January 30, 1914.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

253

lie IWlirni SwBw

AND

Journal of th® Coal and Iron Trades.

Joint Editors—

J. V. ELSDEN, D.Sc. (Lond.), F.G.S.
HUBERT GREENWELL, F.S.S.

LONDON, FRIDAY. JANUARY 30. 1914

The London coal market is now settling down after
the upheaval in connection with the strike of the
loaders and carmen. All the depots are now working,
but public prices remain unsteady. Colliery lists
have been withdrawn, and advertised public prices
also remain in abeyance. There is a better tone in
prompt business on the Tyne and Wear, and the
markets are steadier. The brisk state of trade in
Lancashire, Yorkshire and the Midlands has been
maintained. At Cardiff the tone of the market is
better and prices more firm, consequent upon an
improvement in tonnage. In Scotland trade is in a
very satisfactory condition.

The Home Office enquiry into the cause of the
Senghenydd explosion was resumed at Cardiff, on
Tuesday, and continued on W ednesday, Mr.
Bedmayne presiding, and his assessors being Mr.
Evan Williams (chairman of the Coalowners’ Associa-
tion) and Mr. B. Smillie (president of the Miners’
Federation of Great Britain). The enquiry opened
on January 2, but was adjourned next day because
the inquest was to be held. Mr. Edward Shaw, the
manager, gave further evidence on Tuesday. On
Thursday, the court stood adjourned in order to
permit of attendance at New Tredegar, where a
series of experiments were to be conducted in relation
to the theories advanced as to the cause of explosion.

The Departmental Committee appointed by the
Home Secretary to enquire into the circumstances in
which spontaneous combustion of coal occurs in
mines have issued their Eirst Beport. The Committee
make recommendations with regard to the question
of the withdrawal of workmen on the outbreak of
fire or during the operations of dealing with the fire.

It is stated that when Parliament reassembles Mr.
W. Brace, M.P., will move an amendment to the
Address in reply to the King’s Speech, deploring the
inadequacy of the present Mines Act.

The Safety Committee of the South Wales Miners’
Federation have drawn up a list of suggestions for
submission to a conference to be held at Cardiff on
Monday next. The proposals include the question
of the construction of tram and main haulage roads,
the method of timbering, and the advisability of
changing, if possible, the safety lamps now in use
for portable electric lamps. There will also be a
request for legislation making it compulsory that, in
order to give the mine time to cool down, there shall
be a total cessation from work in mines for at least
six hours out of every twenty-four.

A paper on modern gas engine practice at collieries
was read at a meeting of the Midland Institute of
Mining, Civil and Mechanical Engineers, on Tuesday.

At the annual meeting of the South Wales Insti-
tute of Engineers, on Thursday, Mr. Henry T. Wales
was elected president for the ensuing year.

A general meeting of the North Staffordshire
Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers will
be held at Stoke-on-Trent on Monday, wflien Mr.
Bobert Nelson will read a paper on electricity in
mines.

The Steel Company of Scotland have entered into
negotiations for the acquisition of a half-interest in
the Appleby Iron Company Limited, of Scunthorpe,
Lincolnshire, and it is prepared to engage in the
manufacture of steel plates.

The conference of South Wales mining education
authorities at Cardiff, on Saturday, approved the
scheme for securing the co-ordination of mining
instruction throughout the coalfield, and appointed a
new Mining Board for the district. On the same day
Lord Merthyr opened at Treforest the South Wales
School of Mines which has been established by the
coalowners.

A meeting of South Wales tin-plate makers (on
Wednesday), representing 432 mills out of 530 in
the trade, approved of proposals in regard to the
formation of an association for the Welsh tin-plate

industry on the lines of the combination established
by the galvanised sheet makers. The suggestions
contain no provision for the fixing of prices, but
provide for a “ pooling ” arrangement by which a
certain period will be taken as the basis of the
average production of separate works. A committee
was selected to formulate the details for submission
at a future meeting, when an association may as a
consequence be established.

The Prime Minister has consented to receive a
deputation from the Miners’ Federation on Tuesday
next, on the question of the continuation of the
Mines (Minimum Wage) Act, which terminates in
April 1915, and its extension to all persons working
in and about the mines, so as to include surface
workers. The President of the Board of Trade will
receive a deputation from the Miners’ Federation on
Wednesday, on the subject of the Workmen’s
Compensation Act and other matters.

A joint meeting of the Board of Conciliation for
the coal trade of South Wales and Monmouthshire
is to be held to arrive at some arrangement in regard
to the period of averaging wages of pieceworkers in
view of the recent decision of the Court of Appeal
that the rule in Lord St. Aldwyn’s award pro-
viding for a period of a fortnight was ultra vires.

It was fitting that the new School

Mining of Mines, which has been established
Education in at Treforest by the coalowners of
South Wales. South Wales and Monmouthshire,
should be opened by Lord Merthyr,
for it realises dreams that have been cherished by
that most enlightened of “ industrials ” for a great
many years past.

