Apkil 3, 1914. THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN. 751 to Mr. James Gilchrist, on his retirement from the managership of the Clifton Colliery. The officials and workmen at the Brayton Knowe Colliery, Baggrow, have made a presentation to Mr. George McDonald, who has been manager at the Baggrow Colliery for some years, and is leaving to take up a similar position at the Clifton Colliery. Lancashire and Cheshire. The forty-first annual meeting of the Lancashire and Cheshire Miners’ Permanent Belief Society was held on Saturday at the Mining College, Wigan. Sir William Scott Barrett presided over a representative gathering. —Mr. Alfred Hewlett, president, wrote expressing his regret that he was unable to be present.—Sir W. Scott Barrett said the past year had not only been the most important in their history, but the report was the best one they had ever issued. The number of members, 62,231, was the highest on record, whilst their invest- ments reached £15,000, and the benefit fund stood at £161,000. The rate of accident pay was very high at present, being 234 4 per member, and that was one point which would have to be carefully watched.—Mr. John Denn, the chairman of the board of management, mentioned that three or four agencies had communicated with the board, pointing out that, as the National Insurance Act provided medical benefit for insured persons, the Permanent Relief Society should dispense with the surgical benefit which had hitherto been pro- vided for its members. He pointed out that there were still 126 of these members upon the funds, and while this was so it was undesirable to make any alteration in either contributions or benefits during the interval of a valuation period.—Mr. Alfred Hewlett was re-elected president, Sir William Scott Barrett and Mr. James Latham vice-presidents. Owing to the more general adoption of electrical and other mechanical means of haulage in their mines, various leading colliery owners in south and south-east Lancashire are dispensing with numbers of their ponies for underground work. A trade correspondent learns that negotiations have been opened with a view to bringing about an amalgama- tion of two colliery concerns in the neighbourhood of Wigan. Both firms are carrying out important improve- ments. Nothing definite, however, can be stated, as yet, regarding the negotiations. Amongst the historical episodes to be represented in the Worsley Pageant (the first ever held in East Lancashire) which is to be held on June 17 and 20, will be the Duke and the Bridge water Canal, the pioneer of British inland navigation. The canal was connected by means of an underground waterway with the numerous coalmines which the third and last Duke of Bridgewater opened 130 or 140 years ago in the Worsley, Walkden and adjoining districts. The freedom of the Borough of Leigh (Lancs.) is to be conferred upon Aid. Henry Cowburn, a well-known colliery owner. Aid. Cow burn, who was born at West- houghton in 1841, began work at Broad Field Colliery under Mr. John Speakman, and was appointed manager after the passing of the Coal Mines Regulation Act in 1873. He continued to hold that position until the colliery was closed in 1881, and then entered into part- nership with Mr. W. Unsworth, as colliery owners, Brookside Colliery, Westhoughton and Hindley, where the business is still carried on by them. He will have the honour of being the first freeman of the borough. On two occasions he has served as mayor. Yorkshire. Bentley's Development—A Hospital for Hariuorth—More about Town Planning—Presentation to a Thrybergh Hall Official—West Riding Relief Society—River Pollution—Railway Delays—Cost of Legislation. Doncaster Town Council have again been discussing the necessity for a housing scheme, and have appointed a special committee to report. Bentley Urban Council have provisionally accepted an offer from Messrs. Barber, Walker and Co., proprietors of the Bentley Colliery, of over 5 acres of land as a start for a housing scheme in that district. The price asked is £250. Work in connection- with the South Yorks coalfield Church extension scheme for providing a church for Bentley is proceding. Towards this work the colliery company*are contributing liberally. Whether it be through its association with Germany or not cannot be stated, but it is certain that the Harworth Colliery, near Doncaster, is having a great deal written and said about it. No pit in the district seems to have attracted such attention, and Press representatives from all parts of the country have been down to Doncaster to write articles concerning it. Just now there is considerable activity at the site. Italian brickmakers have arrived, and the German pit sinkers will soon be on the scene. Huts for workmen, offices and apartments are being erected, and brickmaking is proceeding with haste and despatch at the company’s brickworks near at hand. New brickworks, with up-tc-date machinery, are also projected. The housing problem is attracting some attention. The colliery company, it is reported, propose to erect some 2,000 houses, and expend nearly £300,000 upon a garden city. Wise in their generation, however, they are not going to commence building until coal has been proved. They will, it is understood, build theirown houses, probably by contract. Meanwhile, important sales of land in the district are announced, and everything portends a big development. Viscountess Galway, with her usual forethought and kindness, is making provision for the treatment of those who may be injured during the sinking of the pit. Much of the coal under Lord Galway’s estate at Serlby Hall will be worked by the new pit, the site of which is not far removed from the Park. Her ladyship has not only provided a cottag?, but