May 22, 1914.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

1137

INDIAN AND COLONIAL NOTES.

Australia.

Sydney Harbour Colliery Company.—This company, says
the Australian Mining Standard, which recently passed into
the hands of Mr. G. S. Yuille, has been formed into another
company, which is taking over the name as well as the assets.
This proposition has had, since the first bore struck the
seam at a depth of 3,000 ft., various owners. The first com-
pany was formed by Mr. J. C. Nield, in England, and the
shareholders in that did the opening; then followed re-con-
structions, and the transaction mentioned is the latest. Just
after the coal was found there was a rush of applications
for mining leases under the harbour, the applicants being
well-known mining promoters. The Balmain colliery is, so
far, the only one in operation.

The Australian Mining Standard says :—During the last
five years reports have been circulated from time to time
that a British company intended to open a large new col-
liery at a point between Cessnock and Ellalong, on the
South Maitland (N.S.W.) coalfield. Until recently, how-
ever, nothing had been done that would lend colour to the
rumour, but it is now stated that the principal in the syndi-
cate which intends to commence operations is a man of great
wealth, his income being nearly £100,000 per annum.
Plans are being prepared for a new colliery, which will, so
report says, be the largest south of the line, and will be
equipped with the very latest machinery. In the same dis-
trict, and within a radius of a few miles, the Caledonian
Collieries Limited is working two large mines—Aberdare
and Aberdare Extended—and is developing a third, Aber-
dare South; the Wickham and Bullock Island Coal Company
is working the Neath Colliery, and the Hetton Coal Com-
pany is working and developing the Bellbird Colliery. The
combined output of the five pits named, when all are fully
developed, will be 8,000 or 9,000 tons in eight hours; and
the new syndicate’s mine, or mines, will bring the total up
to more than 11,000 tons. The cost of traction between
Cessnock and Newcastle, by the present route, for this great
quantity of mineral will amount to fully £175,000 per
annum; and so the opening of the new mines is sure to
revive the question of making a railway from the Caledonian
Collieries’ mine, at Killingworth, to Cessnock, by means of
which the distance between Cessnock and Newcastle would
be reduced by 10 or 11 miles. The opinion in Newcastle is
that this xailway will now be built.

New South Wales Mineral Output.—The Under Secretary
for Mines, Mr. E. E. Pittman, has issued an advance state-
ment respecting the progress of the mineral industry of New
South Wales during the year 1913. The value of the output
is £12,095,084, and is an increase on that for the year 1912,
which previously stood as a record, of no less than £453,649.
The output of coal during 1913 was 10,414,165 tons, valued
at £3,770,375, as against 9,885,815 tons, valued at £3,660,015,
for the year 1912, thus showing an increase of 528,350 tons
and £110,360 in value. These figures constitute a record,
and in the course of the last two years the output has shown
an expansion of 1,259,140 tons. The output from the respec-
tive districts is as follows :—Northern, 7,402,627 tons, valued
at £2,892,256 ; Southern, 2,281,472 tons, valued at £638,425;
and Western, 930,066 tons, valued at £239,694. Coal
exported during the year amounted to 6,231,724 tons, valued
at £3,342,003, as against 6,053,118 tons, valued at
£3,232,729—an increase of 178,606 tons and £109,274 in
value. This is the largest quantity ever despatched from
the State. The coal shipped to oversea ports totalled
2,765,937 tons, whilst the exports to Australasian ports were
3,465,787 tons. The number of persons engaged in mining
for coal during the period under review was 18,966—an
increase of 915 compared with 1912. The quantity of coke
manufactured during 1913 amounted to 298,618 tons, valued
at £208,989, being an increase of 57,453 tons and £46,535 in
value on the previous year. In the Northern district the
Australian Coking and By-Products Company have erected
48 ovens of the Coppee and Otto principle. This is the first
bench of by-product ovens erected in this State. In the
Western district, G. and C. Hoskins started 80 new ovens
to supply coke for their iron works at Lithgow. The kerosene
shale raised during the year amounted to only 16,985 tons,
valued at £7,340, and exhibits a decline of 69,033 tons and
£27,430 in value on that recorded for 1912. The decrease in
the output is due to the fact that no shale was raised at the
Wolgan or Capertee mines belonging to the Commonwealth
Oil Corporation.

