February 20, 1914. THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN. 411 ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Birmingham. GOAL. Although retail sales of household coal have dropped, the pits are kept going full time. Manufacturing fuel is quiet. Slacks may be bought at slightly lower prices than recently, but, generally speaking, prices remain firm, as under :— Prices at pit. Current L’st week’s Last year’s Staffordshire (including Cannock Chase):— prices. prices. prices. House coal, best deep ... 18/6 18/6 18/ Do. seconds deep 16/ 16/ 16/6 Do. best shallow 14/9 14/9 14/6 Do. seconds do. 14/ 14/ 13/ Best hard 15/ 15/ 14/ Forge coal 11/ 11/ 11/ Slack Warwickshire:— 7/6 7/6 8/6 House coal, best Ryder.. Do. hand-picked 16/6 16/6 17/6 cobs 14/ 14/ 13/9 Best hard spires 15/ 15/ 14/6 Forge (steam) 11/ 11/ 10/ D.S. nuts (steam) 10/ 10/ 9/3 Small (do.) 8/3 8/3 8/3 im. The market revealed neither expansion of demand nor improvement in prices in the South Staffordshire iron and steel industries. If anything, values continue to recede, and cutting is prevalent in more than one branch. Makers of pig iron are working on contracts booked early in the year, but the amount of new business is insignificant. There are probably half a-dozen fewer furnaces in blast throughout South Staffordshire than at the beginning of the year, owing to slackness in the finished branches, in which the mills are working from three to four days a week. Northamptonshire grey forge commands not more than 48s. 6d. to 49s. 8d., South Staffordshire common is about 49s., and part-mine 52s. In the finished branches normal quantities of standard bars are being sold at £8 10s. a ton at makers’ works for engineering work. Good second-class bars remain at £6 15s. to £6 17s. 6d., but most of the orders are booked at the lower figure. This branch is weak, and while there is a fair amount doing for nut and bolt iron, Belgian competition continues keen. Substantial sales of foreign iron have been made as low as .£5 10s. and £5 12a. 6d., net cash, compared with £Q 10a. for the local product, though this is subject to 24 per cent, discount. Gas strip is also an inanimate branch, and while the official price is still quoted at £6 15s. to £7 a ton, it is no secret that orders are being placed at .£6 10s. a ton for lots of 25 tons and upwards. The galvanised sheet branch continues fairly active, although the South African and South American demand has fallen off appreciably. Most of the houses are sold to the end of the quarter, and prices are quoted .£11 5s. to .£11 7s. 6d. A quiet trade is done in black sheets for galvanising, and prices range from £7 5s. to £7 12?. 6d. delivered in the district. Hoops are languid at £6 17s. 6d. to £7 5s. a ton for the heavy and light gauges respectively. Steel makers find an improved demand for plates, bars, angles, tees, and channels, and the works are kept running full time, although Continental competition is reported as being keen. Demi- products are unchanged. The official quotation for ferro is £9, but sales take place at 10s. below that figure. _________________ Lydn©^# COAL a The condition of the house coal trade in this district has been somewhat quieter this week and the collieries have not averaged five days since last writing. The heavy gales along the coast have interfered with shipments, and tonnage has been delayed very considerably; as a consequence stocks at the dock sidings show some increase. Orders from the inland merchants continue to come in steadily. The steam coal pits are making good time and all coal raised is disposed of without adding to stock. Prices at pithead. House coals:— Block Forest Rubble Nuts Rough slack Steam coal:— Large Small Current prices. 17/6 16/6 16/9 15/ 6/6 12/6-13/ 8/6- 9/ L’st week’s prices. 17/6 16/6 16/9 15/ 6/6 12/6-13/ 8/6- 9/ Last year’s prices. 16/6 15/6 15/9 14/ 9/ 13/ -13/6 10/ Prices Is. 9d. extra f.o.b. Lydney or Sharpness. ____________________________________________________ TCI TMOE Liverpool. The . tone of the market continues firm, but enquiries have not been so numerous during the past few days, and only a moderate business was reported. Most works, however, are fully booked up for the next two or three months, and are not keen on selling ahead to any extent. During the week I C 14 x 20 have been done at 13s. 41d. and 13s. 6d. per box, and odd sizes at 13s. 74d. to 13s. 9d. To-day, makers’ prices may be called firm as follow:—Coke tinplates: IC 14 x 20 (112 sh. 108 lb.), 13s. 6d. to 13s. 9d. per box; IC 28 x 20 (112 sh. 216 lb.), 27s. 3d. to 27s. 6d. per box ; I C 28 x 20 (56 sh. 108 lb.), 14s. to 14s. 3d. per box; I C 14 x 18i (124 sh. 110 1b.), 13s. 10|d. to 14s. per box; IC 14 x 19| (120 sh. 1101b.), 13s. 10M. to 14s. per box; I C 20 x 10 (225 sh. 156 lb.), 19s. 3d. to 19s. 6d. per box; I C squares and odd sizes, 13s. 9d. to 14s. basis for approved specifications. Charcoal tins rule steady at 16s. per box and upwards according to tinning. Coke wasters are in good demand, and prices are firm as follow :—C W 14 x 20, 12s. 7-|d. to 12s. 9d. per box; C W 28 x 20, 25s. 3d. to 25s. 6d. per box; C W 14 x 18f, Ils. 7|d. to 11s. 9d. per box ; C W 20 x 10, 15s. 6d. to 15s. 9d. per box—all f.o.b. Wales, less 4 per cent. I1TELLI&E1CE. HOUSE OF COMMONS.