is having it almost entirely rebuilt and adapted for use as a cottage hospital. The site is next door to the Harworth Nurses’ Home, and before long the building will be ready to receive patients. The bedrooms have all been thrown into one large ward, capable of holding half-a-dozen beds, a bath has been fixed, and hot and cold water will be provided throughout the building by the colliery company. Viscountess Galway’s kindness is, almost needless to say, meeting with very hearty appreciation. The Local Government Board have given the Don- caster Rural District Council sanction to proceed with Part II. of their town planning scheme. The area comprises the whole of Askern, portions of Campsall, Norton, Burghwallis, Owston, Moss, and Fernwick, having a total acreage of 5,170. Taking Askern as a centre, it extends for miles from that village, this being the distance to which it is expected the colliery workings will extend. The idea of the Council is so to combine the industrial and residential portions as to make Askern a working man’s Harrogate. The finding of coal has resulted in a big increase in the population of Askern, which, formerly 980, is now 2,000, and daily increasing. The town planning has been devised to prevent the haphazard growth of the district upon such lines as some of the oldnr colliery villages in Wales and the Potteries. The number of houses to the acre will probably be 20, and an adequate sewerage scheme for the area has already been fixed up. It is probable that a meeting of the property owners in the area will shortly be convened. Mr. Thomas Lomas, underground manager of the Manvers Main (No. 3) Colliery, has received the important appointment of manager of Maltby Main, which takes effect from May 1, and he has been widely congratulated upon well-deserved preferment. Mr. Lomas succeeds Mr. T. L. Soar. At Kilnhurst on Saturday last, Mr. Bentham, the electrical engineer of the Thrybergh Hall and Warren Vale Collieries, together with his wife, received hand- some gifts from the officials and wcrkmen of the collieries. Mr. Bentham has now held his present position for 30 years, having taken up the post at the time of his father’s death. Mr. Bentham’s present took the form of a handsome gold lever watch, and to Mrs. Bentham a pendant was presented. At the thirty-seventh annual meeting of the West Riding of Yorkshire Miners’ Permanent Relief Society last week, it was announced that the society had under- gone a sensational change of management. All its honorary members and honorary trustees have resigned, including Mr. 0. H. Cobbold, the chairman of the board, and the delegates have refused to reappoint the retiring vice-presidents. Thus, the society finds itself without the official assistance of such prominent gentlemen as the Marquis of Crewe, Earl Manvers, Earl Wharncliffe, Mr. C. Milnes Gaskell, Mr. B. C. Vernon Wentworth, Archdeacon Norris, Rev. H. A. MacNaghten, Mr. W. A. Durnford, Mr. Tyas, some of whom have been identified with the work of the society for many years. Mr. C. H. Cobbdld, chairman of the board, wrote : “ In consequence of the action of the ordinary members of the board of management I hereby resign my position as chairman of the board, honorary member, and trustee,” Mr. Cobbold also sent to the delegates attending the annual meeting a circular letter. Mr. T. Phipps, of Dodwoith, who was elected to the chair, said he was sorry that all their honorary members, honorary trustees, and chairman had thought fit to resign. The board of management had accepted their resignations, as they were bound to do ; but at the same time, with all respect to the late chairman, they intended to carry out alteration of rules in a proper way. As all those gentlemen had seen fit to leave the society, they would have a democratic society, and he hoped the members would rally round it. The chairman, moving the adoption of the report and balance-sheet, said they had a decreased membership of 3,765. This was accounted for in a great measure by the adoption of No. 2 scheme at the special meeting, held on June 18 last year, when they decided to increase the rate of contri- butions from 8d. to 9d. per fortnight. The capital of that scheme amounted to £2,582 10s. 7d., and as it had only been in operation since August 2 last, it would be admitted to be very satisfactory. The funds available prior to the new scheme, showed by the report of the actuary, after providing for the widows at the rate of 4s. per week and children 2s. per week, that a surplus of about £7,000 would be available for the permanently disabled men at the rate of 2s. 6d. and 3s. per week. At the Wakefield County Court, recently, before his Honour Judge Greenhow, the West Riding Rivers Board brought an action against the Low Laithes Colliery Company Limited, to recover penalties for alleged breach of an order made upon them on November 4 last to abstain from turning polluting effluent from their Wrenthorpe Colliery at Wakefield into the Baine Beck. Evidence was given to the effect that on several occasions since the date in question black and turbid liquid had been seen flowing from the colliery into the beck, the result of an overflow from settling tanks at the coal-washer. For the respondents, it was stated that since the order two settling tanks had been constructed and four others were in course of construction. His Honour was asked to adjourn the proceedings until the purification plant was completed in a few weeks’ time. His Honour imposed a penalty of £100 (£50 each in respect of two days), but ordered that this should not be enforced if no further pollution occurred after the completion of the plant six weeks hence. He granted costs against the respondents. Speaking at Bradford recently, on the subject of