984

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

November 6, 1914

Notes from the Coalfields.

[Local Correspondence.]

South Wales and Monmouthshire.

Treasury Aid to Traders : The Government Announcement—
Business Prospects—Conciliation Board's Special Meet-
ing------Roll of Honour for the Exchange — Anthracite

Collieries Re-opened—The Financial Experiences of a
Colliery Company.

The Cardiff Chamber of Commerce had before it last week
the question of foreign debts, but owing to the expectation
of an announcement from the Government no definite action
was taken. The president (Mr. T. E. Watson), however,
made a brief statement.

It is understood that about a million and a-half sterling is
the amount due to traders in the Cardiff area; and the
Chamber resolved to await a communication from the
Government on the subject, a special meeting to be called
for its consideration. It has been decided that the sugges-
tion of the Association of the Chambers of Commerce is
impracticable—this was to create a clearing house of the
money due to and from Germany and Austria, and that the
debts from Germany and Austria should be set on one side
and the debts due from this country be set on the other, a
balance being struck.

Mr. J. A. Jones, of the firm of Watts, Watts and Com-
pany, Cardiff, has been appointed a member of the Associa-
tion of Chambers of Commerce, appointed to render assist-
ance that may be required by the Treasury and the bankers
in regard to the debts owing from foreign countries. The
announcement, issued on Wednesday, wras discussed on
’Change that morning, but its effect upon local trade is not
clear.

Widely divergent opinions are expressed as to business
prospects, ranging from highly optimistic to deep depression
—a difference which may be attributed as due, in large
measure, to the financial standing of the speaker. This
week, because of the ending of the moratorium, has been
looked forward to with apprehension in some quarters,
especially as new business had not arisen to help in over-
coming the ill results of pre-war commitments. Yet the
time of trial has passed with little effect. The outlook has
to be viewed from two standpoints, both, fortunately, war-
ranting the expectation of good prices.. With at least
40,000 men taken from the district as recruits, by far the
larger proportion being miners, a reduced output of 150,000
to ‘200,000 tons per week must serve to maintain quotations.
On the other hand, the closure of markets due to Turkey’s
entrance on the war must lessen demand for secondary sorts,
whilst it puts pressure upon the supply of best coal. Against
this, however, has to be reckoned the stoppage of German
and Belgian exports, with the fact that the fighting in
Northern France is right upon the mineral area; so that
British collieries wTill have to compensate for the shortage
occasioned by cessation of work in these important fields.
What that shortage may amount to cannot be gauged,
although an idea may be obtained from the heavy increase
of imports to Holland, occasioned by the loss of t?he West-
phalian supplies upon which the Dutchmen usually depend.
With Constantinople and the Black Sea closed, utter
derangement of the ordinary course of commerce prevents
anything better than the most cursory survey of the position
and prospects. It is, of course, inevitable that greater
activity of the warships will occasion heavier demand for
Welsh smokeless coal, but the prolonged tension and added
uncertainty in business prevents heavy shipments to the
depots. Turkish interference with the Suez Canal route,
and Turkish action on sea, may both be discounted, but,
nevertheless, the upheaval is fatal to business development,
for until there be some decisive action in the direction of
settlement, merchants cannot risk heavy commitments.

The new development of difficulties does not come alto-
gether as a surprise, the market—especially in regard to
freights—having shown symptoms cf uneasiness for some
time past. It is not only the one fact that freights to the
eastern Mediterranean have increased by 50 per cent, since
war began (for this fact has been due equally to other
causes), but it is the fear of Greece and Italy being dragged
in, with consequent general disturbance, that has stopped
transactions. The unsatisfactory financial condition of
Italy nationally must reflect itself upon Italian traders if
active operations are commenced by their Government; and
herein lies an extremely disturbing element. Nor is Greece
any better financially, the strain of the recent war still
being apparent.

At a special meeting of the Conciliation Board on Tues-
day, the workmen’s representatives brought up the question
of the colliers’ levy in aid of the Prince of Wales’s Fund.
By request of the men the employers have deducted 6d. per
week per man as contribution to the fund, and the money
handed by the employers direct to the fund committee.
Owing to dissatisfaction as to the separation allowances for
wives and other dependants, and also owing to the desire
of the men that the fund should be utilised in aid of miners
who are out of work in consequence of the war, the work-
men’s representatives now asked that the money (or at any
rate a portion of it) should be handed over to the Federa-
tion, so that the unemployed might obtain relief. The
employers, however, did not consider themselves at liberty
to hand over the money in the way proposed, and a long
discussion took place on Tuesday, wfith the result that it
was decided to ask for a conference with the national com-
mittee of the Prince of Wales’s Fund. A joint deputation
will wait upon that committee, and lay before it the local
circumstances and the workmen’s demand.

