February 6, 1914.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

311

THE SENGHEMYDD DISASTER.

Home Office Enquiry Resumed.

The Home Office enquiry into the. Senghenydd explosion
was continued at Cardiff on Friday of last week. Richard
Davies, night fireman in the Aberystwyth district, was
cross-examined by Mr. Brace. Tim question of electric
lamps was raised. Witness agreed that if electric lamps
were used, the, danger of an explosion through an oil lamp
would be obviated, but there would be a new danger that
men might be working in gas without knowing it. The
Commissioner said there were two lamps being subjected to
tests, but whether they were practicable or not it was too
early to say. But obviously if electric lamps were used
there should be some means of determining the presence of
gas. If the men were working with electric lamps, pre-
sumably the fireman should carry a flame lamp to determine
the presence of gas.

Witness would not agree that it would be an advantage
if the firemen, described as the safety agents, were paid, by
the State.

In reply to the Commissioner, Mr. Brace said they would
bring in a proposal that the fireman should be paid by the
State, but appointed by the workmen. Witness said he did
not think it would make any difference if the firemen were
paid by the State and were independent of men and owners.
He fully realised his responsibility under present conditions.

In reply to the Commissioner, witness said he had worked
underground for 26 years and had never seen sparks from
falling ground.

David Morris, under-manager of the West side, was next
called. In reply to the Commissioner, he said that, taking
the whole of the Mafeking as one district, there were two
intakes to one return. As a practical man, he saw no
objection to that system.

The question of providing telephonic communication
having been raised, the Commissioner said that the Home
Office had realised that there might be great value in wire-
less telegraphy, which would allow telephoning by men shut
in by a fall. The Home Office held that where a company
had taken all possible means to get a supply of telephones,
they should not be penalised. He admitted that the Home
Office had no power to exempt.

Witness said he was an advocate of having the locking
station back in the arches, but agreed that if every mine in
South Wales was as dangerous as this, it was sufficient
ground for immediate legislation not to have a naked light
at all in the mine.

Witness did not agree that it would be better if the mine
should have a certain number of hours to cool during
the 24. They had only a few men on the afternoon shift,
and that gave the pit time to cool. Nor did he agree with
the suggestion as a general principle.

Witness, replying to Mr. Nicholas, said that since the
explosion they bad abandoned the use of naked lights for
re-lighting lamps underground. It was now done on the
surface.

Answering Mr. Thomas Richards with regard to testing
with a lamp on a stick, the witness said that if the fireman
could see the flame he ought to find the gas. With a five-
foot stick the examiner could see the flame flickering and
lengthening as the lamp approached gas.

Immediately on entering the court on Saturday the
Commissioner said he wished to say that he had noticed in
the Press that morning a complete account of the experi-
ments that they carried out on the previous Thursday at
New Tredegar. The jury were specially informed that the
matter was private. The whole case was sub judice and he
particularly requested everyone present to observe what he
called common decency, in not giving to the Press an
account of the experiments. It was a very gross breach of
common decency on the part of whoever gave the Press the
notice, and it was very wrong for the Press, while the case
was sub judice, to publish these experiments. The court had
not had these experiments before them yet and were waiting
to hear the report in evidence.,

David Morris, under-manager of the West side of the mine,
then re-entered the box. He would not admit there had
been large quantities of gas in the Mafeking district. From
time to time witness was aware of blowers in the Mafeking
and Aberystwyth districts. They were all small blowers.
As to the lack of water pipes, witness said that some of
the pipes got broken. Witness did not agree with the
suggestion that at each colliery it would be advisable to
have a State-paid man stationed as an inspector.

Several questions were put by the Commissioner on a
point raised by Mr. Edward Williams that firemen should '
carry a tracing of their district. Answering the Com-
missioner, the witness said that he saw no harm in it, and
some good m’ght come of it. The Commissioner said that
Mr. Smillie suggested that the tracing should be more
extensive than the district; it should also show the
adjoining district and any old workings. The Commissioner
suggested that it might be a tracing of the seam.

William Williams, day overman of the Pretoria and
Aberystwyth district was then called. He said from what
he had seen he was of the opinion that the explosion
originated at the lamp station.

Mr. D. R Thomas, chief night overman, described in
detail his observations on going down the pit after the

explosion. It would not have been practicable under the
conditions then existing to have reversed the ventilation
and got in by the return. He did not agree that if they
had twice as much water at the time he first went down
they would have got the fire out. When he saw it first he
did n t think a canal would have stopped it.