the benefits of organisation amongst traders, Mr. Fred Pickering (hon. secretary of the Bradford Chamber of Trade) referred to the difficulties which coal merchants experienced at the hands of railway companies in respect of charges for carriage and demurrage. He quoted an instance which had been taken up by the Chamber of Trade, on behalf of a member of its coal merchants’ section, in which a merchant had had a wagon detained and practically lost for the time. The Chamber demanded reparation and threatened concerted action in case of non-compliance, and the railway company paid up all that was asked. The greatest gain, however, of that incident, said Mr. Pickering, was that it created a precedent for the future in any case of undue delay on the railways. The man for whom the case had been taken up by the Chamber, added Mr. Pickering, had been afraid that the railway company might give him notice to get out of his place in the coalyard, but the Chamber had been able to convince him that the company dare not do that, and they did not do it. Presiding at the annual meeting of the Barrow Haematite Steel Company, in London, on the 18th ult., the Duke of Devonshire reminded the shareholders that this was the fiftieth anniversary of the company, and they celebrated the jubilee by placing before the share- holders accounts which showed a larger trading profit than for the last 10 years. In the second half-year large quantities of steel were being imported into this country much below the cost of manufacture here. Burdens, mainly due to legislation, weighed heavily upon the company during the year. The output of coal per day had been reduced considerably, with a conse- quent increase in the cost per ton. The profit in the iron ore mines, blastfurnaces and steelworks and wireworks were £63,346, as against £73,498 the previous year. As the direct result of legislative measures they incurred expenses of £13,000 last year in the colliery department alone. The profit of the colliery depart- ment was £44,140, as compared with £20,032 in 1912. The reduction in profits in the iron and steel works was due to the very high cost of manufacture. The annual meeting of the West Yorkshire Coal- owners’ Association was held in Leeds on Tuesday. The business was confined to routine matters, Mr C. B. Crawshaw, of Dewsbury, being re-elected chairman. At the annual dinner of the Sheepbridge and Whittington Institute, on Tuesday, Mr. Maurice Deacon presided. Responding to a toast to the Sheepbridge Coal and Iron Company, Mr. Maurice Deacon said eighteen years ago they were producing 700,000 tons of coal per annum ; now, with their auxiliaries, they were producing 3,000,000. This had been brought about practically without any additional capital. Notts and Derbyshire. Colliery Rating. The members of the assessment committee having received a list of the industrial properties it is intended to re-value, Mr. Granville Chambers, at the Chester- field Guardians’ meeting, on Saturday, moved that: the information should be furnished to all the members of the board. He suggested that guardians should know the present accessible value of each industial concern and thought some of them would be surprised when they knew the large sums already paid. The motion was carried without dissent. A table giving the accessible value of the respective parishes was submitted by the clerk. Mr. Chambers remarked that the contemplated revaluation was one of the most convenient valuations it was possible to make as regarded the collieries. The pits had worked constantly during the year, and the assessment had accordingly been greatly increased to amounts which we>e among the highest that had obtained for a long time. Remarking that the present colliery assessments were based on tonnage, Mr. H. Phipps instanced cases of pit shafts and plants being in Chesterfield Union, while the coal was worked in an adjoining union. The assessment committee, he pointed out, held that the plant should be valued. Mr. Cham- bers explained that although coal in certain mines was being got in another union, the owners had to pay a rate to the Chesterfield Union for drawing up the coal.. “ A slight acknowledgment of l^d. per ton drawn,” com- mented the chairman. Mr. Chambers said that “ slight acknowledgment ” might mount up to £7,000 in one colliery and £5,000 in another. He contended that so far as the county rate basis was concerned, colliery assessments were as equitable as those of any other kind of property. ; Mr. L. G. F. Routledge, Eastwood (branch president), was in the chair at a monthly meeting of the Notts and Derbyshire Branch of the Association of Mining Elec- trical Engineers, which was held at the University College, Nottingham, on Saturday afternoon. It was decided to have-the annual dinner at Nottingham on the last Saturday in April, and to pay a visit to Grassmoor Colliery on May 16. Two papers were discussed, one by Mr. F. Church, Tibshelf, on “ The Breakdown of a D.C. Motor Arma- ture,” and the other by Mr. H. J. Wroe, a.member of the London branch, on “ The Electric Pumping Plant at Tilmanstone Colliery.” The members who took part in the discussion included the president, Mr. F. Cusworth (secretary), East Kirkby, Mr. E. E. Beads- moore (vice-president), Tibshelf, Mr. J. Dennis, Silver Hill, Mr. F. Church, Mr. J. T. Taylor, Swanwick, and Mr. F. W. Rowley, Eastwood. The Midlands. Mining Education in Staffordshire—The Management of a Black Country Pit—The Reversal of Ventilation. It was mentioned at the recent annual dinner in con- nection with the rescue brigade of Cannock and Leacroft Colliery that, in the Cannock Chase district, there are about 220 trained men, and that the rescue station has been equipped in splendid style at considerable expense.