaration is that, having collected from the firms and
companies associated with the Board the returns of
sales of manufactured iron for the two months ended
December, they certify the net selling price per ton to
have been £7 Is. 9*38d. During the past year the total
output of manufactured iron in the Board’s area has
been 66,392 tons, and in the year 1907 the output was
67,312 tons. At the end of 1907 the ascertained price
was £7 6s., or 4s. 3d. better than last year.

COLLIERY ACCIDENTS.

Huddersfield.

On Tuesday, January 28, an accident occurred at the
Lodge Mill Colliery, Lepton, which is situated about 4 miles
from Huddersfield, and is owned by Messrs. Benjamin
Elliott and Son. It appears that some time before 6 a.m.,
James English, a night shift deputy, and Alfred Sykes,
went into a disused part of the workings, about a mile from
the shaft, for the purpose of removing some rails, and while
doing so were overcome by gas. As they did not return,
Albert Schofield and another man went to look for them,
and though they succeeded in reaching them, Schofield was
also overcome by the gas, and the other man was barely
able to save himself.

A rescue party was immediately organised by Mr. Hinch-
cliffe, the manager of the mine, and Mr. George Elliott, son
of the proprietor. They found the workings so foul with
gas that it was impossible to take their safety lamps within
100 yards of the place where the men were lying. A
telephone message was then sent to the Altofts rescue
station at Messrs. Pope and Pearson’s collieries, which has
been placed at the disposal of the West Yorkshire
coalowners by Dr. W. E. Garforth, pending the completion
of the new West Yorkshire Central Station, which is being
built at Wakefield.

The message was received at Altofts at 9.55, and in less
than half-an-hour six trained men of the rescue brigade had
been summoned and were ready to leave with their
apparatus. Unfortunately, although arrangements had
been made for a supply of motors in case of a call being
received for the rescue brigade, it was after 11 o’clock
before Mr. W. D. Lloyd, the general manager of the colliery,
and three men of the brigade, were able to leave, and 11.30
before the remainder of the party left in a motor
char-a-banc. Altofts is about 18 miles from Lepton over
hilly country, and owing to the condition of the roads and
to taking a wrong turning, which took them about 5 miles
out of their way, it was five minutes past one before the
first contingent reached the colliery, where they were able
to communicate by telephone with Mr. Hinchcliffe in the
workings, and learnt that some of the men were still alive.

In less than 10 minutes, the three men, Samuel Berry,
William Burr and William Webster, were equipped with
the “Weg” apparatus, and, accompanied by Mr. Lloyd,
descended the shaft. The seam worked is a thin one, and
the roads for the greater part of the distance are not more
than 3 ft. high, rising gradually towards the face. The
men wearing the apparatus had, therefore, to lie flat on
small trams, and in this way were pushed some 1,500 yards
to the end of the haulage road, from which point they had
to creep some 300 yards further, and reached Mr. Hinch-
cliffe and Mr. Elliott, at a point some 80 yards from where
the men were lying, soon after 2 o’clock. Beyond this point
it was impossible to take safety lamps, as the light was
extinguished. Berry and Burr were sent forward wearing
the apparatus and carrying electric lamps. They imme-
diately found Schofield lying close to the face in a road
little more than 2 ft. high, and in less than 10 minutes had
placed him on a tram and returned with him to a point
where the members of the rescue party could place him on
a stretcher and convey him into fresher air. Berry and
Burr went back with a tram to the face, and at about 2.30
returned with English. Both men were in a very critical
state, but were still breathing, and recovered slightly under
artificial respiration and oxygen from the breathing
apparatus.

In the meantime the remainder of the rescue brigade,
whose motor car had broken down some three miles from
the colliery, arrived on the scene with a Pul motor, which
was at once brought into use. Mr. C. L. Robinson, senior
inspector of the Yorkshire district, arrived at the same
time. A telephone message was sent to Dr. Tate, of Lepton,
who had been waiting at the pit since morning, should his
services be required, asking him, if possible, to come inbye,
which he promptly did, bringing with him some hot coffee.

After rescuing English, Berry and Burr returned to the
face and found the body of Sykes, who had evidently been
dead several hours, and brought it out into the fresh air.
English and Schofield came round very slowly, and it was
5.30 before they were got out of the pit, still in a semi-
conscious condition.

