August 21, 1914.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

431

The accident is supposed to have been caused through an
explosion of gas, and the chargeman, Samuel Ainsley, was
instantaneously killed.

An interesting phase of the present national crisis has
been seen in Northumberland. This week Prof. Hallsworth,
who occupies the Chair of Economics at Armstrong College,
Newcastle, has been present at an executive committee
meeting of the Northumberland Miners’ Association, and
has explained to the executive an excellent scheme for the
conservation of the Northern food supply. The scheme is
intended to provide instruction to the miners, who hold
allotments all over the county, as to the best methods of
getting the most out of the soil by the scientific rotation
of crops. The association has promised to give the fullest
facilities to the college experts for carrying on this com-
mendable work of instruction. There can be little doubt
that the large number of cottage gardens in Northumberland
can produce a great deal more than they do, and the results
of the scientific instruction will be seen long after this
lamentable war has been concluded. The executive has
also promised to assist in providing labour for the gathering
of the harvest.

Cumberland.

The collieries in the Haltwhistle district are still working
regularly every day. There is little likelihood that there
will be any stoppage at Plenmellor Colliery, as the output
at present is very small. At the Blackett and South Tyne
Collieries an arrangement has been made for the unloading
of the small coals, and it is expected that this will enable
the collieries to work for some time. The manager has also
consented to allow coals and rent to those who have been
called to active service.

The two furnaces at Distington, which were damped down
a week ago, were put into full draught again on Monday
morning. The Cumberland haematite iron trade is stronger
in tone, a sharp demand having set in for the special brands
for which Cumberland smelters are famous, and as far as
can be seen, the present production is likely to be main-
tained for some time to come.

Yorkshire.

Colliery Position in South Yorkshire—Shaft Accident at
Edlington—Managers visit Rotherham Main.

By the time these notes are read it will be three weeks
since war was declared, so that it is now possible to estimate
to some extent what effect hostilities have had upon the
collieries of South Yorkshire. Most of the pits in the
Doncaster district have been working short time. A large
quantity of coal is exported, and with the stoppage of
shipping this trade has fallen off considerably. As several
of the large pits in Yorkshire are to a great extent dependent
upon the shipment demand, the effect has already been
of a serious kind. A large quantity of South Yorks coal
is also used by the steam trawlers, and now that these
are hung up the supply is no longer required. But there
has already been an improvement in the situation in some
directions. It seems pretty certain that the collieries cannot
be kept working more than four days per week at the
maximum, and in several instances we are told it is more
likely to be three days, and even two. The railway com-
panies have been buying largely, but so few people are
travelling now, at what would ordinarily have been the
height of the excursion season, that some companies are
reducing their trains to what is practically a winter service,
which means that purchases of coal will be reduced in
proportion. Everywhere a big drop in output is recorded.

At Bentley Colliery the men only worked about half of
last week, and it was understood a similar reduction in the
working shifts was likely during the present week.
Bentley’s output is about 1,800 tons per shift. Reports that
some collieries have closed down altogether are incorrect.
Nor are statements which have indicated the cessation of
pit sinking operations to be relied upon. It is authorita-
tively reported that, in spite of the departure of some of
the foreign workmen employed at the new German colliery
at Harworth, and the temporary detention of others by the
police and military authorities, the developments there have
not been brought to a standstill through the outbreak of
the war. Work is not proceding at the same rate as before,
but it is still proceeding. It is stated that the German
element in the Harworth staff was actually in the minority,
the larger proportion of foreigners being Swiss and Italians.
There is a sufficiency of the freezing plant on the site to
enable work to be continued, and this is being done.

A large mimber of Germans, employed in freezing the
pit of Messrs. Pease and Partners at Thorne Moorends, were
also arrested a few days ago, and taken to York Castle.
They were allowed to return, however, and reached Thorne
early the next morning, having all been registered. The
ready liberation of these men enabled the work to be
resumed at Thorne Colliery, much to the satisfaction of the
locality. Sinking operations are also continuing at
Rossington, Hatfield, and at the Armthorpe Colliery.

The Yorkshire Main Colliery, at Edlington, had to be
set down for some hours at the beginning of the week,
through the overwinding of a cage of full tubs. Happily
the cage was safely held by the butterfly apparatus, but the
loose rope did some damage to the roof of the engine house.
The mishap occurred shortly after 8 o’clock in the morning;
and the men at work had to be withdrawn by means of
the second shaft. The damage was rectified in time for the
night shift to descend.

