July 24, 1914. THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN. 205 was claimed to have increased his natural tendency to obesity to such an extent that he found it difficult to follow his occupation as a miner. Their lordships held that the incapacity from work had ceased, and that compensation should end. The annual meeting of the Midland Institute of Mining, Civil, and Mechanical Engineers took place at Sheffield on Tuesday, when Mr. Walter Hargreaves was re-elected president. Mr. E. Kilburn Scott read -a paper entitled “ Switchgear for Mines.” A trans- lation of a paper by Dr. Karl Schultze, dealing with •colliery consumption and machine economy at an Upper Silesian colliery, was also presented. Judgment was given on Saturday by the Caerphilly magistrates in the prosecution by the Home Office of the Universal Colliery Company and their manager, Mr. Edward Shaw, in respect of various alleged breaches of the Coal Mines Act in October last, when the explosion occurred at Senghenydd. The whole of the summonses against the company were dis- missed, while only five out of 17 summonses were recorded against the manager. The fines amounted to £24, with £25 costs. To ensure the solvency of the Senghenydd and ’Glynea explosions fund, the committee administering it have adopted the actuary’s report which recom- mends a reduction in benefits of Is. per dependant. The Lancashire and Cheshire Minimum Wage Board heard an application on Friday for an advance in the minimum wage from 7s. to 7s. 6d. a day. The •employers refused the request, and the matter will now go before the independent chairman, Judge Mellor. The ballot upon the question of superseding the .Scottish Miners’ Federation by a new organisation, to be known as the National Union of Scottish Mine Workers, has resulted in a big majority in favour of the new union. The Miners’ Federation of Great Britain have •decided that if Scottish miners’ wages are reduced below 7s. per day they will be authorised to strike immediately, and a ballot of the Federation will be taken upon the question of a national stoppage. In view of this, the four-day working week proposal will be abandoned. In the House of Commons last night, Mr. Keir Hardie addressed certain questions to the Home ■Secretary arising from the Senghenydd prosecutions. Mr. McKenna said he had had the report of the proceedings before him with a view to considering whether there should be an appeal against the decision of the magistrates in dismissing some of the charges, but had not yet had time to consider the question of whether the evidence showed such gross misconduct on the manager’s part as to constitute a priwl facie case for the cancellation of his certificate. To do so it would be necessary to set up a special tribunal under Section 11 of the Act to enquire into the question. COAL MINES INSPECTION IN 1913. The Supplement containing abstracts of the reports of H.M. inspectors of mines for 1913, which is printed with this issue, is a feature that we established several years ago. In this collected form the reports enable a survey to be taken of mining operations during the previous year at a date consider- ably earlier than that upon which Parts II. and III. of the Chief Inspector’s General Report customarily make their appearance. Last year it was impossible to publish this Supplement until September 12, so that it will be seen that there has been a welcome acceleration in the preparation of the reports, which is also remarkable if we consider the new labours impressed upon the industry as a result of the Coal Mines Act of 1911 and the General Regulations pursuant thereto. It is the purpose of this article to epitomise as briefly as possible some of the salient features of the reports and, on certain points, by the humble aid of simple arithmetic, to give returns for the entire country somewhat in advance of the official analyses. Before doing so, it is advisable to voice a caution that has frequently been offered—namely, that any comparisons that may be made with 1912 must be discounted by giving due consideration to the effects of the great strike in the spring of that year. Statistics of Output. This is especially the case where statistics of mineral output are concerned, for it must be remem- bered that in 1912 there was a gross decrease, as compared with 1911, of no less than 9,207,772 tons. Table A shows, however, that the output of coal in 1913 was greater than that of the previous year by as much as 27,000,000 tons, a figure which, after making all allowances for antecedent influences, bespeaks a vast expansion of mining enterprise. It is even more satisfactory to find that the value of the output has also increased by a mean sum of nearly Is. per ton, for the strike, whilst it checked production, had a certain stimulating effect upon selling prices. Similarly, the increase of nearly 40,000 in the number of men employed is an indication of increased activity, although recent legislation and the trend of social conditions has done something to detract from individual efficiency. Thus the apparent increase in the output per man must be traced entirely to the strike. Table A.