New South Wales Coal and the Australian Fleet.—New
South Wales coal has been tried on the Australian Fleet,
and pronounced a failure. The confirmation of the report
that New South Wales southern coal had proved unsuit-
able for use on Australian warships created surprise and dis-
appointment to colliery proprietors and others connected
with the industry. The fault of the southern coal consists
of the large percentage of ash and clinker, which in a full
speed trial accumulates so rapidly as to eventually choke
the funnels and render it impossible for the required speed
to be maintained. The low ash percentage of Welsh and
also the Westport (New Zealand) coal permits the fires to
be kept bright and draught free without difficulty. The
New South Wales southern coal is the best in the State
for steaming purposes, containing about 65 per cent, of fixed
carbon, but its ash percentage is 11'66, as against 1’23 per
cent for Westport (New Zealand) coal, and from 3'12 to 6
per cent for Welsh co<t'. It is fully evident that for the
present the Australian fleet will be compelled to draw its
supplies from New Zealand.

Canada.

Our Toronto correspondent says :—The Acadia Coal Com-
pany has decided to close the Acadia Colliery at Westville,
Nova Scotia, as the depth of the workings has rendered
operations unprofitable; and it has been turned over to the
Provincial Government. The Drummond Colliery of the
Inter-Colonial Coal Company adjoins it, and is on the same
seam, and a working agreement between the two companies
which would improve the position of both has been proposed.
Negotiations between the Nova Scotia Government and the
companies are still in progress. The Acadia Company has
several other pits at Westville.

The Jasper Park Collieries Limited, which has been oper-
ating for some time a coal mine on the south side of the
Athabasca Biver at Pocahontas, 200 miles west of Edmonton
(Alberta), is opening up another mine on the north side of
the river, close to the main line of the Canadian Northern
Bailway, and will shortly begin shipping. It has a seam of
high-grade bituminous, 8 ft. in thickness!

Our Cape Breton correspondent writes :—The output of
the Cape Breton and Springhill mines of the Dominion Coal

Company for the first quarter of 1914 was 1,118,000 tons,
compared with 1,191,000 in the corresponding quarter of
1913, showing a decrease of about 73,000 tons. The lessened
production is chiefly due to the depression in the steel trade,
and to the restriction in manufacturing and railway opera-
tions caused bj the tightness of money and the general
recession in trade. Trade prospects for the summer are
understood to be fairly good, and it is expected that St. Law-
rence shipments will greatly exceed any previous figures.
Stocks of coal on the ground are exceptionally large. The
Dominion Coal Company will have well over 600,000 tons
in bank at the opening of navigation. Labour is more
plentiful around the mining districts than for some years
past, and as a consequence large outputs are being obtained
when the mines work.

Our Toronto correspondent says :—Considerable adverse
criticism has been aroused by the action of F. B. Gutelius,
Inter-Colonial Bailway Commissioner, who has asked 12
American firms to submit offers for the supply of coal for
the fiscal year 1914-15 for the Inter-Colonial and Prince
Edward Island railways operated by the Government. Some
coal for the Government railways was purchased last year
in the United States, but this is the first time that American
operators have been asked to purchase the whole year’s
supply. As many Nova Scotia coal mines are closed, or
only working to partial capacity, it is regarded as singular
that the Government should go outside of Canada to purchase
coal.

Report on Labour Disputes.—The Minister of Labour has
just published a report of the Boyal Commissioner (Mr.
Samuel Price) on coal mining disputes which occurred on
Vancouver Island in 1912 and 1913. The trouble broke out
in September of the former year, on the ground that
alleged discrimination had taken place against two members
of the United Mine Workers’ Union of America, and in May
of the following year spread to practically all the collieries
on the island. In his recommendations, Mr. Price proposes
that the Industrial Disputes Investigation Act should be
amended, especially in regard to the definition of a

strike.” He also considers that voluntary collective
agreements should be given the sanction and protection of
law; that they should not be for too long a period; and
should contain some provision for the adjustment during
currency of any grievance arising out of non-observance of
the provisions, or any dispute as to terms and conditions.
He would prohibit, under severe penalty, the breaking, oi
incitement to break, such agreement. To prevent discrimi-
nation, it should be prohibited, under penalty, to dismiss or
refuse continuance of work, either directly or by any indirect
means or device, to any employee by reason merely of such
employee belonging to or holding office in or being active in
lawfully extending the membership of any legal labour
organisation. It should also be made clear that it is
unlawful to practise any kind of intimidation, abuse, or
insult against anyone, or to publish, or call, or refer to
anyone as a “ scab ” or “ blackleg,” or as unfair to labour,
or to incite or threaten to do any of these things, with a
view to influencing the acts of any person in connection
with any strike or labour dispute.

OBITUARY.

