1034

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

November 13 1914.

phosphorus are never made before the ore is charged
into the furnaces. This is a much simpler matter than
with other phosphoric minerals—such, for example, as
Swedish ores, m which the phosphorus varies within
such wide limits as to require constant screening and
analysis. Secondly, when the amount of iron and that
of lime in the Briey ores are added together the sum is
always closely approximate to 50 per cent. Thus, the
ores containing more iron are, generally speaking, le-s
chalky, and the leaner ores are more chalky ; and this,
too, is an important feature in basic pig iron practice.

The Briey ores possess a further advantage over
many other ores. They consume relatively much less
coke during their passage through the blastfurnace
than their varying iron content, averaging 38 per cent.,
would lead one to anticipate. With these ores or with
the siliceous Lorraine ores required in the burthen, the
coke runs from 950 to 1,050 kilogs. (average 1,000
kilogs.) per ton of ore, for current practice, and
according to the grade of pig iron required.

Conclusions.

The foregoing constitutes a brief description of the
two great French ore fields from which British manufac-
turers could obtain, during the future, increasingly
large tonnages of ore. Other French districts also
export ore. but less regularly and on a smaller s< ale.
Thus the Eastern Pyrenees.produce ores very free from
phosphorus and highly appreciated in the manufacture
of Bessemer and acid grades of pig iron; and in 1913
the exports were 30,952 tons ; while the fact that the
chief concessions have recently been acquired by French
metallurgical interests leads to the assumption that
exporting will become more and more a side issue, and
that, the limited resources of the deposit will be reserved
for the home trade. A few deposits close to the sea, in
Var and the Basse-Pyrenees, may also contribute a
small tonnage to the ore export trade. Lorraine and
the western district will still remain, however, the only
important districts from this point of view.

It has been shown that these ores have already found
a footing in the United Kingdom, and everything leads
to the hope that they will become of increasing
importance to the British iron trade.

OBITUARY.

We regret to learn that Captain Everard Joseph
Lamb, only son of the late Mr. R. O. Lamb, was
killed on November 1, while serving with the British
Expeditionary Force. Captain Lamb was in the 1st
Northumberland Fusiliers, and since going to the front
was promoted to a captaincy. Captain Lamb was

[Photo.- Thompson and Lee, Newcastle.

director of the Cramlington Coal Company, and of the
Seaton Delaval Coal Company, and an active member
of the Northumberland Coalowners’ Association.
Captain Lamb, who resided at Hayton, How Mill, near
Brampton, married a daughter of Mrs. O’Brien, of
Ballycastle, co. Antrim.

The death occurred at Scalby, near Scarborough, on
Tuesday, of Sir William Shaw Wright, chairman of the
Hull and Barnsley Railw'ay Company. Knighthood was
conferred in June in recognition of the opening, a few days
later, of the King George Dock at Hull, a vast undertaking
with which Sir William was closely identified from its
inception.

The death took place last week, at his residence, Fir-street,
Southport, of Mr. Richard Walker, who for over 50 years
was a member of Lord Ellesmere’s clerical staff attached to
his collieries in the Walkden district. The deceased
gentleman was 76 years of age.

The death has occurred of Mr. Anthony Kilkenny, a well
known Bury coal merchant, at the age of 53 years.

Mr. William Smith, who had carried on business as a coal
merchant at 5, Russell-street, Altrincham, for over 60 years,
passed away last week. The deceased, who was 81, took
over his uncle’s coal business in 1850, and was actively
associated with it up to three years ago, when he retired.
He was one of the oldest and best-known residents of
Altrincham.

Notes from the Coalfields.

[Local Correspondence.]

South Wales and Monmouthshire.

Swansea's Trade Fluctuations—Important Subsidence Case
at Swansea Assizes—Enterprise of the Tredegar Com-
pany : New Lines of Business—Ambulance Certificates
Under the Coal Mines Act — Pitwood from British
Columbia—The Turkish Navy and Its Coal Supply—
More Miners for “ The Front ” : Heavy Recruiting—
The Colliers and their Levy for Prince of Wales’s Fund
—Developments of Duffryn-Rhondda Colliery — Local
Maintenance of Imported Police During Strike :
Colliery Companies Sue County Council.

Swansea Harbour Trustees, at their meeting on Monday,
had before them a report upon the trade of October, which,
in part, contrasts strongly with the general trade returns.
Whereas the trade of the United Kingdom as a whole has
fallen off badly, Swansea showed an improvement of 115,000
tons on the previous month, although, as compared with the
corresponding month of last year, there was a shrinkage of
190,000 tons. Exports of coal fell 88,000 tons, patent fuel
40,000 tons, and tin and galvanised sheets 13,000 tons, com-
parison being made with October of last year.