The Commissioner asked witness as a practical man if he
thought it would be a good thing if at every colliery there
was an organised system of rescue, so that when any
disaster took place every man forming the rescue brigade
would know where his place was and what to do.

Witness said the Commissioner did not know the circum-
stances of the place at the time. The rescue brigade was
no good at all there. They had to fight the fire, and that
took a long time. Further questioned, witness said he
thought some good would be done by such a scheme.

In reply to Mr. Smillie, witness said as far as the night
shift was concerned at the Senghenydd Colliery, unskilled
workmen who had not been underground before were
instructed on the surface as to the use of the lamp, and
underground for a week or two they were placed to work
with an old hand. He thought it would be advisable if
this were done at every colliery.

The proceedings were then adjourned till the following
Thursday morning.

THE MiraUM WAGE ACT.

Deputation to the Premier.

Mr. Asquith received a deputation from the Miners’
Federation of Great Britain, at 10, Downing-street,
on Tuesday afternoon on the question of continuing the
Minimum Wage Act, in an amended form, from its
expiration in April 1915.

Messrs. W. Straker, Vernon Hartshorn, and
Frank Hall submitted the men’s case for an amended
Minimum Wage Act; and Mr. Herbert Smith (York-
shire) spoke on the eviction of workmen from their
homes during trade disputes, housing in its relation
to mining communities, and the nationalisation of
canals.

The following is a summary of the men’s proposals
for a new Minimum Wage Bill:—

1.	A new Minimum Wage Bill which shall be made
applicable equally to underground and surface
workers.

2.	The setting aside in the amending Bill such of
the rules in the district awards as ought not to be
imposed as a condition of receiving the minimum
wage.

3.	That the wages of pieceworkers shall be ascer-
tained by reference to one week only, absolutely dis-
regarding wages of all pre vious and subsequent weeks,
and that in all disputed cases the onus of proof shall
be on the employers, and it shall be assumed that the
men have done a good day’s work unless the employers
can prove to the contrary.

4.	That the minimum for each grade of workmen
under each of the awards shall be raised by 9d.
per day.

Mr. Asquith, in his reply, said the Act was admit-
tedly a highly experimental piece of legislation. He
thought he might fairly say that it was satisfactory to
those who, in a time of great stress and difficulty, were
responsible for carrying that legislation through Parlia-
ment, that now, after two years’ experience, the points
which they had raised were not points which went to the
principle of the Act, or which in any way indicated that
it was founded on a false basis, or which ought to lead the
Government and the Legislature to get rid of it, without,
as they said, putting a more adequate measure in its place.
They had brought before them some points in regard
to the working of the Act, which suggested if and when
it was renewed it should in some respects be extended
in its scope and in other amended, or rather amplified,
and made more precise and definite in its provisions.
But all those points were points which affected both
parties to the contract, and it would not be fair to
decide until they had heard both sides. “ Let me say,”
proceeded Mr. Asquith, “ as at present advised, I do not
think a strong case has been made out for the extension
of the provisions of the Act to surface workers.” The
Act, as they knew, originated in a particular and
specific grievance of underground workers as to
abnormal places. In the course of their discussions,
which preceded the strike, in the initiation of this
legislation, many of them, of whom he (Mr. Asquith)
was one, came to the conclusion that the minimum
wage ought to made practical, not merely in a particular
case of a workman called upon to mine in an abnormal
place, but also to underground workers generally who
might be prevented from no fault of their own to earn
the wages which they ought to have earned from the
abnormal circumstances in which they worked.
Throughout that discussion they dealt, and dealt
exclusively, with underground workmen. The case
made was made for underground workmen. He did
not remember any arguments which were used in support
of it which would apply to men working on the surface,
otherwise we might come to the conclusion that we
ought to have a minimum wage for all classes. He
did not at present see any answer to the question, if
they were to extend it to the stokers, screenmen and
labourers working on the surface, how they could deny
a similar privilege to the same classes of labour working
in connection with the factories and on the land. There
was no possible line of demarcation in point of principle
or policy between those classes of workmen. There
were points which they had brought before them in
which they alleged that the awards or rules which had
been made under the Act had not been in accordance
with the intention of the Legislature, but had unduly

narrowed the rights which the Legislature intended to
confer on the workmen. He was not going into those
points in detail, and certainly not going to express any
opinion upon them, until he had had much more time
to consider what they had said. One point which he
considered of great practical importance was whether
or not the average earnings should be taken for a longer
period than a week. That had been the subject of litiga-
tion, which had been before two Courts which had not
come to precisely the same conclusion, and it might be
that it would go to a higher Court still.