Mr. John Newton, manager of the Wrexham and Acton
Colliery for the past twenty-two years, died at Liverpool last
week, after a short illness, at the age of seventy.

One of the best known figures in Northern mining circles
has passed away in the person of Mr. Henry Bichardson,
J.P., whose death took place at the Grand Hotel, Newcastle,
last week. Deceased had a stroke three days before, and
never rallied. Mr. Bichardson was born in Newcastle in
1841, and was educated at Stanwix, near Carlisle. After a
considerable experience as mining engineer, Mr. Bichardson
was manager of the Backworth and Holywell collieries. He
also for many years acted as an adviser to the Ashington
Coal Company and other colliery companies. After his
retirement from the managership of the Backworth collieries,
Mr. Bichardson went to reside in Newcastle, and later at
Eden Mount, Wether al, where he lived until about five
years ago. He then came to live in London, but t ften
visited the North. As a public man he had an excellent
record, being chairman of the Tynemouth Board of Guar-
dians, a member' of the Northumberland County Council,
and a Justice of the Peace for Northumberland.

Mr. Henry Marsland, of Bose Brow, Ludworth, a coal
merchant in a large way of business, died with unexpected
suddenness on Saturday in the goods yard at Marple Station.
He had a severe illness some time ago, but he had apparently
fully recovered. On Saturday, however, he had a seizure,
and died before medical aid could be summoned. Deceased
was about 60 years of age.

The death occurred last week of Mr. John Whitfield, of
Stockton Heath, Warrington, the local representative of
Messrs. Bichard Evans and Company, coal merchants. Mr.
Whitfield, who was 60 years of age, had represented the firm
at Widnes and Warrington, and his connection with them
extended over 37 years.

The death occurred at a Gloucester nursing home on the
14th inst. of Mr. Trevor Powell, J.P. Deceased went to
Gloucester as a young man, setting up business as a coal
factor. Subsequently he became connected with the Foxes
Bridge Colliery Company, Cinderford, which he represented
in the Gloucester district.

We regret to announce the death, at the Boyal North
Shore Hospital, Sydney, on March 9, of Mr. John Plummer.
Mr. Plummer, who was born in the City of London in 1831,
was the doyen of Australian journalists. For many years
he had acted as the Sydney Correspondent of the Colliery
Guardian.

Herr Ed. Suess, the great Austrian geologist, has died at
Vienna, at the ripe age of 83. He was one of the most
illustrious of tectonic geologists, his work, Das Autlitz de
Erde, having brought him renown throughout the world..

M. Paul Heroult, the distinguished French metallurgist
and engineer, died on Saturday at Antibes, of typhoid fever.
He was in his 53rd year. A native of Normandy, M.
Heroult studied metallurgy at the Ecole des Mines in Paris,
and at the age of 20 definitely adopted engineering as his
profession. His name first became prominent in connection
with a process for the manufacture of aluminium which he
patented in 1887. In July 1888 the Societe Metallurgique
Suisse erected plant driven by a 500-horse power turbine to
carry out Heroult’s process, which gradually found recogni-
tion in France, Germany, and England. M. Heroult
invented also an electric arc furnace for the. making of high-
grade steel, which was adopted by the United States Steel
Trust and by British steel manufacturers.

Notes from the Coalfields.

[Local Correspondence.]

South Wales and Monmouthshire.

Nero Railways in the Vale of Neath—Ebbw Vale Company's
New Offices—By-product Plant at Bargoed—The Educa-
tion Question—Fernhill Collieries' Great Development.

The Neath Valley extensions of the Great Western Bail-
way Company have been under consideration in the Parlia-
mentary Committee room both last week and this, and the
proceedings are likely to be still further prolonged, for the
opposition is strenuous. Mr. F. Potter, general manager of
the company, spoke as to the difficulties and delays which
prevail at present, because the coal from the Ynysarwed and
other pits had to be shunted upon the main line, and said
that the new railways proposed would enable the marshal-
ing to be done off the main line, and thus give a clear run
to port. Mr. W. A. Stephens, director of the Ynysarwed
Company, said his firm could enormously increase the output
—by probably 1,300 tons a day—if they could get the coal
away; and this end would be attained if the new railways
were constructed. Mr. John Williams, M.P., who is a
miners’ agent, said that the lack of railway facilities was
responsible for a practically virgin coalfield not being
developed. To put coal from there on to the Vale of Neath
Bailway entailed crossing the river and the canal.

