1082 THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN. Ma? 15, 1914. the workmen of Durham had contributed £36,000. He admired the spirit of self help which existed in such a move- ment as that. Lieut.-Col. Vaux also spoke. The officials of the Eppleton, Hetton and Elemore aged miners’ homes have had an offer from Sir Lindsay Wood, Bart., of £500 towards the erection of homes in the neigh- bourhood of Hetton, and it is expected that the work of erection will shortly be commenced. The Weardale and Consett Water Company have given notice to works and colliery owners within their area of their intention to reduce the supply of water for manufactur- ing purposes by 75 per cent., consequent upon the absence of the normal rain and snowfall during the past winter, and the consequent drought during the spring. So far as the Consett Iron Company is concerned, however, their iron and steel works and various collieries will be carried on as usual, and can only be affected by the exigencies of trade. For some time past the firm has been taking measures to pro- vide resources of its own. There will be a considerable addition to loading facilities in the upper reaches of the Tyne when the new coal staiths at West Dunston, which are being erected by the North- Eastern Railway Company, are completed, as they will be, it is expected, in July. There are three loading berths and six spouts and two electric conveyors. In addition to the present important development, a large tract of land has been secured for future extensions. The new loading faci- lities are known as the West Dunston staiths, and have a river frontage of 1,900 ft., situated about a mile-and-a-half to the west of the older staiths at Dunston. At present three loading places are being provided, and, as trade increases, a tidal basin on the shore side of the staiths will be formed, and will provide other three loading berths. Nearly 20 acres of ground are set apart for the tidal basin. Each loading space has two gravity spouts, and alongside the western and middle spouts are also electric conveyors, and thus a vessel with a very high freeboard can be as easily loaded by means of the conveyor spouts as a low-lying vessel can by gravity spouts. The spouts in the eastern side of the staiths have not yet an electric conveyor, but if there be a sufficient demand for further appliances of this kind, they can be easily added. The capacity of each gravity spout is about 800 tons an hour, and of each conveyor 600 tons an hour. The new spouts and the conveyors will be able to ship about one-and-three-quarter million tons of coal in the year. The appointment of Mr. Arthur Stoker, under-manager at Ryhope Colliery, to be one of H.M. inspectors of mines for the Manchester district, has created a vacancy which will be filled by Mr. A rthur Welsh, assistant under-manager at Silkswrorth Colliery. Mr. Welsh is the superintendent of the Silks worth Colliery ambulance brigade. Mr. Nuttall, the newly-appointed permanent secretary of the Northern Under-managers’ and Colliery Officials’ Mutual Aid Association, speaking at Chester-le-Street last Saturday, explained the aims and progress of the new asso- ciation. He said the association was formed in 1912, and had now 800 members, 14 branches, and new branches were about to be formed in various places. The branches in full working order were : Stanley, Bishop Auckland, Shotton, South Shields, Fence Houses, Easington and Horden, Wheatley Hill and Thornley, Dawdon and Seaham, Vic- toria Garesfield, Wingate, Chester-le-Street, Unsworth, and Grange Villa. The association would deal with the ques- tion of the power of a coroner or Government inspector to have their certificates taken from them. The great majority of officials were suffering from a great reduction in real wages, despite the prosperity of the trade. The old idea that the official was last on the wage-list must give place to the new idea that wages must be according to the proportion of the professional ability required. The asso- ciation was not, and never would be, an ordinary trade union. The safeguarding of life and limb and the material interests of their masters must ever be of vital importance to every colliery official. The calumny that they were indifferent to the general safety and well-being of their subordinates was being destroyed by everyday experience. When all were on strike they continued the even tenour of their way to keep the machinery moving and the pit open. Their movement, he claimed, was in the material interests of their employers, as a contented employee was the best servant. Wearmouth and Castletown lodges of the Durham Miners’ Association are inaugurating a scheme to provide aged miners’ homes in their own districts. The members’ con- tribute to the general fund of the county, but their old people have had to go to homes at Haswell and elsewhere. To avoid this, they are, therefore, considering a scheme for the erection of 50 or 60 houses in their own locality. The assistance of the Wearmouth Coal Company is to be solicited. The two lodges hope to carry out the scheme without reduc- ing their present county contributions. Mr. Matthew Elliott, late deputy-overman at Twizell Colliery, and now working