At Swansea assizes on Monday, a case of considerable
importance to colliery proprietors came before Justice Bray
and a special jury. The plaintiffs were trustees of the Zea:.
Chapel, Penygraig, who alleged that the underground work-
ing of the Naval Colliery Company had led to serious sub-
sidence which practically wrecked the chapel. An older
building, dated from 1832, had previously stood on the site,
and the new chapel was built in 1902, the ground being
.examined at that time, and found to be in good condition.
Four years later, however, the walls began to crack, and in
1908 the trustees had an examination made, and the con-
clusion arrived at by the architect was that the damage was
due to subsidence. Twelve months ago the chapel was
regarded as quite unsafe. The defence was that the subsi-
dence was due to the weight of the new structure, or, in the
alternative, was due to the working of No. 2 and No. 3
Rhondda seams by another company which discontinued
operations in 1887. The hearing of the case occupied the
whole of Saturday and a great part of Monday, the evidence
being largely of a technical character as to the working of
the seams underneath the chapel. Mr. Leonard Llewellyn,
general manager of the Cambrian Combine, was a witness,
and also Mr. John Kane, mining engineer; and after hearing
counsel the judge left it to the jury to decide whether the
working of the collieries mentioned was solely responsible
for the damage to the chapel. The jury returned answer
in the affirmative, and judgment for plaintiffs was therefore
given, the question as to the actual amount of damage being
referred to am arbitrator.

The spirit of enterprise which marks the operations of
the Tredegar Company, and has been manifest of late years
in the Oakdalb and Markham subsidiary undertakings,
receives further proof from an application which has been
made to the Court in Chancery for power to extend very
widely the objects for which the company was originally
established. The statements of new objects occupy two or
three columns of close print in the legal announcements
published in the newspapers; and already this extension has
obtained the approval of an extraordinary general meeting of
shareholders, so that the proceedings in Court could be
little more than formal. The company seek perfect freedom
in the manufacture of by-products from the coal—such as
sulphate of ammonia, benzol, etc. They desired, however,
to become also manufacturers of explosives, and seek powers
to acquire oil wells, tile and terra cotta works, to manufac-
ture manures, soap, bricks, to carry on business as mechani-
cal engineers, wagon repairers, electric apparatus con-
structors, act as capitalists and financiers, to own ships, to
establish sale shops for disposing of their manufactures, to
acquire hotels, and experiment with patents, and do many
other things.

When the matter came before the Court on Tuesday, Mr.
Justice Neville said that by granting extensive additional
powers, the Court would be opening the door to the directors
abandoning their main business in this country, and pur-
chasing, for example, oil wells in Galicia without consulting
the shareholders—which would be ridiculous. He thought
that a clause should be inserted : “ Provided always that
none of the objects in the memorandum should be under-
taken except as subsidiary and auxiliary to the businesses
comprised in the original memorandum, unless by sanction
of a special resolution of the company. Counsel on behalf
of the company stated that the new objects of the company
were not very large, but dealt substantially with the ques-
tion of by-products. They also desired to provide for putting
up workmen’s dwellings, and the chairman of the company
(Lord Aberconway) considered that they were bound to do
this in order to compete with rivals. The petition was
ordered to stand over for a week for the insertion of a clause
such as that which the judge suggested; and counsel for the
petitioners said there was no objection to the insertion of
such a clause.

Discussing the decision of the Departmental Committee
(which recommended that ambulance certificates granted by
responsible authorities in mining districts should be recog-
nised under the Coal Mines Act), Mr. Henry Davies,
director of mining education in Glamorgan, has spoken upon
the work of his council, with its instruction through first-
aid classes. Many of the students, he said, proceed to the
Home Office examinations for first and second class certifi-
cates of competency; and it was essential that a certificate
in first-aid, recognised by the Home Office, should be pro-
duced before a candidate was,allowed to sit for examination.
The character of instruction given in Glamorgan was con-
sidered by competent authorities to be very high, and the
students invariably did well at the St. John and Red Cross
examinations. The amended scheme of Glamorgan made
it necessary that students should reach a much higher stan-
dard of attainment than was necessary in the requirements
of the St. John Association; and the Glamorgan authorities
therefore felt that since they paid for the instruction, and
appointed examiners, their certificate should be recognised
for Home Office purposes—especially seeing that it was
already recognised by the War Office. Mining students
took ambulance training as one of the subjects in the course
of winter classes, and were specially prepared in ambulance
work directly connected with mining operations; and the
recommendation of the Departmental Committee would assist
materially in making ambulance training more popular in
the mining districts than hitherto.

Attention is drawn to the immense areas of timber in
British Columbia which are available for supply of pitwood,
and those who draw attention to this source declare it to be
almost inexhaustible. All sorts of wood at a very cheap
price may be procured, so we are told; hundreds of miles
of forests immediately adjacent to streams, which would
carry the timber to the coast. Without question, there is
a vast field of operations open on the far side of Canada;
but those who talk of pitwood supplies from that region
cannot have considered the question of freight. Timber has
been brought from British Columbia to South Wales, making
the immense passage round Cape Horn; but this was only
of higher class timber, which would bear the cost of trans-
mission. Even now that the Panama Canal is available, we
cannot look to the Far West for supplies of pitwood at a
reasonable rate. What is generally overlooked is the fact
that double rates of freight on the wood are entailed,
because of the absence of an outward cargo. The vessels
would have to go from the United Kingdom in ballast, only
a small proportion of them finding any cargo at all to help
pay the expenses. However cheaply the wood might be
bought in British Columbia, this cost of freight would be a
barrier to the opening up of trade. One suggestion made is
that vessels from the eastern side of South America, those
which have gone to the Plate or Brazil with coal, could go
through the canal to British Columbia; but it scarcely needs
pointing out that these vessels already find good grain
cargoes for the homeward voyage, and therefore would have
no need for diversion to British Columbia, which would
entail a voyage in ballast practically as great as that from
the United Kingdom.