One remarkable incident in this investigation was the
opposition of Col. E. Vaughan, it being represented that
that gentleman would lose £600 a year if the new railways
were made. He had let 6J acres to the Ynysarwed Com-
pany for tipping, and they had to cross that land in order to
reach the present railway. He received £35 a year rent,
and |d. per ton for coal passing over; but the new railways
would save the collier” company from crossing his land, and
he would lose £600 a year now paid him in way leave. To
the chairman Col. Vaughan admitted that he had received
£3,000 for the land, and that the annual rent would still
go on. In his lease relating to the Glyn Merthyr Colliery
Company there was a clause binding them to send all their
coal over his land and pay Id. per ton; but there was no
binding clause in regard to Ynysarwed.

The offices of the Ebbw Vale Company having become
inadequate for the extended business, it has been decided to
erect a new and larger building. Mr. Joseph Brailsford,
chairman of the company, will lay the memorial stone on
Monday; and a noteworthy fact is that the work is to be
carried out by the company’s own men. During the past
decade, in particular, the operations of the Ebbw Vale con-
cern have greatly increased. Coal output now approximates
to two million tons per annum ; from the iron made in the
blast furnaces the company produce about 185,000 tons of
steel yearly; while in the galvanised sheet enterprise a new
departure of high promise is to be recognised.

By-product plant extensions at the Bargoed collieries of
the Powell-Duffryn Company were brought into operation on
Monday, 50 new coke ovens having been erected by the
Simplex Company, Sheffield, of the latest and most effective
type. Already the Eowell-Duffryn Company had a hundred
ovens at work, carbonising 500 tons per day; and the new
ovens will have double capacity, therefore dealing with
another 500 tons, but owing to the adoption of labour-saving
devices the number of men employed will not be materially
increased. The Bhymney and Aber Valleys Gas and Water
Company will take a large additional quantity of the gas
produced, and among the visitors on Monday was Mr. J. W.
Broadhead, chairman of the United Kingdom Gas Associa-
tion. Mr. George Hann, agent for the Powell-Duffryn Com-
pany, escorted the visitors round the works. It is claimed
for the Bargoed collieries that they are the finest in the
world, and they hold the record for one day’s output—4,020
tons in 10 hours. About 4,000 men are employed at the two
pits. Among the latest devices is the aerial railway now in
course of construction between Bargoed and the new
Britannia pits, for carriage of small coal to be washed. The
company will celebrate its “ jubilee ” during the month of
June.

At Blaenavon also an installation of by-product plant is
about to be made on a large scale.

An inspection of the Senghenydd Colliery, prior to removal
of the bashings, has been made by Mr. Hubert Jenkins,
miners’ agent, on the invitation of Mr. Edward Shaw, the
manager and agent; and Mr. Jenkins, after thorough exami-
nation, spoke very highly of the work that had been done,
and considered that no danger existed to prevent removal
of the bashings. Stone arching has been erected over a
long stretch; side walls, with iron girders, have been put
up in other parts; cavities have been filled with concrete;
and it is said to be intended that this system of iron girders
on side walls, with concrete overhead, will be the feature of
the main haulage roads in future. On one side of the air-
bridge a temperature of 120 degs. was found, and 108 degs.
on the other side.

The coalowners have made quick response to the change oi
attitude on the part of the Monmouthshire County Council.
It will be remembered that at the meeting last week the
Council—reversing a former decision, and going back to their
original resolution—decided to put up their own school of
mines at Crumlin. Their original decision had been inopera-
tive for two or three years, and the coalowners had decided
to put up at Crumlin a school silimar to that which they have
established at Treforest. Thereupon the question came up
again, and a resolution was passed practically reversing the
idea of putting up a council school. At a meeting of the
Monmouthshire Education Committee last week, however, a
resolution was passed reversing this, and a decision was
come to by a majority of about three members to recommend
the County Council to put up its own school. Now there is
an announcement by the coal owners that at a representative
meeting of the principal Monmouthshire proprietors, held at
Newport on Saturday, it was unanimously resolved to proceed
with the erection and equipment of a branch school at
Crumlin, this to be ready for opening in October. It is to be
an integral part of the system of the South Wales and
Monmouthshire School of Mines at Treforest, and will be
provided principally for the part-time students from the
Monmouthshire Districts. These students will spend one
whole day of eight hours per week at the Crumlin School—a
course which has met with success at Treforest. . In the
announcement made on behalf of the coal owners it is stated,
“ The questions of safety and efficiency are as pressing in
the Monmouth coalfield as in Glamorgan, and the coalowners
are determined that no steps shall be left undone on their