Cardiff Exchange is to have a “ roll of honour ” tablet,
conspicuously affixed in a good position ; and the committee
of control circularised firms at “ the Docks ” in order to
get a full and accurate list. In addition, another tablet
will give the names of those who fall at the front during the
war. Nearly 500 is the total of those wrho have enlisted
from the offices of firms directly connected with the
Exchange; and a further circular is issued seeking informa-
tion as to enlistments from the offices of firms wTho are not
members.

Cardiff Council, at a special meeting on Friday last,
decided to confer the freedom of the borough upon Sir W.
J. Thomas, former owner of the Ynyshir Colliery, and now
of Bedwas. The Lord Mayor, in submitting the resolution
—which was heartily endorsed by other members, and was
unanimously carried—spoke very eulogistically of Sir
William’s conspicuous philanthropy, and particular refer-

ence was made to the medical school of which he has been
the munificent founder. The officials of the Standard Col-
lieries, Ynyshir, on Saturday last presented to their former
employer a framed photograph of themselves. The Ynyshir
Collieries having been acquired by the United National Com-
pany, the association of these officials with Sir W. Thomas
has been severed; and in making the gift the speakers
expressed keen regret at the severance. Presentations were
also made to Councillor J. Thomas (the agent) and his wife.

As further evidence of improvement in the anthracite
trade, it has to be reported that the Aberpergwm Collieries
have re-started, after a long stoppage. When fully in
operation, the collieries give employment to close upon

I,	000 men.

The Merthyr Assessment Committee had before them a
singularly interesting statement of the financial circum-
stances of the Wayne Wyllt Colliery Company. The matter
arose in the course of an appeal against assessment. It
was stated that the pits had been run to provide employ-
ment and w'ages for a large number of men, and that over
.£60,000 had been paid to the workmen, whilst only one
small dividend had gone to the shareholders. The com-
pany was formed eight years ago with a capital of £6,000,
and when that was exhausted a similar sum was borrowed
on debentures, afterwards paid off by increasing the capital
from £6,000 to £15,000. Last year the only dividend, one
of 2J per cent., was paid, but the whole cost of manage-
ment, except one sum of £200, had been defrayed by the
directors. During 1913 the profit was not more than £187 ;
some of their coal was less than 2 ft. thick; they had diffi-
culties of rock bottom; there was a great deal of water to
contend with; and the cutting price was excessive; while
the price realised for coal was less than that in other col-
lieries in the neighbourhood. Upon this statement the
Assessment Committee decided to consult their colliery
expert as to the amount of assessment.

The authorities of the coast towns in South Wales are
acting in accordance with the warning from defence authori-
ties so that public lighting may be reduced; and it has to
be noted that all the docks are ready for prompt action
upon any warning received. Barry Council have appointed
a deputation to wait upon the general manager of the docks
with reference to this lighting question. Cardiff Council
are, as a result of military suggestion, increasing the fire
brigade provision.

The miners of the Rhondda Battalion were to have been
removed to Rhyl from Cardiff, but they did not at all like
the idea, their argument being if a corps of miners is
wanted, “ let it be a miners’ corps, and not a mix up ” ;
and it is probable as a result of their protest only a section
of them were removed.

Mr. Henry Davies, director of mining instruction in
Glamorgan, speaking at Ystalyfera, referred to the depar-
ture of the 6th Welsh Regiment from Swansea, and men-
tioned that he came across half-a-dozen Lianbradach
miners amongst them. He had previously met them facing
the fire in the darkness of Senghenydd workings at the time
of the explosion rescue work; and their last words to him
as the train steamed out of the station were : “ Tell Jack
Gregory [the manager] that if the chance comes, we’ll do
at the front what we did at Senghenydd.”

The action of the Glamorgan Coal Company and the
Powell Duffryn Company against the Glamorgan Council
and others has been fixed to come on in the King’s Bench
Division on Monday next. It raises the question of the
liability of county councils and standing committees for
expenses incurred during the coal strike, and the mainten-
ance of the police force, who were put up at the collieries.
A sum of about £25,000 is said to be involved; and counsel
have been briefed for the colliery companies, the council, the
chief constable, and the standing joint committee.

