1278

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

June 13, 1913.

identified in borings as at Buddington and elsewhere,
since, with the exception of Lingula, these fossils do not
occur at any other horizon in the lower coal measures.
All of them, however, are found at several horizons,
high up in the middle coal measures. The fauna proves
that the shales in which they are preserved were laid
down under marine conditions. A distinction between
lower and middle coal measures based on the distribu-
tion of the fauna rests on evidence too imperfect for
practical purposes. The plant remains of the lower coal
measures have also proved to be of small service, the
few forms met with being common to both divisions.

(To be continued).

THE INDIAN MINING AND GEOLOGICAL CLUB.

On Friday, June 6, the members of the Indian Mining
and Geological Club were invited by Mr. H. Greville
Montgomery to a luncheon at the Mining Machinery
Exhibition at the Boyal Agricultural Hall, London.
The club was founded three years ago by Sir Thomas
Holland and the late Mr. W. H. Pickering, formerly
director of the Geological Survey of India and Chief
Inspector of Mines in India respectively, with a view to
supplementing the work of the Mining and Geological
Institute of India, which was also founded by Mr.
Pickering with Sir Thomas Holland’s assistance. The
definite objects of the club are to form a centre for
technical discussion and social intercourse; a link
between mining engineers at home and those in India ;
a recruiting ground for managers and officials ; a bureau
and address register ; and a medium of distributing here
information regarding mineral propositions in India.
The club is in a flourishing state, and numbers
about 120 members at home and abroad. His Excel-
lency Lord Hardinge of Penshurst, Viceroy and
Governor-General of India, and the Bight Honourable
the Earl of Minto, Lord Hardinge’s immediate pre-
decessor as Viceroy, are patrons of the club. Mr. H.
Greville Montgomery presided at the luncheon, and
amongst those present were Sir Thomas Holland, Sir
Balph Ashton, Mr. L. C. Croslegh, Capt. F. I. Leslie
Ditmas, Messrs. Allan Greenwell, G. H. Greenwell,

G.	E. Harris, B. G. Higby, T. H. D. La Touche,
0. Lea, G. Catteral Leach, Godfrey E. Morgans, W. 0.
Mountain, Basil H. Pickering, Herbert K. Scott, B. B.
Simpson, Arthur Sopwith, E. Seymour Wood, Sir
Charles Hain Friswell, Messrs. H. 0. Montgomery,

H.	M. Munn, H. M. Boss, W. Hutton Williams, and
W. T. Wrightson.

At the conclusion of the luncheon, Sir Thomas
Holland proposed the health of the host, Mr. H.
Greville Montgomery, who had always been such a good
friend to the club, especially in regard to the musical
entertainments at the annual dinners, through his
connection with the Savage Club. Sir Thomas Holland
referring to the great-loss which the club had suffered
by the tragic death of their late president, Mr. W. H.
Pickering, said:—

“ Everyone present knows that, but for the great-
disaster at Cadeby last July, our revered president, in
his inimitable way, would now be in this place expressing
your appreciation of Mr. Montgomery’s hospitality.
This is the first general gathering of the club since our
president and founder lost his life during what was but
the last of a series of heroic acts on behalf of the miner.
To those of you who know that the same unflinching
regard for duty controlled Mr. Pickering’s actions in
small as well as in great things, the cold official comment
on the Cadeby disaster recently issued by the Chief
Inspector of Mines must seem like sacrilege. Allowingfor
Mr. Bedmayne’s apparent difficulty in conveying his
thoughts in simple English, I have no hesitation in
saying that the sentiment conveyed in the last para-
graphs of his recent report will be condemned by every
healthy-minded miner as unworthy of the traditions of
our race.

“Putting aside for a moment the moral question as to
whether it is right to lead a body of men into an
unknown danger to save a probably much smaller
number of their fellow-workers, there is good reason for
assuming that Mr. Pickering was justified by the facts
before him at the time in leading a rescue party ; he had
with him other men of known experience and good
judgment, his official colleagues and the manager of the
mine; he was closely followed by another party led by
an inspector as experienced as Mr. J. B. B. Wilson,
who, but for an accidental delay, would, as we now
know, have been killed also. It is easy to be wise after
the event; it is easy apparently in the comfort of an
office chair to criticise the wisdom of more experienced
men; but this report fails most lamentably to distinguish
between the conclusions which were justified by the
facts before Mr. Pickering and his colleagues at the
time, and those which have since been obtained. Even
as a cold official judgment, therefore, on the purely
professional question of whether it was or was not
discreet to go underground, the inferences drawn in
this report seem to me to be unscientific and
unsound. But the sentiment that it displays is even
more to be deplored. Fancy this country admiring the
professional wisdom of Capt. Scott if he returned safely
rather than expose his men to the dangers of the

Antarctic! Fancy Pickering sitting at the surface
estimating the distant risks of another explosion while
his fellows were dying below! Doubtless if the rescue
party had been restrained long enough, in this case as
in similar cases, they could have proved the futility of
an attempt, as the men would then have been dead.
But the deeds of men like Pickering and Scott are
worth more than lives ; through their deaths the spirit
of the race lives, for to this world a brave man dying in
the face of danger is worth more than ten cowards living
and carefully counting the costs. After reading this
report, I see the real wisdom of the Archbishop of York,
who said truly of Pickering, ‘ His was not life cut short,
but one abundantly completed and fulfilled.’ It is our
duty to see that the memory of such a man is preserved,
for the benefit of our race.”

