THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN. 723, October 2, 1914. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Devon, Cornwall, and South Coast. Plymouth. COAL. Messrs. W. Wade and Son report that the south coast coal trade shows little variation, and the demand for ship- ments is below the average, this being chiefly due to the prevailing mild weather. Steam freights are quoted firmer from most ports, but very little is being done in new charters, as rates are expected to recede. Sailing vessels are offering a little more freely, and are being readily engaged at normal autumn rates. Local retail prices remain much below those current in London or at other south coast ports. ____________________________ LABOUR AND WAGES. South Wales and Monmouthshire. The Conciliation Board met on Friday last week to deal particularly with the long-standing question of colliery banksmen, their general conditions of employment, their duties, and the wage rate. These matters have been in dis- pute for two or three years, and the present negotiations are being conducted in relation to each colliery individually. Considerable progress is reported from last Friday’s meeting, nearly a score of cases being dealt with and disposed of, the settlement of typical cases a fortnight ago having immensely facilitated matters. . The number of collieries owned by 17 companies whose circumstances came under review is no fewer than 45. The agreements are said to make a reduc- tion in the number of hours to be worked by the banksmen, and the wages are considerably advanced in certain instances. The progress already attained warrants expectation that the Committee will shortly reach a satisfactory conclusion of. its labours. The Anthracite Miners’ Association, at the monthly meet- ing of delegates in Swansea on Saturday last, had a very gratifying report presented upon the question of unemploy- ment, tjiere having been much improvement during the past four weeks. Bedwas Colliery workmen, who were in a dispute as to payment in respect of working the Hock vein, have reached a settlement upon the basis of 4s. 9d. per day, plus per- centages. Avon Valley miners are seeking special concessions from the Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway Company in respect of fares charged the men who are on short time. The Federation Executive, at its meeting on Tuesday, had a report showing that between 3,000 and 4,000 men were idle, most of them in the anthracite district, and it was decided to take steps for ensuring that further service of workmen’s trains to the Rhondda should be established, the measures already adopted in that direction having proved of great help in reducing unemployment. North of England. The ascertainment of average selling prices of coal, for the purposes of the sliding scale for the regulation of wages in the Northumberland coal trade, has been made for the three months ended August 31, and shows that the average price is 0'21d. higher than that of the previous three months. Under the scale wages rise and fall by 1 per cent, for each penny change in the selling price, and, as the ascertainment shows, merely a fractional part of a penny alteration, wages will remain unaltered for the ensuing three months. Considerable dissatisfaction was manifested amongst the miners at Seghill Colliery, when, on Friday last week, the management posted notices stating that, with the fortnight commencing on the following Monday, a four-shift system would be put into operation. On Sunday, however, a meet- ing of miners was addressed by Mr. John Cairns, financial secretary of the association, and Mr. John Chapman, of the executive committee, and the men were advised that it would not be wise, in this time of national crisis, to make trouble. Therefore, the following resolution was agreed to :—“ That the lodge secretary inform the manager that the men have agreed to commence at the times stated on the notice on the understanding that they commence the new system under protest.” The last batch of decisions of the executive committee of the Northumberland Miners’ Association sent out to the county lodges deal with some interesting points. The com- mittee cannot agree to count a shift on which men were part of the time at work at a day idle for the purposes of Rule 40. (Rule 40 defines the conditions under which out-of-work benefit is payable.) They refuse to pay out-of-work benefit to some members of the Seaton Burn and Hazlerigg branches for the time during which they were on holiday, and not, therefore, affected by the pit working short time. Walker branch is also informed that shifts at temporary work must count as days at work for the purposes of deciding when contributions are due. Members unable to work owing to sickness or other causes, and not, therefore, affected