422

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

February 20, 1914.

Moss Hall Coal Company Limited. The cage, containing
ten men and hoys, was ascending the No. 5 shaft when by
some means an empty coal tub fell from the surface down
the shaft, and struck violently the bonnet of the cage.
The inquest was opened on Tuesday and adjourned.

Complaints having been made to the Streets Com-
mittee of the Westhoughton District Council respecting
colliery water, the committee has passed a resolution
that they cannot permit any more of the Hulton Colliery
water to be turned into the sewer in its present state,
and that if at any time it is turned into the sewer it
must be previously treated with sufficient quantity of
milk of lime to ensure the iron in the water being
efficiently precipitated.

Presiding on Tuesday at the annual meeting of
shareholders of Andrew Knowles and Sons Limited, at
Manchester, Mr. Robert Knowles referred to the
incessant worry caused by legislation and labour troubles.
The result for the past year was not so good as they
anticipated. While they had all the appliances for
getting out the coal, the men had not worked full time,
and consequently there was less production by at least
12 per cent. They had had a full year under the
National Insurance Act, and the amount to be paid
was £2,389. National Insurance, mineral rights, and
undeveloped land duty were equal to an extra income
tax on the net profits for the year of Is. 10d. in the
pound. The total paid by them in local and Imperial
taxation and State assurance last year was £18,298.

About 500 miners were unable to descend a pit of the
Moss Collieries, belonging to the Pearson and Knowles
Coal and Iron Company, near Wigan, on Tuesday, in
consequence of a fire on the colliery premises, which had
been raging throughout the night. The Wigan Fire
Brigade, which was summoned to the scene in the early
hours of the morning, found that the colliery screens
and pit-brow timbers were burning fiercely, and it was
only after four hours’ strenuous work that the brigade
were successful in saving the pithead gear and the
engine-house. The damage is estimated at £1,000.

Yorkshire.

Housing at Bentley and Rossington—Water Supply for
the Coalfield : a Deadlock—The Harworth Sinking
—New Pit at Darfield—The Geology of the Coalfield
—Askern’s Railway Rate.

The Urban District Council having jurisdiction over
the colliery district of Bentley, near Doncaster, have
decided upon a housing scheme, the object being to
remedy the overcrowding which at present exists. The
District Council propose to purchase 4 acres’of land,
and erect 12 houses to the acre. About 50 houses will
be put up as a first experiment, and each will have a
bathroom. The Council are of opinion they can carry
their scheme through on a sound financial basis, and if
this proves to be so, there is every probability of its
being extended. There are said to be 200 families in ths
Bentley district who require houses, and at present two
or three families are living in one house.

Great disappointment has been expressed in the
Doncaster district through the defeat of the scheme
under which the Leeds Corporation were to supply
Doncaster and many parishes in the new coalfield on
the line of route with drinking water. The ratepayers
of Leeds having defeated the proposal at the poll, the
scheme has been hung up for at least 12 months.
Meanwhile, colliery centres are having to make other
arrangements. The Adwick Parish Council have just
completed an agreement with the Brodsworth Colliery
Company to supply water for at least 10 years, at
16 hours per day pumping. There is a stipulation that
if,' after all, the Leeds Corporation water comes
Doncaster way, the Council will still take at least £150
of water for the colliery company per annum.

It is reported that before sinking operations are
proceeded with at the new pit which is to be sunk at
Harworth,near Doncaster, by an Anglo-German combine
the ground around the proposed shaft will be frozen to a
depth of 175 yards. The Great Northern Railway
have completed their branch line from the main at
Scrooby to the site of the pit.

The shaft in connection with the new Rossington
Main Colliery, near Doncaster, has at present reached a
distance of some 210 yards, or about a quarter of the
journey down to the coalseam. The model village is
being erected about half a-mile from the pit. It is
planned in the shape and form of a circle. It is the
scheme of the colliery company, who claim that it will
be unique as colliery villages go. In all there will be
about 1,000 houses, covering an area of 84 acres. At present
less than 100 houses have been erected. Two different
types are proposed at different rentals. The two main
roads of the village will be 40 ft. wide, and as an
example of town planning on a systematic scale the new
village of Rossington will win the attention of all
interested in this great subject. A sewerage scheme is
in course of construction.

At Darfield Main, a colliery belonging to the Mitchell
Main Company, where the seams now being worked are
the Barnsley bed and the Melton field, a new shaft is to
be sunk which will be one of the largest in Yorkshire.
The new shaft, which is in the near vicinity of the
existing pit, will have a diameter of 21 ft., four pulley
wheels, and be of sufficient dimensions for four cages.
The shaft will be sunk directly down to the Parkgate
seam, a distance of 600 yards, and the headgear is
already in course of construction.