at Shotton Colliery, was presented with a gold medal and albert by the men and officials of the Twizell Colliery at a social gathering held in his honour. By the closing of the Consett Iron Company’s Delves Colliery, the rateable value of Knitsley township has dropped from £6,368 to £5,101. Mr. and Mrs. William Kent Hardy entertained the officials of the Corns ay Colliery to a whist drive and dinner on the occasion of their silver wedding. Mr. Kent has been with the firm for 39 years, and has been cashier for 23 years. Mr. Michael Curry, manager of Cornsay Colliery, presented Mr. and Mrs. Hardy with a silver tea service on behalf of the officials, and a canteen of silver plate on behalf of friends. At the monthly meeting of the Undermanagers’ and Colliery Officials’ Association, in connection with the Bishop Auckland district, Mr. J. H. Armstrong, overman at Oaken- shaw Colliery, delivered a paper on “ Mine Supports.” The fund for the improvements at the Durham County Hospital and a nurses’ hostel in connection with the hospital has benefited considerably by the donations from Durham coal owners. At the annual meeting of the Durham County Council, Mr. H. Beele (veterinary inspector) reported that the cases of glanders dealt with all occurred in Russian ponies which showed no evidence of disease until tested with mallein. Large numbers are ponies from Russia for colliery work, and the provision in the Coal Mines Act for the testing of all ponies before sent into a pit renders it well nigh impossible for the disease to be introduced into the mines. At the same time all these imported animals did not come under the test, and it would doubtless be a great safeguard if some means could be adopted whereby they should be tested either before embarkation or at the port of landing. Cumberland. Ambulance Competition—Coal under a Reservoir. The third annual ambulance competition for the M. B. Brown challenge cup, open to the county of Cumberland, in connection with the St. John Ambulance Association was held in the Co-operative Hall on Saturday, and proved a great success. On the two previous occasions the competition had taken place at Carlisle, but owing to the few entries received last year the committee decided to have it at some more central place in West Cumberland, and eventually Maryport was selected, with the result that the entries were more than doubled compared with the two previous years. Fifteen teams entered, and the result was as follows : 1, Moor Row ; 2, Carlisle (L. & N.W. Railway); 3, Maryport and Carlisle Railway. Dr. Sedgwick, of Carlisle, in announc- ing the result, congratulated Moor Row on winning the cup for the third time in succession. Dr. Christian, of Stock- port, the examiner, said in regard to the actual work the thing that struck him most particularly was the extra- ordinary lack of care with respect to digital pressure upon the femoral artery. That was the most important thing for every man and woman to know. . It was invariably done in the wrong place. Where should it be applied? On one spot only, where you could get a firm unyielding material behind; it was tne middle fold of the groin. A party of engineers have recently been surveying the land in the Dunnerholme. The royalties over this area have been secured by an influencial syndicate of gentlemen from the Midlands, who are closely associated with the iron and steel industries. A second report from Mr. A. C. Scoular, mining engineer, on the workings of the Berrier and Crowgarth Mines under or adjacent to the Whitehaven water supply mains in High-street, Cleator Moor, was read to a meeting of the water committee of the Town Council, from which it appeared that he had again inspected the underground workings in both of the mines, with the object of ascertaining whether there was any greater probability in collapse of the ground supporting the water mains than was apparent at the last inspection and reports in the early parts of last year. He had formed the opinion that the situation, as described in his previous reports, remained unchanged in every material respect, and there was no present cause for anxiety. Yorkshire. Death in a Goaf: A Question of Compensation—Subsidence in the Doncaster Area—The Advance of the Goalfield: Increased Traffic and Accidents—Ambulance Competitions. At Doncaster County Court last week Judge Allen gave judgment in a case of considerable interest and importance to colliery proprietors, details of which have been previously given in these notes. It involved the right of the miner to go into the goaf. The applicant was Hannah Cook, and the respondents the Manvers Main Colliery Company Limited. Compensation was sought in respect of the death of John Hy. Cook, alleged to have been caused by personal injury by accident arising out of, and in the course of, his employment by the respondents on January 2, while work- ing as a coal getter at their No. 2 pit, Parkgate seam. The respondents denied that deceased was coal getting at the time of the alleged accident, or that the death of the man was caused by accident arising out of his employment. On the day in question it was alleged deceased was working with a man named Geo. Henry Lowe, and sent Lowe for two tubs. During