Samuel Berry and William Burr are both deputies at
Messrs. Pope and Pearson’s collieries, and have been trained
in the use of the Weg apparatus for more than four years.
Both have used it at an underground fire at the Broomhill
Collieries, Northumberland, and Berry also at the May pole
Colliery disaster. They have both received the St. John
Ambulance medallion, and Burr has interested himself in
ambulance work for many years.

The inquest on Sykes was held on the 31st ult. by
Mr. E. H. Hill, the district coroner, at Kirkheaton, near
Huddersfield.

Mr. C. H. Hinchcliffe, the manager, said that that portion
of the mine had not been worked since December 4, because'
of gas and because the coal was bad. There was no mention
of gas in the report made by English on the Monday. The
witness went on to say that he proceeded 40 yards along
the gate when he felt the effects of the gas. There had
been a fall of roof, which blocked up the airway. Mr. George-
Elliott was able to go a few yards further and touched one
of the men, probably Schofield, but was so “ done up ” that
he could not carry Schofield out. The witness said there
was no need for hurry in getting out the rails. The three
men were rescued in half-an-hour by a party from Altofts
Colliery with the use of the “ Weg” breathing apparatus,
but Sykes was then dead.

The Coroner said this was the first case in which the
“ Weg ” breathing apparatus had actually saved life,,
although it had previously saved property.

The Mines Inspector: Of course, if the apparatus had
been got before, all the men would have been saved alive.

The verdict was “Suffocation by gas poisoning in a
misadventure.”

A second death occurred on the same day. James-
English (39), the deputy, who was the first to be overcome-
by gas, had been lying in a critical condition at the-
Huddersfield Royal Infirmary since he was so gallantly
rescued, and he died there. The jury returned a verdict of
“ Death from dilatation of the heart due to the combined
effects of the pleuritic condition of the man’s lungs and the-
breathing of the gas-laden air in the mine.”

FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS NEAR DONCASTER.

Further enterprise in the new Doncaster coalfield is fore-
shadowed by the decision to sink a colliery at Harworth, a
little place south of the road from Bawtry to Tickhill. A
site has baen chosen, and a company will shortly be
registered under the title of “ The Harworth Main Colliery
Limited,” with a capital of half-a-million, the greater part
of which has already been subscribed. Sinking operations
will, in all probability, be commenced within the next few
months. The Harworth enterprise owes its inception to
Mr. Arnold Lupton, who secured an option of the minerala
underlying the estates of the Earl of Crewe, Viscount
Galway, and other landowners in the district. Itis reported
that the directorate of the company will include some of the
leading colliery owners of co. Durham, who, finding their own
coalfields are being worked out, and that the Humber ports
are keenly competing with those of the Tyne for the export
trade, are turning their attention to South Yorkshire. There
has been no preliminary boring, the existence of the Barnsley
bed under the Harworth area having been proved by
sinkings and borings all round. A well-known colliery
expert has advised that it is, therefore, unnecessary to make
any trial bores; he has also expressed the opinion that the
Barnsley seam will be found of good quality over the whole
area, and that the continuity of the coalseams between the-
existing collieries and the boreholes proved that it was
unbroken by faults of any magnitude. The company have
also been advised that they may hope for freedom from
water trouble in sinking, and from liability to gob
fires in working. The water-bearing rock, which has
proved so disadvantageous to some of the collieries in
the Doncaster area, crops out at a point a little
eastward of Harworth. As to gob fires, it is expected the
Barnsley bed will be found to be of moderate thickness—
about 6 ft.—and of such quality that it will be practicable
to work the whole of it. In this case none of the coal would
be left in the wastes, and the liability of gob fires thus
considerably lessened. It is interesting to note that the
gob fire difficulty has been principally in the newer collieries
to the north of Doncaster, whilst on the south-east of the
road from Doncaster to Rotherham spontaneous combustion
has not been experienced.

It is expected that the Barnsley bed will be reached at
Harworth at a depth of 800 or 830 yards. Option has been
secured over an area of some 18,250 acres, and there is
little likelihood of the whole of this being worked from one
pair of shafts. At present the company propose to deal
with the northern part of the area they have secured. The
site of the first pair of shafts will be close to Harworth
village and some two miles west of the Great Northern
Railway. Plant capable of dealing with an output of
a million to a million and a-half tons per annum will be