—February 13. Mine and Railway Accidents. The debate was resumed on Mr. Brace’s amendment to the Address, calling attention to the “ serious and increasing number of accidents in mines and on railways.” As regards the accidents on railways, Mr. Robertson (Parliamentary Secretary of the Board of Trade) promised an enquiry into the working of the Railway Employment (Prevention of Accidents) Act, 1900, with particular reference to the powers of the Board of Trade under the Act. Mr. W. E. Harvey, who followed, pleaded for a Minister of Mines. In regard to the demand for increased inspec- tion, he observed that the French Chamber had appointed additional inspectors. He also referred to the evidence of the firemen at the Senghenydd enquiry. The firemen had found an explosive mixture, but through fear of dismissal they did not report this explosive mixture. That was the kind of thing that pressed them to ask for independent firemen. If the men realised the seriousness of some of these mines, which were nothing less than gasometers, they would have no coal got, and there would be a scarcity of the commodity that was so essential to the well-being and prosperity of the nation. Then there were nearly 1,300 men killed, not by explosions, but by falls of roofs and sides. They could have a better lamp than they had now if colliery owners would only be magnanimous and prove that they had the interests of the men at heart. Owing to the bad light thousands of men suffered from an affection of the eye, and the time had come when consideration must be given by the Home Office to this matter. The roof was the last place one could see with a lamp. He was glad to say there were some colliery owners and managers who did all they could do, and spared no cost to make mines safe for the men engaged in them. But there were mines owned by limited companies, and they had no soul. It was a bad job for the country that they had lost private employers. The provisions made for the inspection of roofs and sides should be altered and improved. In cases where neglect can be proved, the law should be set in motion. Mr. John Williams also supported the amendment. There was no reason why gas should be allowed to accumulate in collieries, and if the provisions of the present Coal Mines Act and the regulations contained in the statutory orders, were observed and enforced, they would enjoy an immunity from these awful catastrophes. There must be something wrong with the ventilation to have an explosion, but there were collieries at the present moment through the returns from which a man could not crawl. There was no reason why an accumulation of two or three hundred tons of pulverised coaldust should be allowed to remain on the main road. Mr. Duncan Millar thought that the Coal Mines Act of 1911 should be given a trial. He recalled the fact that he had proposed an amendment in the Committee on the Bill® of 1911 which would have given to the fireman the right to appeal against dismissal by his employer. At the present moment firemen in Scotland had formed an association of their own. They were anxious to be independent, and yet it appeared that every possible pressure was being put upon them by the miners’ union to force them to join that union. If there was to be independence in one sense, there ought to be independence in all. He also referred to the subject of hydraulic stowage and the non-compliance with rescue rules. On different occasions he had asked the Home Office to take steps in reference to the action of the Lanarkshire coalowners, and he was glad to think that as a result of the pressure which had been put upon them they had provided not only smoke helmets, but the self-contained apparatus which was necessary to comply with the Order itself. There still remained, however, the necessity for bringing it home to all concerned that the requirements of this statute made it necessary that self-contained apparatus shall be provided. The amended regulations were now under consideration, and he hoped they would not be met by further opposition on the part of the coalowners. Mr. Whitehouse said he understood that the mine- owners had given notice of appeal against that regulation, and that the matter had now come to a referee in accordance with the terms of the Act. The position at the present moment was that the Act was still defied in a great number of the mines, and the latest regulation issued by the Home Office was now the subject of appeal, and until that appeal had been heard no further steps could be taken. He desired, in the first place, to ask how many mines since the Cadder disaster had ceased their defiance of the Act and had placed in connection with their mines the apparatus insisted upon by the Home Office; and in the second place, how many mines, with the relative number of miners affected, were to-day still without any apparatus such as approved of by the Home Office; thirdly, what was the provision with regard to the institution of rescue brigades. Were there at this moment any adequate rescue brigades in existence in the county of Lanark ? Lastly, he desired to ask the Under-Secretary whether he had considered the position which would arise if the referee, who was to hear the appeal of the mineowners against the latest draft regula- tion issued by the Home Office, gave a decision unfavourable to the Home Office ? Mr. Pringle referred to the regulation dealing with a second intake airway in mines. The exemption had been misrepresented and misconstrued. It had never been mentioned