With regard Jo the position of the Turkish navy in respect
of coal, a statement has been published that not more than
1,500 tons of Welsh coal was available at Constantinople a
month ago; and as warships depend upon smokeless coal,
the dense black smoke of other fuel disclosing their where-
abouts, the opinion has been hazarded that the effective
power of that navy is strictly limited—all the more so as
not even Russian supplies, undesirable as they are, can be
available in default of better. Such an estimate of quan-
tities is, however, questionable; the shipments of Welsh coal
to Turkey have been, up to the end of September, almost
double the quantity in the corresponding period of last year.
So that, making all allowance for heavy consumption by the
“ Goeben ” and other craft, it is reasonable to estimate that
much more than 1,500 tons is at present available. Very
soon, of course, the supply must be exhausted, and then
Turkey will be driven to rely upon the home mines, which
yield a quite inferior coal at the rate of probably a million
tons per annum.

Recruiting meetings are being held every evening in the
colliery valleys, and a second battalion from the Rhondda is
now complete, .whilst recruits are coming forward freely
for a third battalion. It is regarded as highly probable that
Col. Pearson’s desire to raise a full brigade of Rhondda
recruits will be realised. In another part of the coalfield
the Tredegar Committee report that since the outbreak of
the war 800 men have joined the Army, 130 the Territorials,
and about 200 Reservists were called up. Adding the Terri-
torials already embodied, and other branches of men who
had gone to the Colours, it was estimated that at least 1.500
men from the town and neighbourhood are in the national
service.

Mr. Watts Morgan, miners’ leader for the Rhondda area,
appeared in his lieutenant’s uniform at a recruiting meet-
ing on Friday evening last week, and said that they were
very anxious to have a brigade for the miners of Wales—four
battalions; and they had already nearly completed two. Mr.
Clement Edwards, M.P., another speaker, said that none of
the men had distinguished themselves more than those
drawn 'from the mining districts. The miners had three
qualifications which made them an ideal body : they were
fearless, well skilled in the use of trench tools, and expert
in tunnelling work; and be had been told by staff officers in
France, “ For God’s sake, go back to the great community
you represent and tell them the work they can do, so that
they can send their boys to help in decreasing the chances
of death and suffering for those already fighting.”

As the result of one recruiting meeting alone in the
Rhondda no fewer than 125 men joined the Colours, and a
systematic endeavour which is being made to secure recruits
is evoking good response amongst the miners. Considerable
feeling, however, has prevailed as to the need of better con-
sideration, and in every direction the demand is made for a
higher rate of pay and better allowances for families and
dependants. This demand will, it is hoped, be met by the
better terms announced on Tuesday.

It is alleged on behalf of the miners that the levy which
they now pay in aid of the Prince of Wales’s Fund was
originally ■ imposed with the idea that the money should be
available to relieve unemployment. The complaint now is
that the Prince of Wales’s Fund has not made grants to
help the unemployed; and this week the miners’ representa-
tives wait upon the central committee of that fund, being
accompanied by a representative from the owners’ side cf
the Conciliation Board. The case which the .men present is
that, because so many miners were thrown out of work at
the commencement of the war, the Federation called a con-
ference, and that on September 1, after full discussion, this
conference decided to impose a levy of 6d. per member,
with 3d. per half-member; and that this money has been
deducted in the colliery offices at their request, so that a
total sum of over .1'20.000 has been contributed by the South
Wales miners. What is suggested is that if the distribu-
tion is not to be made to aid the unemployed, another con-
ference should be summoned to deal with the position, there
being so many men out of work needing assistance.

The chairman of the Aberdare Council, speaking on
Friday evening at a meeting of the local executive of the
Prince of Wales’s Fund, said that had the miners’ levy been
given locally instead of given to the central fund, their total
for Aberdare would have been considerably larger. The
miners had set a generous example, and he felt it a duty to
recognise personally their splendid response — a response
which was quite in keeping with the attitude of Welsh
miners in matters of national expediency.

It is reported that the Duffryn Rhondda undertaking in
the Afon Valley is already in process of development. A
commencement has been made in sinking the upcast shaft
at the Duffryn pit to the lower steam coal measures, an
operation expected to take several months, for an additional
220 yds. will have been reached, giving a total depth to the
pit of 750vds. Machinery of the most modern type is
being installed; and a second pit is to be commenced shortly.v
Work in the upper seams will continue during these sinking