1184

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

December 4, 1914.

Notes from the Coalfields.

[Local Correspondence.]

South Wales and Monmouthshire.

The Burden of High Freights : A Suggestion for Remedy-
ing the Evil—Lord Merthyr's Will—Cardiff's £50,000
Scheme — Lectures Upon By-Products Utilisation—
Shortage of Labour Stops Colliery Operations—Arbitra-
. tion Upon Subsidence Claim — New Colliery Appoint-
ments.

With a view of relieving the pressure on tonnage, and
securing the service of a greater number of “ tramp " vessels
—thus lessening the very heavy increase in rates of freight
—Mr. Watson, president of Cardiff Chamber of Commerce,
has made a novel suggestion, namely, that enemy vessels
detained in British ports should be sold. These, being pur-
chased by British citizens, would then become available for
use. There were not enough ships now to meet the trade
demand, he said, a large number having been taken for
transport purposes, and many being detained in German
ports. One effect of the big rise in freights would be to
check f.o.b. prices for coal, for, that price being made up
of coal and freight together, if the shipowner got more than
his share, the colliery owner might go short. This was a
question they would have to consider later. One speaker
remarked at the meeting that, even if they got the ships,
they could not get British crews.

The Newport Chamber of Commerce followed up this
suggestion. The chairman (Mr. Beynon) said that the
question ought to be raised as to the many German ships
which were in British ports “ eating off their heads " by
heaping up dock dues. Freights had gone up 100 per cent.,
and even coasting freights, because of the scarcity of vessels.
Yet these German craft had been lying idle for months.
They ought to be sold, and come into use.

Further particulars of the late Lord Merthyr’s will show
that the gross value “ so far as yet can be ascertained ”
was £615,222, and the net personalty £588,856.

New technical school buildings are being erected in Cardiff
at a cost of £50,000, and Mr. Cole, superintendent of tech-
nical instruction, has submitted proposals for future opera-
tions, and has suggested that a conference be called of
colliery owners, commercial leaders, and others to consider
the whole question of developing British industry. He
desires, also, that lectures should be given by experts upon
(among other subjects) coal and its by-products, coal wash-
ing, briquetting without the use of pitch, coking, direct
processes for the recovery of ammonia, recovery of sulphur,
coal tar industry, aniline and other dyes, coke oven gas for
town lighting, etc.

The Rhymney Iron Company report more than 500 of
former employees to be now serving with the Colours, and
a serious fact is that no coal is being raised from their
Mardy pit, “ and until sufficient labour becomes available
it will be impossible to open out the coal in that pit.”

Arbitration proceedings have taken place in Cardiff this
week in respect of a claim against North’s Navigation Com-
pany as to subsidence of 12 houses at Coegnant, Maesteg.
The arbitrator was Mr. Ernest Leeder, of Swansea, and
the claim was for a sum of £1,200, the allegation being that
the subsidence was due to underground workings. No
decision is yet announced.

After proceeding with the development for some months,
Messrs. Williams Brothers have reached the 2 ft. 9 in. seam
at their Abernant level.

The fine contribution of the Rhondda to the New Army
was referred to by Dr. Chalke at Forth last week. He
said that one out of every 15 men in the district had joined
the Colours, and that had the same ratio been maintained
elsewhere the New Army would be now 3,000,000 men.

Mr. Percy Ward has, it is announced, been appointed
general manager of the Lewis-Merthyr Collieries, both at
Senghenydd and at Trehafod. Mr. Ward has for some time
held the position of agent for the Cambrian Collieries.

Mr. T. P. S. James, manager of the Fernhill ‘Collieries,
Treherbert, has been appointed manager of the Tirpentwys
Colliery, Pontypool, in succession to Mr. Godfrey James,
who becomes a director. Mr. James has been manager at
Fernhill for four years, and his departure will occasion much
regret amongst the workmen. Mr. T. L. Davies,'previously
under-manager, is the new manager of Fernhill.

A conference has been called for early in the new year to
meet in Cardiff with reference to the development of new
industries, and it is pointed out that if the manufacture of
sugar beet—to name only one field of enterprise—can be
started, it would provide another use for coal. But this is
a very small matter compared with the exceptional facilities
of Cardiff for shipbuilding. The Bristol Channel claims to
have -already the most extensive and best-equipped ship
repairing establishments in the kingdom, and therefore in
the world, but shipbuilding has hitherto been hindered.
Seeing that so many vessels of the “ tramp ” class are
owned in Cardiff, and that only recently orders for additional
ones have been placed, the idea of establishing shipbuilding
yards, with all the other accessories of engineering establish-
ments, etc., has the recommendation of probable success.
There is general agreement as to the practicability of profit-
able work.

An unusual incident is reported from Barry Dock, a coal
cargo having caught fire. The dock master and staff were
unable to extinguish the outbreak until after a portion of
the cargo had been removed in order that they might reach
the seat of the outbreak.

Colliery development in the Avon Valley, behind Port
Talbot, continues steadily; and at an early date great
changes will be experienced. Among the more recent inci-
dents is the winning of the coal in the new pits of Messrs.
Gibb and Company, of the Glenavon Colliery, these pits
being near Cymmer. Sinking commenced about 18 months
ago, excellent house coal has been found, and the present
depth is 300 yds. Work will continue until the steam coal
is reached. Messrs. J. Davies and Son have the sinking in
hand.