at any time that there was an arbitration upon this particular matter, and that the independent referee (Lord Mersey) gave his decision that that particular exemption was a reasonable one. Yet the official organ of the Labour party had ventured to print a disgraceful charge, and to publish it free gratis to the electors of North-West Durham. One paragraph was headed, “The Slaughter in Mines,” and the only special rule referred to in regard to “ slaughter in mines ’ was this special rule. He added that many improvements might be brought about were it not for the influence of the owners over the Government. Mr. S. Walsh said that they fought in Committee in 1910-1911 for the exclusion of electricity from the mines, and were told it would be impossible to work the mines. He for one had never said that in the operations of coal- mining there were not as good men as this world contains —men who were really doing their best under a thousand difficulties to bring about the bast conditions, but they themselves could not fight against the inventions and developments which were taking place in the mines to introduce a new danger. He thought that the Bill that was promised by the Government might very well be widened. The small Bill that followed the Cadder disaster had been tremendously overshadowed by the enormous holocaust at Senghenydd. The Under Secretary for the Home Department (Mr. Ellis Griffith), referring first to Mr. Walsh’s remarks, said the controversy was whether, for the sake of the safety of the mines, electricity should be used or not. His hon. friend thought it should not, but a great many people took the contrary view. The Senghenydd enquiry would do some- thing to throw light on the question. The only point of substance was with respect to the Cadder disaster. The difficulty was, and still is, the question whether a smoke helmet or a portable breathing apparatus was a compliance with the regulations. If they had instituted a prosecution in Scotland a Scottish court would have decided it. They, in the interest of the safety of the men, would have preferred to take a test case in England before an English court rather than in Scotland before a Scottish court. Those were the real facts of the case. This went on, and the Cadder disaster occurred on August 3. Thereupon an enquiry took place. That disaster, at any rate, brought home to the mind of the Home Office that there were no rescue appliances in this mine. This was emphasised, and it was said that they should then have taken proceedings. But the absence of apparatus was not the cause of the disaster; and directly after the disaster the owners of the Cadder Colliery provided a complete rescue apparatus. They were advised that if they got a conviction then, which was not at all certain, the sheriff courts might have given only a nominal penalty. Directly after the commissioners’ report draft regulations were published making this breathing apparatus essential. Thereupon the mineowners of Lanarkshire, under the provisions of this very Act, did what they were entitled to by Statute, appealed to a referee. That appeal would come on for hearing on the 24th of this month. The primary responsibility was upon the owner, the manager, and the under-manager. The Home Office recognised to the full that there was upon them again a responsibility to supervise the owner, the manager and the under-manager, and to see that so far as possible they complied with the statutory requirements. Mr. Brace said that upon the undertaking given by the Home Secretary he would ask leave to withdraw his amendment. The amendment, on a vote being taken, was negatived by 239 votes to 73. ____________________________________ TUB 1T-PR010CTS Tar Products.—There is very little change in the state of the market. Benzols and toluol keep firm, but on the west coast there is a slightly easier tone about pitch. Carbolics and naphthas keep much about the same. Creosote unchanged. Nearest values are:— Benzols, 90’s ............................... Do. 50’s ........................................... Do. 90’s North ......................... Do. 50’s North ............ ....................... Toluol ...................................... Carbolic acid, crude (60 per cent.)............ Do. crystals (40 per cent.)................. Solvent naphtha (as in quality and package) ... Crude ditto (in bulk) ....................... Creosote (for ordinary qualities) ............ Pitch (f.o.b. east coast) ..................... Do. (f.a.s. west coast) ..................... Do. (f.o.b. gas companies) .......................... 1/1 to 1/1| /111 to 1/ /111 to 1/ /10 /10| to /Il 1/01 to 1/1 /3| /9£ l&i /31 38/6 to 39/6 38/ to 38/6 Sulphate of Ammonia.—There is a distinctly firmer feeling about the market, and the tone generally is healthier, though for the moment forward business is still quite at a standstill. In the north things have certainly changed and also on the west coast there has been a revival of interest in the market. Nitrate of soda dearer. Closing prompt prices are :— London (ordinary makes)............ £11/12/6 Beckton (certain terms) ............ £12/10/0 ..................... Liverpool_____.......................... £12/8/9 to £12/10/0 Hull ............................____ £12/7/6 Middlesbrough ....................... £12/7/6 Scotch ports......................... £12/12/6 Nitrate of soda (ordinary) per cwt. ... 10/6