Prof. W. G. Fearnsides,the Sor by Professor of Geology
at the University of Sheffield, has been describing the
investigations that he and his students in the new
mining department are carrying out in regard to local
mining problems. “ The most notable thing about the

Yorkshire coalfield,” he says, “ is that the concealed part
is as interesting and as important commercially as the
part which for a long time has been actually known as
the outcrop of the coal measures. Ten years ago the
colliery district did not extend east of the line that goes
through Conisborough, Heckleton, North Elm sail, and
Pontefract. All the new collieries, Maltby, Brodsworth,
Askern, and the rest that are being developed now are
beyond that line. We want to know what there is
underneath the cover of permian limestone and triassic
sandstone. It is groping in the dark, and we have to
get evidence from the places where the coal outcrops,
and guess what there is in places where we cannot see,
but where we think that the coal persists. Most people
have been working on the idea that there is an anti-
cline that cuts off the coalfield north of Leeds, that
there is a similar anticline which forms the main
Pennine axis, and another which forms the ground
south of Derby and on by Leicester, and because they
have found those three, they say there must be a fourth
somewhere. The old people said that as Doncaster was
mid-way between Leeds and Nottingham, therefore it
was the centre of the Yorkshire and Nottingham coal
basin. Now the question we have to answer is whether
that is right.”

The Railway and Canal Commissioners, on the
5th inst., heard the case of the Lancashire and York-
shire Railway Company v. the Great Northern Railway
Company and the Great Central Railway Company.
The plaintiff company claim a through route and a
through rate for the carriage of coal from Askern
Colliery, near Doncaster, to Grimsby, at 2s. 6d. per ton.
It was intimated that an arrangement would be come to
between the parties whereby the traffic from Askern
Colliery would be dealt with, leaving the Court to
determine how the rate of 2s. 6d. per ton should
be apportioned. The hearing was continued on
the following day, when evidence was taken on the
question of apportionment of the proposed rates
for the carriage of coal from the Goldthorpe and
Askern collieries, near Doncaster, to Grimsby. Mr.
Justice Bankes, giving judgment on one section
of the matters raised—the question of the route from
the Goldthorpe Colliery, in the Dearne Valley Railway
Company’s case—said this was an application by the
Dearne Valley Company for an order allowing a through
route and rates, as proposed by them, from the Gold-
thorpe Colliery, through Loversail Junction and Don-
caster, on to the Great Central Railway, and over their
line to Grimsby, the rate being 2s. 8d. per ton. This
was opposed by the Great Northern Railway as not
being reasonable, while the Great Central Railway did
not oppose either the route or the rate. It was opposed
by the Great Northern Railway mainly on the ground
that the condition of things at Doncaster was such that
it was not possible for them to deal with any consider-
able body of additional traffic. In the opinion of the
Court the objection was not well founded. They had
evidence that the Great Northern Railway were pro-
posing to spend money with the object of alleviating
that congestion, and the Court were not prepared to
prohibit the route proposed merely because it might
cause obstruction. On that point the Great Northern
Railway had failed to convince the Court, and in their
opinion they were unable to say that the route was
objectionable. Mr. Balfour Browne, K.C., (for the
Great Northern Railway) asked for liberty to apply in
the event of any material increase in traffic, and this
was granted. The Court allowed the through rate and
the through rate proposed. The question of allocation
of the rate in both cases was adjourned.

The well-known King’s Head Hotel at Barnsley, which
has been the venue of the Barnsley weekly coal market
for the past 60 years, has changed hands and is to be
pulled down. After this the market will be held at the
Queen’s Hotel, Barnsley, where all necessary arrange-
ments have been made for the comfort and convenience
of traders attending the market.

Notts and Derbyshire.

New Seam at Hucknall.

A presentation, consisting of an illuminated address
and purse of gold, was made at Hucknall, Notts, on
Saturday evening, February 14, to Mr. J. Barker, who
recently left Hucknall to take up the duties of manager
at the Charlesworth Collieries.

A new seam, known as the High Main, situated half-
way down the present shaft of the Hucknall No. 2
Colliery, near Nottingham, has been tapped and proved
to have a thickness of 4 ft. 6 in. The Deep Soft seam,
which was found last October, is also being opened out.
The new seams, it is expected, will absorb the men
whose stalls in the north-east district of the pit will
shortly be finished. The High Main seam has been
successfully worked at the neighbouring Linby Colliery
during the last twelve months.

At a monthly meeting of the South Staffordshire
Mines Drainage Commissioners at Dudley, last week,
Aid. J. Hughes, who presided, said that at the
present time in the Tip ton district they were pumping
nearly 2,000,000 gallons less water per twenty-four hours
than in the corresponding period last year. The
quantity raised at the Old Hill district remained
about the same as two years ago. The whole of the
pumps were in excellent working condition, and some of
them were in operation only about half-time. It was
decided to. levy a general rate upon all occupiers of
mines within the drainage area of a penny upon every
ton of slack, shale, limestone, ironstone, coal, or other
minerals raised during the half-year ended December 31
last, to be payable on* April 1 next.

At a colliery near Cannock Chase a large export
contract is held for the shipment of best coal from
Liverpool.