his absence deceased went into the goaf, and a fall of roof occurring, he was killed. The judge gave it as his opinion that the moment the deceased went past the last prop he ran a great risk, and that he knew he was running this risk. He also thought that going into the goaf at all was forbidden, and that the deceased knew it. The applicant had failed to show that deceased was killed by injury arising out of, and in the course of, his employment by the respondents. Therefore the application was dis- missed with costs. The medical officer of health for Bentley (Dr. Dunne), in his annual report, just issued, states that much of the dis- trict lies below the 25 ft. contour line, which is of import- ance, not only from- rhe point of view of any town planning scheme in the near future, but because coal is being worked under the district and some subsidence has already taken place. The population is still growing rapidly, the increase last year being equal to 20’5, as against 26’1 in the previous year. The population in 1901 was 2,403, and was now esti- mated at 10,117. A distinct improvement had been noticed in the buildings erected since the council took the drastic step last year of demolishing certain houses after erection that had been built contrary to the by-laws. The birth- rate was 39'9, death-rate 13’8, and infantile mortality 126’2. The members of the Doncaster Mining Students’ Associa- tion paid an enjoyable visit to Batley last week, and listened to addresses by Mr. G. A. Lodge, M.I.M.E., Mr. Flint (inspector of mines for Yorkshire and the North Midland district), Mr. H. Berkin (mining engineer for the Great Cen- tral Railway), and Mr. S. Bunting, of Brodsworth Colliery. In the afternoon a visit was paid to the coal cutter works of Messrs. A. Hirst and Sons Limited, of Dewsbury, where the construction and working of the coal cutting machines was explained by the workmen and staff. Mr. Berkin, the Great Central Railway mining engineer, made some most interest- ing remarks concerning the rapid extension of the South Yorkshire coalfield and the increasing output. During 1913 the output in Yorkshire was 43 million tons. With the sinking of new pits and the opening out of those recently sunk, there was bound to be a much more rapid rise in the near future. He would have no hesitation in predicting for 1914 an output of 50 million tons. In a few years’ time the country between Doncaster and Newark, and down to Mansfield, would be one great coalfield. Besides the new pits in the Doncaster area there were sinkings and borings in progress and workings being extended at Hatfield, Thorne, Cantley, Edlington, Rossington, Harworth, Clipstone, Ruf- ford, Tarnsfield, Welbeck, and Barmboro, and many more places were being considered. Each of these collieries would be capable of producing one million tons yearly. He did not think there would be much difficulty in disposing of this increasing quantity; most of it would, of course, go to the ports. But he was pleased to notice the increase in the number of by-products which were now being manufactured from coal. Coking plants were being put down at many of the collieries. Much had been said about the German inva- sion at the new Harworth Colliery. For his own part he was pleased to know that German capital was coming into this country; it would be to the benefit of the colliers, for he did not think the colliery would be worked by German labour after the sinking had been completed. He rejoiced to notice the growing bond of confidence between managers and inspectors. Instead of the aloofness and suspicion that formerly existed, an inspector was now and always ready to help the manager, and the manager was always ready to seek the aid of the inspector in cases of difficulty. Mr. Flint, H.M. inspector of mines, spoke with regard to the great number of accidents in the Yorkshire district, remarking that in 1913 they totalled 318 out of 1,276 for the whole country. The majority of accidents underground occurred at the coalface, the figures for the year reaching 10,000. Of these 60 per cent, occurred under the ripping lip. This high percentage might be explained by the heavy traffic and the regular passing to and fro of men at this particular place. He considered that technical education would, by quickening the powers of observation, tend to decrease the number of accidents. Mr. S. Bunting spoke upon the need of technical education amongst working miners, arguing that this would tend to decrease the number of accidents. Brizes and certi- ficates were then distributed among the students. The preliminary round in the annual competition of the Yorkshire Mines’ Ambulance League took place on Saturday. The recent stoppage had a great effect on the number of entries. Six teams competed at the Rotherham Drill Hall. The results were as follow : 1, Rotherham Main, 238 (out of possible 299); 2, Silverwood No. 1, 234J; 3, Roundwood, 223. Rotherham Main No. 1 will go forward to the semi- final round, due to take place at Sheffield on Saturday next. At Denaby eight teams competed, with the following result : Kilnhurst' <.F), 202; Cadeby (B), 195; Denaby (G), 183. Seven teams competed in the preliminary round of the Wombwell division, which took