by the pit being idle, are not entitled, either for themselves or their families, to any out-of-work benefit. Any member who has been unable to work owing to sickness is to be paid out-of- work benefit from the date he is medically certified able to resume work, providing he is otherwise entitled to such benefit as per Rule 40. A somewhat unusual application was made at Newcastle last week to a representative of the General Manager of Labour Exchanges, London. Clause 106 of that difficultly- comprehended enactment, the National Insurance Act, pro- vides that : “ The Board of Trade may, with the consent of the Treasury, and on such conditions, and either annually or at such other intervals as the Board may prescribe, pay out of State funds to any association of persons not trading for profit, the rules of which provide for unemployment benefit, whether to workmen in an insured trade or not, such part, not exceeding one-sixth, as they think fit, of the aggre- gate amount which the association has expended on such pay- ments during the preceding year or other prescribed period, exclusive of the sum repaid to the association in respect of such period pursuant to an arrangement under the last fore- going section and exclusive, in the case of payments which exceed 12s. a week, of so much of those payments as exceeds that sum.” Now, as is well known, the unemployment resultant on the war has dealt a severe blow at the solvency of the local miners’ associations. Therefore, the miners’ unions in Northumberland and Durham joined in applying, as above-mentioned, for the return of one-sixth of the money recently disbursed in out-of-work benefit to members. The applications will be laid before the Board of Trade and a reply forwarded in due course. A dispute which threatened to assume serious proportions arose between the spare putters and the management at the Morrison Colliery, Annfield Plain, last week. It appears that the men had been paid 4d. more than the ordinary ' putter for spare putting, and, when required to return to ordinary putting, were informed that the extra 4d. would be stopped. The putters, however, held that they were entitled to the money, and ultimately the management con- ceded the point. Federated Area. At the monthly meeting of the council of the Notts Miners’ Association last Saturday afternoon, Mr. W. Carter, J.P. (secretary) reported on the action of the Linby Colliery man- agement having discharged 18 men. An interview had taken place with the owners, and at a meeting of the work- men that morning it was decided not to hand in notices after hearing the company’s explanation. The agent (Mr. Han- cock) submitted correspondence which had taken place between the association and colliery owners regarding sur- face workers, and it was agreed that the men’s officials should continue to press for a conference to deal with this class of labour. ; Erected at a cost of between £5,000 and £6,000, new head- quarters (including assembly room and various offices) for the Lancashire and Cheshire Miners’ Federation were opened at Bolton on Saturday afternoon last. At a meeting of the Lancashire and Cheshire Colliery Fire- men’s Association held last week, it was decided that all the members who had been called up for service in connec- tion with the war should be kept as paid up members on the books, and also that every assistance should be given to their wives so that they may obtain all the benefits to which they are entitled. Scotland. Delegates attended from 19 districts at a conference under ‘ the auspices of the Mid and East Lothian Miners’ Associa- tion at Dalkeith on Saturday last. Mr. Robert Brown, the Scottish miners’ secretary, reported that within the last Week or two there had been considerable improvement in the coal trade, and large orders had been placed in several districts. The shipping trade had also partially recovered. As a result the pit workers were obtaining an average of from three to five days’ employment a week. Delegates reported that the miners were contributing on a graded scale in most of the districts for the National Relief Fund, and the unions were keeping in full benefit all workmen who had gone to serve their country. The Iron, Steel, and Engineering Trades. Messrs. J. R. Winpenny and J. Cox, the secretaries to the Board of Conciliation and Arbitration for the manufactured iron and steel trade of the North of England, have notified the Consett Iron Company Limited and Mr. S. Bradley, the operatives’ delegate, that according to the ascertained average net selling price of steel plates at Consett during May, June, and July, the wages of steel millmen during the ensuing three months will be reduced by 2| per cent., bringing the rate down from 12J per cent, above the standard to 10 per cent, above the standard. The