The general development of South Wales, almost entirely
due to the coal trade, finds one more manifestation at Swan-
sea in a borough extension scheme. The districts adjoining
the town outgrowths and actually part and parcel of Swan-
sea, have become very populous; and at a special meeting
held on the 29th ult. the Council decided to proceed with
the scheme of extension, for which Parliamentary sanction
will be asked next session. At Barry, also, extension is
determined upon, Mr. David Davies, of the Ocean Com-
pany, being associated with a scheme whereby 75 acres
will be acquired, and a garden city laid out on the shore,
with an esplanade 150 ft. broad. The first plan for laying
out the city will include 400 cottages, with 300 villas and
larger houses. At Cardiff, also, an extension scheme is
under discussion, this to include the incorporation of the
ancient cathedral city of Llandaff. Risca Council has a
scheme to borrow nearly £60,000 for expenditure upon
workmen’s dwellings.

Northumberland and Durham.

Closing of Newburgh Colliery : A Sequel of the Explosives'
Order-—Colliery Sidings and the Military Authorities—
Harbour Developments at the Hartlepools—Important
Prosecution at Newcastle : An Old Colliery and the
Mines Act.

All efforts to avert the closing of the Newburgh Colliery
have failed, and the hewers’ gear was drawn to bank on
Saturday last. About 1,200 men and boys will have to find
work elsewhere. In this they are being assisted by Mr.

J.	H. Merivale, agent for the Broomhill Collieries, who has
been in negotiation with various collieries in the district
with a viewr to obtaining wrork for those displaced at New-
burgh. About 140 of the married hewers, with their com-
plement of nightshift workers and boys, have been set on at
Broomhill and Chevington Drift, and about a dozen men
have been retained at the new drift at Newburgh. In addi-
tion, a representative of the Board of Trade has visited the
district to endeavour to persuade as many of the hewers as
possible to migrate to Whitehaven, where such workers are
urgently wanted. It will be remembered that the cause
of the closing of the Newburgh Colliery was a new Order
from the Home Office stipulating greater precautions against
explosions, in consequence of an explosion which occurred
recently. The Home Office ordered locked safety lamps to
be used, and sought to enforce the new regulation under the
Mines Act, whereby it is stipulated that shots are to be
fired by authorised persons only with permitted explosives
and battery. Hitherto the practice at Newburgh has been
to undercut only a short distance, and then to blast a good
deal of coal off the solid. The new Home Office require-
ments would have resulted in a decreased output and an
increased cost of production. Under these circumstances,

the owners have no option but to close the colliery. Its
closing will mean a heavy drain on the funds of the North-
umberland Miners’ Association, of which union some 800
of the Newburgh workers are members. Mr. Merivale holds
out hopes that in the near future he may be able to give
employment to more hewers and their complement of datal
hands, but he points out that this depends upon war condi-
tions and the state of the North Sea so far as risks are con-
cerned.

With a view, presumably, to preventing espionage and
attacks on the armament works of Sir W. G. Armstrong,
Whitworth and Company Limited at Elswick, Brigadier-
General Bayley, commanding the Tyne Defences, has issued
an order which is calculated to cause some embarrassment to
the Elswick Coal Company. The order provides that the
whole of the railway wagon way leading to the coal com-
pany’s staiths is to be closed to traffic of every kind between
Scotswood-road and the River Tyne, excepting only when a
vessel is lying alongside the staiths and is actually taking
in cargo. An armed guard is to be placed by the military
authorities at the point where the wagon way crosses Scots-
wood-road. Should the coal company desire to make use of
the wagon way for the specific purpose of conveying cargo
to a ship at the staiths, 24 hours’ notice must be given to
the officer commanding the military guard, and the coal
company must provide a responsible representative to attend
at the point guarded to identify such of the wagons and
employees as may legitimately make use of the wagon way
for the time being. It is ordered, further, that no vessel
shall be alongside the staiths excepting wThen taking in
cargo, and that the coal company shall give 24 hours’ notice
of the intended arrival of any vessel. No one shall be
allowed to leave or go aboard the vessel either by land or
water between sunset and sunrise.