Mr. Brace : We are not carrying it further.

Mr. Asquith : But the employers may take it.

Mr. Brace : We are trying to arrange by arbitration.

Mr. Asquith : A very sensible thing to do. But as
the matter was sub jitdice, if he had a view about it he
would take care not to express it. With regard to the
burden of proof, as he had told them before, as an old
lawyer, he attached very little importance as to on
whose shoulder the burden of proof lies. He was
impressed, he confessed—and considerably impressed—
with two points which were raised. One was in regard
to 1 the definition of the term “ employer ” in collieries
where there was what was called a contractor, who was
apparently for some purposes, not apparently for
purposes of control, interposed between the actual
employer and the workman. That was a matter which
deserved to receive consideration. The second point
was with regard to the certificate under the rules. He
had not studied these rules himself, and was not
acquainted with their detailed provisions, but they
would have an investigation made into the rules, with a
view of seeing how far they were open to criticism. He
would say nothing about the proposal to raise the
minimum by 9d. per day, because he did not think it
was possible to carry it out by legislation.

Mr. R. Smillie : If your idea had been carried out
that the chairman, in making the award, would have
regard to the wages earned, there would have been no
need to.

Mr. Asquith said that was a form of remedy he could
not ask the Legislature to adopt.

Mr. Brace, : I hope you will let us come again.

Mr. Asquith : I am always glad to see you when you
have got some new material. He had not got a satisfac-
tory answer as to how this sum of 9d. was arrived at, or
how it was to be applied uniformly to the coalfields of
the country. He did not believe he should.

In regard to the other points which did not affect the
Minimum Wage Act, he had very little to say about
evictions he had not said before. To his mind the
necessity for legislation on a matter of this kind
depended upon the extent and gravity of the grievance
which could be proved. With regard to housing the
Government were taking the matter in hand, not
merely with reference to miners’ houses, which he quite
agreed were in some parts of the country a real
reproach to our civilisation, but generally they
might be quite sure that in any measures—legisla-
tive or administrative—that they put forward they
would not forget that the miners’ claims were as
strong and the calls as clamorous as those of any class
of the agricultural or industrial population. With
regard to the question of canals and the report of the
Royal Commission, Mr. Smith was modest and shy and
gingerly—not at all like a Yorkshireman. It was
estimated that to carry out the recommendations of the
Royal Commission would cost something like 20 millions
sterling, and they had not got 20 millions. He thought
there was a case where, by co-operation between the
local and national authority, something might be
done in improving these waterwaysand making them an
alternative route of communication for certain classes
of traffic.

Mr. Harvey thanked Mr. Asquith for receiving the
deputation.

THE mSPECTIOfi OF RfllHES.

The Home Secretary Receives Deputation.

On Wednesday at the Home Office an important
deputation consisting of the executive of the Miners’
Federation of Great Britain met the Home Secretary
on the question of the inspection of coalmines.

The principal speaker was Mr. W. Brace, M.P.,
who urged that the Home Office should reorganise the
whole system of mine inspection. The system of inspec-
tion by sample was but to live in a fool’s paradise.
They made the proposal that the Home Secretary
should reorganise the whole system of inspection, that
he should survey and map out the whole of the coal-
fields of Great Britain into areas, that he should have
in those areas a first-class inspector, such as he has now
in charge, and that he should have under him a new
class of inspectors appointed by the men but paid by
the State, one for each 5,000 workmen employed.
While their chief inspectors, special and under, would
prepare reports for the Home Office—reports, might
he say, that ought to be public documents, and ought to
be on the top of the colliery after a special inspection
had been undertaken—they should supervise the work of
the staff of workmen inspectors, and when they were called
upon to inspect a colliery it would be, not a superficial
examination, but a complete inspection. Continuing,
he said it was a very serious objection that the present
inspectors were not able to carry out the duties that
the last Mines Regulation Act had put upon
them under section 29, subsection 3 of the Act.
This Act had come into operation in July 1912, yet he
undertook to say that not 15 per cent, of the collieries
had had this test applied to them. He suggested that
the new class of inspectors ought to be selected by a
ballot vote of the workmen, in the same way as the
checkweigbmen. If the Home Office said they should
have a time period for re-election or change, he was not
against it. The salaries of this class of inspector,
who would do the work of inspection efficiently and