Consett men suffered a like reduction last quarter. The accountants to the Board of Conciliation and Arbi- tration for the manufactured iron and steel trade of the North of England have just certified the average net selling price of iron rails, plates, bars, and angles for the two months ending August 31 last at £6 14s. 2T5d. For the previous two months the average net selling price was £6 13s. l’91d. In accordance with, sliding scale arrange- ments, wages for October and November will be the same as prevailed during the preceding two months. The following intimation has been made to Messrs. James C. Bishop and James Gavin, joint secretaries of the Scottish Manufactured Iron Trade Conciliation and Arbitration Board, by Mr. John M. MacLeod, C.A., Glasgow :—“ In terms of the remit, I have examined the employers’ books for July and August 1914, and I certify the average net selling price brought out is £6 9s. 3T4d. per ton. This means no change in the wages of the workmen.” _______________________ ENEMIES’ PATENT RIGHTS. By virtue of the provision of the Patents, Designs and Trade Marks Act (Temporary Rules), 1914, any person may apply to have any of the hereunder patents revoked or suspended providing that such person applying can satisfy the Board or any person whom they may appoint for the purpose that the patentee or licensee is the subject of a State at war with his Majesty, that such person applying intends to manufacture, and that such revocation is in the general interests of the country or of a trade. List of British Patents Granted to Germans and Austrians. No. Name. Title. 2314 ... D. C. H. Schumann ... Miners’ and like breath- ing appliances. 2766 ... G. Wolters ______ ... Preparing peat. 4486 ... F. C. W. Timm ______Destructive distillation coal, peat, fibre. 7299 ... C. H. Schuster ______Composition fuel. 12271 ... C. Grueber __________Sifting. 12813 ... Elektrotechnische Co.... Electric mine-igniters. 20592 ... Gewerkschaft Pionier... Briquetting. 21013 ... J. Prokop __________Sifting. 23099 ... Pokorny. (Wittekind Maschinenbau Akt.- Ges.) ______________Percussive tools. 23100 ... Pokorny. (Wittekind Maschinenbau Akt.- Ges.) ______________Drilling machines. 23445 ... F. Hofner __________Lift catch gear of mine- cage type. This information has been supplied to us by Messrs. Hughes and Young, 55-56, Chancery-lane, London, W.C., patent agents, who will be pleased to give our readers any further information they may require. . ___________________________ Partnerships Dissolved.—The London Gazette announces the dissolution of the following partnerships :—C. . H. Matthews and J. T. Clayton, coal merchants, at Werneth Station Coal Sidings, Oldham, under the style of Matthews and Clayton; R. H. Bennett and V. M. Whitehead, elec- trical engineers, at Hartlepool and West Hartlepool, under the style of Bennett and Whitehead. THE BY-PRODUCTS TRADE. Tar Products.—The chief feature of the market is the steady advance in the price of toluol. Benzols are the turn easier, while carbolics remain unchanged. Pitch is variable, and quotations are more or less nominal. Creosote also keeps very firm. Business generally is still rather erratic. Nearest values are /lljtol/ /9|to/10 l/2|.tol/3 2/1 to 2/2 ’ /8 1/11 • /5 35/3 33/6 25/3 to 29/3 Benzols................................................................................ Do. North................................... Toluol ......................................... Carbolic acid, crude (60 per cent.) ............. Do. crystals (40 per cent.) ......... Solvent naphtha (as in quality and package)... Crude ditto (in bulk) ......................... Creosote (for ordinary qualities) ............__ * Pitch (f.o.b. east coast) ..................................... Do. (f.a.s. west coast) .......................................... Tar .............................’____________ [Benzols, toluol, creosote, solvent naphtha, carbolic acids, usually casks included unless otherwise stated, free on rails at maker's works or usual United Kingdom ports, net. Pitch f.o.b. net.} Sulphate of Ammonia. — Things are very quiet, and prices vary greatly according to local conditions. For forward delivery up to the end of this year a premium is still asked up to the extent of 5s. Naturally, just now the statistical position is of more interest than usual, and is by no means disconcerting. Closing prompt prices are :— London (ordinary makes) ..................... 1 £10/776 .......................... Beckton ................................ £9/12/6 Liverpool ........................ £10/10 Hull.............................. £10/7/6 Middlesbrough.................... £10/7/6 Scotch ports ...................... £10/10 to £10/12/6 Nitrate of soda (ordinary) per cwt. ... 