—Persons Employed and Coal Raised During 1913 Under the Coal Mines Act. Division. Persons employed. Minerals raised. Mines at i work. Output of mineral per per- son employed. Average value per ton of coal raised. Below ground. ! Above | ground. | ..... J Totals. Below ground. Below and above ground. i Tons. Tons. Tons. s. d. Scotland 118,976 28,573 147,549 ■ 47,434,287 1 542 399 321 9 8 Northern 198,292 48,719 247,011 65,263,291 ! 507 329 244 10 5*3 Yorks. & N. Midland 203,996 53,256 257,252 73,499,759 ; 635 i 360 286 9 1*9 Manchester & Ireland 40,356 11,801 52,157 11,528,281 ’ 236 285 221 10 5*6 Liverpool & N. Wales 58,118 14,422 72,540 16,952,458 > 218 292 234 9 4 South Wales 198,123 35,011 233,134 : 57,009,050 609 288 245 11 10*5 Midland & Southern 91,973 , 26,274 118,247 ; 29,924,227 542 325 253 9 0*8 Totals in 1913 909,834 J 218,056 1,127,890 301,611,353* 3,289 332 267 Totals in 1912 878,759 210,331 | 1,089,090 273,192,001f 3,265 311 251 — * Including the followingCoal, 287,411,869 tons; ironstone, 7,709,624 tons; oil shale, 3,280,143 tons; fireclay, 2,585,763 tons; clay and shale, other than fireclay and oil shale, 457,244 tons; sandstone (including ganister) 144,923 tons ; iron pyrites 8,964 tons; limestone, 7,525 tons ; barium compounds, 4,712 tons; igneous rocks, 688 tons. In addition, 18,604 tons of coal were obtained from open quarries, making the total output of coal 287,430,473 tons, against 260,416,338 tons in 1912. f Including the followingCoal, 260,398,578 tons; ironstone, 6,744,258 tons; oil shale, 3,184,826 tons; fireclay, 2,287,719 tons ; clay and shale, other than fireclay and oil shale, 399,033 tons ; sandstone (including ganister), 152,156 tons ; limestone, 12,009 tons; iron pyrites, 8,442 tons ; barium compounds, 4 712 tons; igneous rocks, 268 tons. Table B.—Deaths from Various Causes at Mines Under the Coal Mines Act in 1913. Division. Number of deaths from accidents. Accident death rate. Explosions of firedamp or coaldust. Falls of ground. Shaft accidents. Miscellaneous underground. On smface. Total. Per 1,000 persons employed. Per 1,000,000 tons of mineral raised. 1913. 1912. Scotland 7 i 69 26 73 32 207 171 1 j 1 1*40 j 4*36 Northern — 103 10 i 60 38 211 214 0*86 i 3*23 Yorks and North Midland 3 i 154 29 69 36 291 318 1*13 3*96 Manchester and Ireland ; 19 3 21 8 51 52 0*99* 4*46 Liverpool & North Wales - 1 47 3 24 6 80 93 1*10 4*72 South Wales 451 i 161 13 122 35 782 306 3*35 13*72 Midland and Southern 1 ! 1 67 14 31 18 i 131 122 ■ 1*11 4*38 Total 1913 462 620 98 ' 400f 173t j 1,753 1*55 5*81 Total 1912 124 j 567 ! 71 1 339 1/5 i — 1,276 1'17 ! i 4*67 * North and East Lancashire only; there were no fatalities in Ireland. f By explosives, 30 (23 in 1912); suffocation by natural gases, 5 (8); by underground fires, 25 (1); irruptions of water, 9 (1); haulage, 251 (239); electricity, 13 (7); by machinery, 17 (10); sundries, 50 (50). J By machinery, 28 (39); boiler explosions, nil (nil)-, on railways, sidings, and tramways, 81 (78); electricity, 3 (4); miscellaneous, 61 (54). Table C.—Mechanical Coal-cutters Employed in the United Kingdom in 1913. Kind of machine. Scotland. Northern. Yorks, and N. Midland. North-western. South Wales. Midland and Southern. Total 1913. Total 1912. Man- chester & Ireland. Liver- pool and N.Wales. Driven by electricity:— Disc 484 56 146 3 5 29 725 623 Bar 191 31 S3 6 15 31 20 377 345 Chain 16 44 102 4 3 3 21 193 148 Percussive 2 3 — — — — — o 14 Rotary heading 7 — — — — — — 7 4 Total 700 134 331 13 23 36 70 1,307 1,134 Driven by compressed air:— Disc 133 68 183 46 75 3 13 521 480 Bar 8 18 54 12 16 ; 54 6 165 123 Chain — 9 34 3 1 1 i 3 7 34 Percussive 33 436 71 135 66 ! 19 74 834 666 Rotary heading 2 3 — — ; o 10 7 Total 176 531 342 196 158 i 79 ’ 105 1,587 1,310 Total in 1913 876 665 673 209 181 I 115 | 175 2,894 — Total in 1912 771 504 601 159 148 i 114 | 147 — 2,444 J Accidents in 1913. When we come to the subject of accidents, certain reservations must also be made. On a first inspection it appears to be the reverse of satisfactory that the number of fatalities should have increased by no less than 477, but here again the gravamen of the strike must be added to the balance, this being a factor also in the increase in the death-rate from 1-17 to 1-55 per 1,000 employed. When we take into consideration the enormous impetus to production the figures are more favourable, but nevertheless unsatisfactory, for the death-rate per million tons of mineral raised was 5*81, as compared with 4-67 in 1912. The total number of accidents, as well as the death-rate, on the latter basis, have only been exceeded once—in 1910—since 1893, another year of strikes. The outstanding cause is' the Senghenydd disaster, numerically the greatest that has ever visited the British coal fields. When we eliminate the deaths from explosions it will be seen that there is a net increase of 139 in the number of deaths, and if there is no conspicuous improvement, there is at