Work has been restricted at several of the pits in the
Barnsley district, but there is no acute distress at present.

The shortage of miners’ houses at Bolton-on-Dearne
has long been causing anxiety and inconvenience. At a
special meeting of the council just held, it was resolved
to apply to the Local Government Board for sanction to
a loan of £64,000 for the erection of artisans’ dwellings at
Bolton and Goldthorpe, and for a further loan of £4,000
for the laying out and construction of street works in con-
nection with the scheme. The Wath Main Colliery Com-
pany sent forward plans for 42 houses, and it was resolved
to consider these.

Messrs. Crawshaw and Warburton, colliery proprietors,
of Dewsbury, have decided to make an allowance of 5s.
per week to the wives and Is. for each child of any Reservist
who has been employed by the firm and has now answered
the mobilisation order for service with the colours. In
addition to this Messrs. Crawshaw and Warburton have
contributed 100 guineas towards the Batley and Dewsbury
Relief Fund.

At the annual meeting of Henry Briggs, Son and Com-
pany Limited, Whit wood Collieries, near Normanton, held

at Leeds on Friday, the chairman (Mr. W. G. Jackson)
said that in addition to other difficulties which collieries
had had to meet during the year there was the war, which
had put a stop to all shipping. The output for the year
had increased by 59,090 tons, but the profits had diminished
by £10,000. The directors had voted £1,000 to the Prince
of Wales’s fund. They were striving as hard as they could
to keep their men employed to the best of their ability,
and they had something like 150 men in the Reserve and
Territorials, who had been called up. The company was
making arrangements to keep in touch with those families
where the breadwinner had been called away. He asked
the shareholders to see that the families of the Reservists
who were in their employ did not suffer. They proposed to
give something like £100 a week, made up of 10s. a week
for the wife and 2s. a week for each child. The recom-
mendations of the directors were heartily adopted.

The members of the Yorkshire branch of the National
Association of Colliery Managers held an excursion meeting
in the Rotherham district on Friday, when they visited the
Warren House and Rotherham Main Collieries of Messrs.
John Brown and Company Limited. The party numbered
about 50, and was headed by Mr. F. H. Waterhouse, the
branch president. Warren House, which is connected with
the company’s Aldwarke Main Colliery, has only within the
last few weeks been equipped with a new air compressing
plant, and the managers had the opportunity of inspecting
the most up-to-date machinery in a branch of colliery work
which has made great progress. All the hauling, coal
cutting, and pumping is done by compressed air. Some of
the haulages are of great length, and altogether cover 30
miles. At Rotherham Main the principal features inspected
were the vertical centrifugal pump, motor driven, which
supplies water for the whole of the colliery consumption,'
equivalent to 12,000 to 14,000 galls, per hour; the system
of economising fuel consumption in connection with steam
generation; the winding controller, wfliich is in operation at
the whole of Messrs. Brown’s collieries; and the vacuum
method of cleaning the boiler flues, the dust from which
is taken down the mine and spread along the roads to reduce
the danger of coal dust explosions. At Rotherham Main,
too, there is a complete compressed air plant. A new device
for indicating signals in a visible manner to the winding
engineman, in accordance with the latest legislative require-
ments, was also exhibited. The visitors were conducted
round the collieries by Messrs. E. B. Whalley (agent),
A. S. Bratley (Rotherham Main), G. H. Barraclough
(Aldwarke), C. W. T. Fincken (Carhouse), and other
officials. They were entertained to lunch at the Colliery
Institute, Mr. Whalley presiding.

It is stated that Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire coal
owners, deprived of the usual imports into Hull and
Grimsby, have approached the owners of local forest land,
and in some cases where forest owners are financially
interested in collieries, guarantees of a supply of pit wood
have been given. In Sherwood Forest, the woodsmen are
now cutting timber specially for Nottinghamshire pits

Lancashire and Cheshire.

The Earl of Ellesmere, who is the largest private colliery
owner in Lancashire, has contributed £1,000 to the National
Relief Fund. He has also offered Worsley Hall and its
grounds as a Red Cross hospital.

Notts and Derbyshire.