There is no coalfield in the world that makes a
greater call upon the skill and vigilance of officials
and workmen than the South Wales coalfield, or
one that has more to hope for from science, whether
it be the science of the engineer, the geologist, or the
chemist. This coalfield has produced many men of
outstanding genius, but there has always seemed to
be something lacking in the system of education,
judged from the highest standpoint of efficiency; as
Principal Griffiths puts it, there have been too many
‘‘water-tight compartments.”

Nothing but admiration can be expressed for the
system of instruction provided by the Glamorgan
County Council; as an example of what can be done
in the sphere of secondary education it has scarcely
a compeer in any other mining district. Near the
apex of the educational ladder, however, the rungs
have been somewhat insecure, the University College
of Cardiff having failed, somehow, to serve the
purpose of a high-class technical institution. This
may be said without reflection upon the council and
teaching staff, and the deficiencies heretofore existing
may be better indicated by a reference to the place
which the Treforest School has immediately taken
in the educational sequence.

It is an act of wisdom on the part of any newcomer
in the field to take special pains to disown any thought
of competing with existing institutions. We think the
coalowners have made it abundantly clear that they
do not wish to compete with the University College
on the one hand, or with the county and borough
authorities on the other hand, but that they regard
the assistance of these bodies as an essential to that
larger scheme of educational progress without which
the Treforest School would be a relative failure.

In the case of the University College they have
given earnests of their good intentions by amalga-
mating the diploma courses and assisting the College,
by financial and other guarantees, to institute a still
higher scale of education in the shape of a post-
diploma course, with the definite prospect of research
fellowship to come.

It was not the intention, however, of the coal-
owners, in spending their money so lavishly, merely
to attract students from other coalfields, and the success
—we might say the entire success—of the school
depends on keeping open the lines of communication
with the recruiting bases. To those who study the
scheme in its entirety, there can be no doubt that
this is the intention. Nevertheless, the foundation
of the new school has probably excited some jealousy

in the breasts of those who have conducted the
classes in Glamorgan and Monmouthshire. With
respect to this, certain salient points may be
emphasised. In the first place, the Treforest School
is not capable of providing instruction for more
than 200 students in all departments, only a tithe of
those for whom a gjafrulum must be provided. Secondly,
it is staffed and equipped to deal with two distinct
systems of training—viz., part-time and full-time
diploma courses. Now, in order that the part-time
course should be successful, it has been arranged
that the students who propose attending the Treforest
School should spend at least three years in the County
and Borough Council Education Committees’ classes
to prepare them for the work done at Treforest;
this would also be an antecedent to the full-time
course. The difference is that the classes under the
committees are evening classes, whereas the part-time
students at Treforest will be called upon to devote to
it one day of eight hours per week. This arrange-
ment should meet the criticism of those who look
askance at higher education in mining. Many such
think that to carry every budding mining engineer
through a full four-year course is to deprive him
largely of the opportunities for obtaining that
practical experience which is the hall-mark of
British mining. Coalmining, however, has much
to hope from the cultivation of the higher sciences
in close association with the industry; there is,
on the other hand, a large class of officials of whom
the first qualification should be an intimate acquain-
tance with practical work below ground, but none
of them would be a penny the worse for receiving such
a training as the Treforest School can give them.
Thus, we think, the coalowners’ scheme adequately
meets both points of view.

In this connection we should like to draw special
attention to some observations made by Prof. Knox,
the new principal, at the opening ceremony on
Saturday. He considered, that if mining technology
was to take its proper place in the future and help
to make the mines more safe and more efficient,,
junior technical schools were absolutely essential,
for they must deal with the work up to the age the
students received more practical experience in mines-
and were capable of carrying out the work they
hoped to do in that school. These schools ought to
be established by rhe various public authorities on
the same lines as the higher grade and secondary
schools. The object is one with which we most
heartily sympathise, for too long have we suffered
from that terrible wastage that follows the exit
from the elementary school. How many young
men who have reached the age of 18 look back
with regret upon the previous three years of
educational indifference, in which all the promise
of earlier years has yielded to the pleasures of
the street corner and the field? How hopeless
seems the fresh start in life ? We should assuredly
look after these lads, and if the evil could be
overcome—and we believe the Legislature will very
shortly apply the necessary pressure—by instituting,
day technical schools at which these boys should
attend for, say, six months in the year, and in some
capacity at a colliery for the other six months, a
great work would have been accomplished, that would
have its effect upon every later stage. There can be
no doubt that day training has advantages over
evening classes, which often find the students tired
out from labour and travelling, to say nothing of the
strain of homework.

This is only one of the many points that await the
consideration of the new South Wales and Monmouth-
shire Education Board, which was constituted in Cardiff
on Saturday. It was evident that at that conference
certain jealousies had not been altogether demolished,
and the scheme, which has for its object the co-ordina-
tion of mining instruction throughout the coalfield,
is not yet by any means safe. Perhaps it was
unfortunate that the conference coincided with the
opening of the Treforest School, for many of the
delegates seemed to be unable to escape from the
idea that the Board had some administrative
function; on this ground only is the objection to the
representation of the South Wales Institute of
Engineers understandable. As a matter of fact, the
Board is purely an advisory body, with no control