Satisfactory progress continues to be made with the exten-
sion and improvement of the navigation and shipping facili-
ties at the port of the Hartlepools. It will be remembered
that some 18 months ago a new 65 ft. entrance was opened
by the North-Eastern Railway Company from the West
Hartlepool docks on the site of the old and disused entrance
to the coal dock, and a commencement was subsequently
made with the widening and deepening of the entrance lead-
ing from the old harbour to the north basin, and thence to
the central dock. Both these entrances are to be of an
improved formation, and they will have a width of 70 ft.,
as against 60 ft. originally. The work is being carried out
by the railway company’s staff within cofferdams, and the
north basin has recently been pumped down preparatory to
the permanent work being taken in hand. In these coffer-
dams sheet piling in 50 ft. and 60 ft. lengths, supplied by the
Side Groove Sheet Piling Company Limited, is being used.
The walls will have vertical, instead of curved, faces, and
they will be in concrete, faced with Cornish granite and
blue bricks. The contract for the three pairs of dock gates
was originally, in December last, placed by the North-
Eastern Railway Company with the Gutehoffnungshutte
Coal, Iron, Steel and Engineering Company Limited, of
Oberhausen, Rhineland, but we understand from an authori-
tative source that the work has recently been re-let to Sir
W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth and Company Limited, of
Newcastle-on-Tyne. The hydraulic sluice and dock gate
machinery will be supplied by the Hydraulic Engineering
Company Limited, of Chester, and will be constructed in
accordance with Norfolk’s patents, and similar to that sup-
plied by the same builders for the entrance and graving
dock gates of the Hull Joint Dock, described and illustrated
in the Colliery Guardian of June 26 last.

A most important mining prosecution was conducted at
Newcastle last week, when the Walker Coal Company was
charged with several breaches of the Mines Act at the insti-
gation of the Home Office. The case aroused considerable
interest in Tyneside mining circles, as the charges preferred
against the colliery company were very grave. A charge
of deficient ventilation was taken first. Mr. Griffith Jones,
prosecuting on behalf of the Home Office, intimated that
the Home Office was acting on the information of Mr.
Wilson, the inspector of mines for the district. He thought
that the best way would be to divide the summonses into
classes, such as improper ventilation, amount of egress,
firing in the presence of dust, not having proper plans, and,
generally, with not having conformed to the Mines Act
during the six months ending April 22. The pit was sunk
in 1758, and had two shafts, the Ann and the Jane, the
former being the downcast shaft and the latter the upcast
shaft. Originally they were sunk to the main seam, 100
fathoms, but other seams had been sunk, and now the
only seams left were the Bensham and the Beaumont. The
allegation of the prosecution was that the shaft used for
these seams was the same as was used 100 years ago, being
only 10| ft. in diameter. The Home Office held that the
owners had not provided extended ventilation commensurate
with the increased area of the workings. The system of
ventilation was through the downcast shaft, through work-
ings, and up the Jane shaft, a distance of 2J miles. The
pit had been under the observation of the authorities for the
six months mentioned, and since the proceedings were
initiated improvements had been made. Mr. Forster, an
assistant inspector, had paid nine visits, including night
visits, and, in his opinion, had found breaches of the regu-
lations being committed. In one north-going headway ho
had found fumes of a shot, and no ventilation; in three
places he found gas, and, on returning an hour and a-half
after, he found the fumes still there. Mr. Forster, in the
witness-box, corroborated the statements of Mr. Griffith
Jones, and added that he thought the shaft adequate for a
small pit, but not for one the dimensions of the Walker
Colliery. Mr. David B. Morgan, an analyst at Leeds Uni-
versity, said he had analysed the samples of atmosphere sent
by Mr. Forster, and found they contained, respectively, 1*45
per cent, and 1*25 per cent, of firedamp. For the defence,
Mr. Edward S. Fawcett, who has been manager and agent
to the Walker Colliery Company for 25 years, said he
visited the north headway with Mr. Forster, and though
there was some ” reek ” hanging about, in his opinion there
was sufficient ventilation at that particular place. He did
not agree that the airways were bad: they were fair average
airways, and in the main ways they were extra good. In
1903 a Capell fan was installed, and other improvements
had been carried on since then. The mine generally was
in a safe working condition. He had made a point of bring-
ing the various conditions of the Mines Act before his men,
and on Sunday mornings the men had been invited to his
office, and together they discussed the matter. The consult-
ing engineer of the company, Mr. John Morrison, said he
considered the mine was adequately ventilated; and Mr.
Simon Tate, the well-known mining agent, described the