Overwinding Accident at Alfreton — Ambulance Teams
Volunteer.

A case of overwinding occurred on Monday morning at
the Cotes Park Colliery of Messrs. James Oakes and Com-
pany, Alfreton. The descending cage crashed into the
woodwork at the bottom of the shaft, doing slight damage.
The patent apparatus to minimise the danger and damage
of overwinding seems to have acted satisfactory, but work
had to be suspended for the day.

A batch of 150 ambulance men from the No. 5 district
of the St. John Ambulance Brigade, of which Deputy-Com-
missioner S. C. Wardell, of Doe Hill House, Alfreton, has
charge, and which comprises the counties of Nottingham,
Derby, Lincoln, the West Riding of Yorkshire, and part
of Staffordshire, left for Aidershot on Saturday, August 15.
From this district 1,500 men and about 400 nurses have
volunteered for service. The unit is taken from the
following corps :—Mansfield, Warsop, Tibshelf, Birchwood,
and Cadeby collieries, Sheffield and Rotherham. Mr.
Wardell, who is general manager of the Birchwood Colliery,
Alfreton, which is owned (as is also the Tibshelf Colliery)
by the Babbington Coal Company, has for many years»taken
an active interest in ambulance work in connection with
collieries in Notts and Derbyshire. He took a prominent
part in the ambulance review at Windsor Castle 21 years
ago, when the men practising “ first aid to the injured ”
at the collieries of the Babbington Coal Company in Notts
and Derbyshire were inspected by the late Queen Victoria.

The Butterley Company Limited, owners of the Codnor
Park and Butterley Iron Works and extensive collieries,
have made known a scheme for obtaining contributions
towards the Relief Fund, \iz., that each workman earning
up to £1 per week contribute Id. per week; those earning
from £1 to 30s., 2d. per week; 30s. to £’2, 3d. per week;
and over £2, 6d. per week. About 8,500 men were employed
at the companies ironworks and collieries, and if the work-
men were willing to adopt the scheme the company would
at once pay 8,500 shillings, and a further 8,500 upon each
of the men’s amounts reaching a shilling. It wTas hoped
the collieries would work steadily on.

Dean Forest.

The half-yearly gale rent audit for the Dean Forest coal-
field was held at the Speech House on the 12th inst., when
colliery proprietors, galees, etc., attended and paid the
amount due to the Crown on coal won in the Royal Forest
during the past half-year. Following the financial trans-
actions a banquet was given, which was presided over by
Mr. Westgarth Forster Brown (deputy gaveller). In con-
sequence of the present international crisis the list was
curtailed. The toast of “ Prosperity to the Coal Trade and
Kindred Industries of the Forest of Dean ” was proposed
by Mr. H. Johnstone, inspector of mines, who said that
although the coal trade was threatened at the present time,
he thought they could hold up their heads and look forward
to something better than the destruction of their industry.

Somersetshire.

At Bristol on Thursday, the 13th inst., the Bedminster,
Easton, Kings wood, and Parkfield collieries were offered for

sale by auction by Messrs. George Nichols, Young, Hunt
and Company. Mr. George Nichols, who conducted the
sale, read a provision by which certain minerals could be
secured, after which he said he wanted to call their atten-
tion to one or two things. There had been a very great
anxiety in Bristol, as many of them knew, that these
collieries should get in work immediately. The present offer
comprised practically the whole of the colliery undertakings.
Only a portion of what he offered now his firm sold in
1900. That was a small portion kuown as the Kingswood
and Parkfield collieries. At that time this property was
sold for £61,000, and, be believed, both loose and fixed
plant came to about £5,000. They were now including in
the sale the whole of the loose and fixed plant, so that
altogether the property was sold for something like £66,000.
Kingswood employed 900 men, Hanham 376, Pucklechurch
480, making a total of upwards of 1,700 men. Bidding
started at £10,000, and afterwards biddings of £1,000 each
were forthcoming till £28,u00 was reached. Mr. Nichols
announced that the property was withdrawn, as there was
no advance. Subsequently to the auction, negotiations for
the purchase of the properties offered were made.