10/4j [Sulphate of ammonia, f.o.b. in bags, less 2J per cent, dis- count; 24 per cent, ammonia, good grey quality; allowance for refraction, nothing for excess.} ________________________________ The Association of Mining Electrical Engineers. — The annual general meeting of the association will be held on Saturday next at 4.30 p.m. at the Grand Hotel, Sheffield. The following are the nominations by the council of officers for the next session :—President, Mr. R. Holiday (Acton Hall Collieries); vice-presidents, Mr. A. Hall (Silverdale ; Company, Staffs), and Mr. M. Brown (Banknock Coal Com- pany, Glasgow); treasurer, Mr. C. F. Jackson (Exhall Col-, liery, Nuneaton). The annual report records a membership of 1,170 among the 10 branches of the association, and the holding of many meetings for the reading and discussion of papers. At the examinations held last March, out of 37 candidates 31 passed for first-class certificates, and all the remainder for second-class certificates. ' The American Coal Trade.—The Coal Age states that pre- parations are being made at Philadelphia Harbour to ship 100,000 tons of coal to Greece, consigned to foreign buyers. Part of this order, which, it is understood, was secured by the Consolidation Coal Company and the Pocahontas Fuel Company, will be filled from Virginian coal mines. In addition to the large sale of coal to Greece, it was reported on September 12 that Messrs. J. H. Weaver and Company, of Philadelphia, had made a contract writh the Navy Depart- - ment at Washington for 200,000 tons of coal, mined exclu- sively in Pennsylvania, which will be shipped immediately from the Philadelphia port for use of American war vessels in the Mediterranean and Asiatic squadrons. Other big bituminous coal producing operators, it is also understood, are receiving “ queries ” from foreign sources. These ship- ments of coal are regarded by operators only as preliminary to the enormous possibilities for the port of Philadelphia in the coal export trade that has been brought on by the European conflict. Other shipments are already moving from Philadelphia on actual foreign orders, and operators have announced at the mines that concerns are shipping by the hundreds of tons to Brazil, Argentine, and other South American countries. Operators throughout the Statu are expressing considerable glee over the recognition by the Government of the merits of the Pennsylvania fuel. All of this order, it is understood, will be supplied from mines in Cambria County, and it is the belief among operators that the State has re-established permanent relations with the Navy Department. During a recent week six vessels were chartered to take Pennsylvania coal to South American ports, and three to Greece. The reports of the mineral pro- duction made to Mr. Richard H. Hice, State Geologist, of Pennsylvania, show the production of 1913 was by far the greatest on record, exceeding the previous highest record by oyer $55,000,000. The output in 1913 was $388,220,933. The production of anthracite coal in 1913 was the highest on record, 81,818,680 long tons. The value at the mines was $195,181,127, exceeding the value of the production of 1912 by almost $17,500,000, and that of 1911 by $20,000,000. The production of bituminous coal rose to an average of 700,000 tons for each day the mines were in operation. The total value of this production was $193,069,806, or $1*11 per net ton, the highest average price received for bituminous coal in the state for 30 years. The export business at Baltimore keeps increasing, and a considerable quantity of coal is being loaded there for South America and Mediter- ranean ports. At Hampton Roads shipments have not been so heavy to the South American markets, although some have moved to Brazil and the Argentine. Export shipments have also gone to Port Said, St. Lucia, Port of Spain, Cristobal, Santiago, Buenos Ayres, St. Thomas, Havana, Genoa, Piraeus, Naples, Para, Manaos, George- town, Gothenburg, and Kingston. It is understood that the shipment moving to Port Said, Egypt, is for Dutch vessels trading there which have been using Welsh coal. At Birmingham (Ala.), as a result of the war, the steam business has improved to a large extent, heavy shipments being made to all Southern ports in view of the possible South American trade, and the increased demand from tramp steamers and others. Negotiations are still under way for the arrangement of bottoms and finances for the South American trade, and while .matters have not been definitely settled, it is understood that the prospects are good. Announcement is already made of the sale of two cargoes of coal by the Roden Coal Company to be shipped to the Eastern coast of South America, one cargo to go from Mobile and other from Pensacola. That permanent trade relations will be established between the Birmingham dis* trict and South America, is freely predicted.