Dean Forest.

The State of Trade.

On the 6th inst., coalowners and others renting under
the Crown in the Forest of Dean coalfield met at the Speech
House for the purpose of paying over to the local
officials the royalties won on the coal gotten during the
half year just ended. After the financial transactions
had been attended to, the galees sat down to a sumptuous
banquet, over which Mr. W. Forster Brown (deputy
gavaller) presided. He was supported at the. top table
by Mr. T. H. Deakin (Parkend and New Fancy
Collieries), Mr. V. F. Leese (deputy surveyor, Dean
Forest), Mr. S. J. Elsom, Mr. J. W. Guise, Major
Vereker (Clearwell Castle), Mr. Francis Hobbs (Mon-
mouth), Mr. W. A. Champness, and Mr. T. A. Llewellyn.
In proposing the toast of “ Prosperity to the Coal Trade
and Kindred Industries of the Forest of Dean,” Mr.
Forster Brown said that last year the total output was
1,127,198. which showed an increase of 60,423 tons, as
compared with the previous year, which in turn showed
an increase of 57,000 as against 1911. This was not
quite the largest output on record, as in 1908 no less
than 1,148,000 tons of coal were raised, but he looked
upon it as very much more gratifying, inasmuch as
it had been produced in a year when all other
districts were fully employed, and not at the expense of
a neighbouring district as was the case in 1908.
Referring to iron ore, the chairman said the output last
year was only 6,300 tons, which was a very low figure
when they took into consideration the fact that in the
seventies the iron ore produced in the Forest was over
170,000 tons.

Mr. T. H. Deakin, whose name was associated with
the toast, responded, and said it had been a fair year in
the Forest. He thought it was to the credit of the
steam coal owners in the Forest of Dean that they had
been able to find markets for the relatively enormous
increase in the quantity of steam coal from that
district which had been somewhat suddenly thrown upon
the market. He had little doubt, however, that these
new markets had had to be bought by the acceptance of
somewhat lower prices than the steam coal owners liked,
but which under the circumstances they were obliged to
take. If the Forest of Dean was to increase in its
output of coal, it was imperative that there should be
more houses, and it was a source of satisfaction that the
Crown was in training for becoming a model landlord.
It was a great advance, paradoxical as it might sound,
for Crown land to be available at say £60 an acre
instead of £260 as of old. He thought it was in the best
interests of the Crown and of the district that land
should be sold to individuals as well as to companies and
to councils at £60 an acre or less.

Other toasts were “ The Railway Interests,” proposed
by Mr. V. F. Leese, and responded to by Mr. J. A.
Carter, traffic manager Southern and Western Joint
Railway; and the health of Mr. Runciman, the Com-
missioner of Woods and other Crown officials, submitted
by Mr. J. W. Guise, and replied to by the chairman and
Mr. Leese.

Confirmation was made at the Speech House
gathering of coalowners of the rumour which had got
abroad in the Forest that Mr. V. F. Leese, of White-
mead Park, Parkend, deputy surveyor for Dean Forest,
was about to retire, he having been offered a similar
appointment in the New Forest in Hampshire.

Scotland.

Developments in the Steel Trade—The Eight Hours Act.

Mr. William Lorimer, chairman of the Steel Com-
pany of Scotland, presided on the 4th inst., at an
extraordinary meeting of the shareholders, held at
Glasgow to consider the proposals for the extension of
the company’s business. The chairman remarked that
they manufactured acid steel exclusively, and for that
purpose they required pure hsematite ore. Their present
source of supply was not inexhaustible and much time
had been spent in searching for fresh deposits. There
were some Scottish steelmakers now who made basic
steel with imported pig iron, but the directors’ idea was
to continue to reserve the works in Glasgow for the
making of the highest quality of steel, so long as the ore
was available. That being so, and knowing that the ore
must sooner or later be exhausted, the question they
had to consider was whether it would be in the best
interest of the company that they should go into the
basic steel manufacture at a time when they had no
option left them, and with no experience of it what-
ever, or whether they should meanwhile utilise the
opportunity they had got of getting full and
thorough experience of tbe manufacture and sale
of this product, and coincidently greatly increased their
influence and their interests in the steel trade of the
country. The proposals now before the meeting repre-
sented the directors’ answer. They desired to erect
blastfurnaces at Appleby of the most modern descrip-
tion, and he did not want to put it too highly, but he
thought he could confidently say that they would be
able to work as cheaply there as anybody in any part
of the world. They were under obligation to guarantee,
jointly with the Frodingham Company, the interest on
the Appleby Company’s preference shares until the
accumulation of three years’ dividends of these pre-
ference shares had been arrived at, and with that their
guarantee lapsed. He would only add that this Appleby
Company was going on with them, or, if they were so
determined, without them if the shareholders" took the
other view. He moved the resolution confirming the
agreement between the Appleby Company, the Froding-
ham Company, and their own company. The meeting
agreed to adopt the scheme.