The men of the Speedwell Deep Pit and the Hanham
Pits met at Bristol, on Wednesday, to hear a statement
from the Lord Mayor with regard to a possibility of the pits
being re-opened. The Lord Mayor stated that two or three
gentlemen who might put large amounts of money into the
concern—and they were so rich that they need not put
it in for the sake of any dividends—had said to him :
“ Supposing we assist in this venture, what guarantee have
we that directly the pits are open the men, from some
freak or some ill-considered matter, may not plunge the
whole business into difficulties? We should lose our money
and the object we have in view would not be secured. He
knew very well that the conditions in the Bristol district
were not in all respects so favourable to the miners as in
many other places, but for various reasons men had been
content to accept lesser wages there than go elsewhere. He
would not like to suggest anything that would interfere
with their trade organisations, but he would say to them
that if there was any local difficulty they should not magnify
it, that they should not be hasty in their action, that they
should not “ down tools ” all in a moment. He believed
the mines could be profitably worked. Mr. W. Whitefield,
the miners’ agent, followed with a short address, in which
he referred first to the conditions upon which the miners
would be prepared to work the pits if they were re-opened,
and said the conditions would be exactly the same as existed
when they ceased work. A vote of thanks for the assistance
given by the Lord Mayor since the closing of the pits was
carried unanimously.

Scotland.

The directors of the United Collieries Limited have
decided that in cases where the breadwinner in their
employment and occupying a company’s house has been
called on to serve his country, his dependants shall occupy
their homes rent free, and shall be provided with fire coal
during his absence.

Signs are not wanting to show that the steel industry
in Scotland is about to embark on a spell of sustained brisk-
ness. Even with the present international complications,
orders are pouring in to the steel works in and around
Motherwell, and the activity in that quarter is expected
to create a strong demand for Lanarkshire coal.

There have been persistent rumours that quite a number
of the leading coal companies were to follow the lead given
by the railway companies in Scotland and withhold payment
of the interim dividends, owing to the unsettled conditions
of trade by the war crisis. There is the best authority for
stating that the more important coal companies in the
country do not intend to pursue that course. True, the
prospects in the Scotch coal trade are by no means bright—
m some parts of Fifeshire, where the volume of business
done is largely an export one to foreign ports, the pits are
at a complete standstill—but in influential and well-
informed quarters the belief is growing that if Britain
succeeds in maintaining her dominance on the sea, the
setback will, after all, be a comparatively brief one.

As a result of recent developments in the Newarthill
district of Lanarkshire, Biggarford Colliery has been opened.
Already quite 100 men have found employment in the pit,
which gives promise of being very productive.

A large body of miners, drawn from all parts of Scotland,
have been called up by the Government, either as Reservists
or Territorials. The Scottish Miners’ Federation has recom-
mended to the various county executives that the men thus
mobilised shall be kept on the union books during their
enforced absence, and be entitled to all benefits according
to rule during their term of service.

Knowehead pit belonging to the Banknock Coal Company
has been temporarily closed down. The management,
however, are finding employment for the workmen in the
other pits in which they are interested locally.

No fewer than four of the mines inspectors in the Scotland
division, including Mr. C. L. Robinson, the newly appointed
chief of the staff, have been called to arms, in consequence
of the present European crisis.

It is reported than an oil well has been discovered at Muir
of Ord, some 10 miles from Inverness. While workmen
were engaged in clearing the foundation for a new building
they found the spring, and tests are now being applied to
discover the nature of the oil and its commercial value.

The Board of Agriculture for Scotland are endeavouring
to arrange a scheme to meet difficulties which might arise
in the supply of pit props in coal mines. The bulk of the
pit props used in this country come from the Baltic, and
that trade having been interrupted by the war it is possible
than mine owners may have to look elsewhere for their
supplies until the crisis is over. With a view to meeting
this difficulty, the Board of Agriculture are approaching
land owners in Scotland to procure pine trees, from which
the props are made.

We are informed that, after full consideration and
consultation with the honorary president, Sir Owen Philipps,
K.C.M.G., the chairman, Sir Archibald Denny, the vice-
chairman. Dr. H. S. Hele-Shaw, and the various exhibitors,
it has been decided to postpone the Shipping, Engineering
and Machinery Exhibition, which it was proposed to hold
at Olympia, London, W., from September 25 to October 17,
1914, to a period between July 13 and September 14, 1915,
which will be fixed in consultation with the hall authorities
in the beginning of 1915.