In speaking of the exhibition which had been
organised through the public spirit of Mr. Montgomery,
Sir Thomas Holland contrasted its object with that of
general exhibitions which catered mainly for varied
amusements. The exhibition covered every phase of
mining activity—geological and mechanical—as well as
the human aspects of the industry, illustrated by the
exhibits relating to methods of life-saving underground.
Such exhibitions may be less profitable to their pro-
moters, but they are far more valuable than “ world’s
fairs.”

In replying to the toast, Mr. Montgomery said that
it gave him great pleasure to welcome the members of
the Indian Mining and Geological Club and members of
the Mining and Geological Institute of India on
the occasion of his Mining Machinery Exhibition.
This was the fifth Exhibition devoted to the
mining industry, the last having been held at
Olympia in 1908. About five years would probably
again elapse before the next Mining Exhibition was

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Anglo-Indian Mining Engineers at the Mining Machinery Exhibition.



held, and he hoped that on that occasion he would again
have the pleasure of welcoming the members of the
Indian Mining and Geological Club and Institute.

The Hon. Secretary (Mr. Allan Greenwell) was
then called upon to make a few remarks as to the
position of the club. Mr. Greenwell said that it had
been thought that it would be better not to make any
formal statement upon the present occasion, but to defer
it to later in the year, before the end of the Indian leave
season, when a smoking concert or a dinner could be
arranged. He asked the members present to communi-
cate with him regarding the most convenient date and
other details.

Sir Balph Ashton then proposed the toast of “ The
Honorary Secretary,” who responded.

The guests then proceeded to the Exhibition Hall,
where Mr. Montgomery had kindly arranged for a
photographic group, which we are permitted to repro-
duce. Mr. Montgomery then conducted the party
through the hall and showed them the interesting
exhibits of mining machinery and appliances, which
constituted without doubt the finest exhibition of the
kind which has been held in this country,

Grimsby Coal Exports.—The exports from Grimsby last
week were returned to be as follows:—Foreign: To
Antwerp, 714 tons; Barcelona, 2,593; Cronstadt, 2,279;
Dieppe, 1,056 ; Esbjerg, 252 ; Gefle, 2,201 ; Gothenburg’
3,062; Helsingborg, 1,322; Malmo, 583; Riga, 1,715;
Rostock, 1,199 ; Rotterdam, 411 ; and St. Petersburg, 2,718 ;
total, 20,105. Coast 1 . To Lerwick, 1,209, and London
106 ; total, 1,315. For the corresponding week of last year
the exports were: Foreign 22,561, coastal 2,279 tons.

NOTES FROM SOUTH WALES.

[from our own correspondent.]

“ Immediate Operation ” of the Men’s Schedule of
Rates for New Work—A Notable Conference of
Miners Foreshadowed—Forty per cent. Increase in
Colliery Profits — Difficulties in Classifying
Workmen—“Record” Importations of Pitwood—
Singular Decision under the Compensation Act—
Another “ Show-card ” Day Called.

The conference of South Wales miners, called to
deal with the proposal of a schedule of rates for all new
work in collieries, will take place in Cardiff on the
23rd inst., and this may open out one of the most
determined conflicts in the history of the industry, for
the conference is practically certain to adopt, at any
rate in its main features, the scheme as already outlined
in this column. Apparently, the idea is that it shall
become immediately operative, for, addressing the Garw
Valley miners at theii- monthly meeting on Tuesday,
Mr. Hodges (the agent) stated that it would at once
apply to several collieries in that area, and also to two
seams in another. The probability of conflict is still
further made clear by his statement that, owing to
failure to settle a price list independently, the new
schedule rates would have to be embodied in any agree-
ment reached after the conference. Additional evidence
of the gravity of the question is seen in a statement
that he hoped the suggested increase of Id. per week in
members’ contributions would be adopted, so that
money might be sent to Cardiff “ to establish a fighting
fund for the realisation of the prices in the schedule.”

If all that is now suggested should actually come
before the miners’ delegates at their conference on
June 23, it will be a notable gathering. For instance,
the Federation is being urged to set up machinery with
the object of securing a more successful application of
the Minimum Wage Act. Something in the nature
of a statistical department, with regular returns as to
payments in the different collieries, appears to be in
mind. It is asserted that circumstances in connection
with the administration of the Act “ are serious, and
demand the immediate attention of the whole coalfield.”
This is what Mr. Vernon Hartshorn asserts, and he
adds that “ in many of the collieries the Act is
practically a * dead-letter’—thousands of pounds which
ought to go to the men are withheld ” He puts the
blame upon the men themselves, and urges them to be
vigilant in their own interests, pointing out that under
the award of Lord St. Aldwyn there is “ a rock-bottom
minimum of 7s. 4d. per day, and the least minimum to
any other grade is 5s. 0|d. per day, with a minimum
of 2s. 5d. for boys starting at 14 years of age.” These,
he says, are higher than the minima which the workmen
proposed to put into the Act as fixed rates. There are,
he adds, thousands of men who are not receiving what
they are entitled to, and he urges that the whole
circumstances of the operation of the Minimum Wage
Act in the coalfield ought to be thoroughly investigated,
so that where slackness exists there should be concerted
measures to remedy any shortcomings. As the matter
is urgent, and in view of the sums of money involved,
“ an opportunity ought to be found for discussing the
problem at the forthcoming conference in Cardiff.” It
is stated that at some collieries the machinery for
operating the Act has not been set up—the workmen