Northumberland and Durham.

Messrs. Pease and Partners and Their Workmen—German
Deputy and Colliery House : A Curious Point.

The new colliery institute built by Messrs. Pease and
Partners Limited for the use of their workmen, on a site
provided by Sir William Eden, was opened at Windle-stone

on Saturday last by Miss Pease, daughter of Aid. Arthur F.
Pease. A meeting held later was presided over by Mr. M.
H. Kellett, agent for the Eldon Colliery. In the course of
an address, Aid. Pease said that originally Messrs. Pease
and Partners spent the sum of £170,000 on Windlestone
Colliery. The colliery was closed down for 20 or 30 years
without any return because of the great difficulties experi-
enced. The colliery was re-opened, and a sum approaching
£90,000, including £30,000 for houses, was spent. Referring
to the war, Aid. Pease said that Messrs. Pease and Partners
were making arrangements for their employees who were
going abroad on military service by setting aside a sum of
money each month and adding it to the Government allow-
ance to disabled soldiers. For this purpose they wanted
the names of both single and married men.

A somewhat unusual application for an ejectment order
came before the Castle Eden magistrates last Saturday,
when Mr. E. Bell, on behalf of the Horden Collieries
Limited, applied for such an order against Carl Erwin Alfred
Heinrich Rothe, lately employed as a deputy overman at
Horden Colliery, and resident in a colliery house. Mr. Bell
stated that Rothe was engaged at Horden up to October 24,
when he was arrested and taken to a detention eamp by
order of the military authorities. He had married an
English woman, who thereby, of course, became a German.
She still occupied the company’s house. Mr. G. N. Cook,
for Rothe, asked the Bench to use the discretionary powers
conferred upon them by the Courts (Emergency Powers) Act.
Mrs. Rothe was a natural born British subject. He was in
communication with the authorities, and hoped to be able
to prove that Rothe was wrong in registering himself as a
German. According to an Act of George III., Mr. Cook
believed that Rothe, whose grandparents were Scotch, was a
British subject. He urged the Bench not to turn the poor
woman out on the street, and mentioned that respondent,
who left Germany when he was 15, had applied to become
naturalised. The chairman (Col. Burdon) said : We make
an order for ejectment, and there we stop. What the
Horden Company can do, I am sure they will do.

A return prepared by the clerk to the Seaham Urban Dis-
trict Council shows that the approximate number of men
from the urban district who have left civil employment to
join the Forces is 718. Of these, 592 were workmen at the
two local collieries—362 at Dawdon and 230 at Seaham.

Mr. Jos. English, ex-president and compensation agent of
the Northumberland Miners’ Association, has emigrated to
the United States, where he has near relatives. His place
on the committee of the Aged Miners’ Homes Association
will be taken by Mr. John Carr, of North Walbottle.

Cumberland.

Mr. Andrew Kerr, manager of the Flimby and Broughton
Moor Collieries, is leaving the district shortly to take up a
similar position at Brancepeth, in the county of Durham.
Mr. Kerr went to Flimby a little over three years ago from
New Brancepeth.

Mr. J. Turnbull, until recently manager of the North
Tyne Colliery, Wall, has been appointed general manager
of the Camerton Collieries and Brick Works, near Working-
ton. Mr. Turnbull served his apprenticeship as a mining
engineer at the Blackett Colliery, after Which for three years
he was surveyor and general assistant to the manager, after-
wards serving in a .similar capacity for six years at the
South Tyne Colliery, Haltwhistle. He was subsequently
under-manager for 34 years at Blackett Colliery, a post he
relinquished to take up that of manager at Wall, where he
remained for two years, when the colliery was laid idle at
the commencement of the war owing to loss of trade.

Yorkshire.

Armthorpe Colliery—A' Second Barnsley Battalion.

Some time ago mention was made of the fact that there
would in all probability be a change of site, so far as the
position of the shafts, of the projected colliery at Armthorpe,
near Doncaster, was concerned. It was pointed out that the
railway company had taken out their connections, which was.
pretty conclusive that a change of plans was in contempla-
tion. Since then corroboration has come in the shape of
correspondence between Earl Fitz william and the Doncaster
Corporation. His lordship has approached the latter with a
view to the variation of a clause in the lease by him of the
coal under the Race Common and the adjoining Corporation
estates, which fixed the position of the shaft at a certain
distance from the racecourse. It will be remembered that
when the trial bore was put down at Armthorpe, a very
considerable fault was found. In order to avoid this, Earl
Fitzwilliam asks for leave to sink nearer the Doncaster Race
Common and in the parish of Cantley instead of Armthorpe.
The Doncaster Corporation have referred the matter to the
consideration of the Estates Committee, by whom it is being
debated.

The story of the Armthorpe, or Cantley, Colliery, which-
ever it may eventually be, is full of interest, which has
existed ever since mining engineers proved the presence of
coal at Cantley, at Sandall Beat, and under the historic
Doncaster Race-Common. Earl Fitzwilliam, having proved
the minerals on his own estate, entered into negotiations
with the Doncaster Corporation for the sale by the latter
of their mineral rights under the Race Common. By per-
mission of the Local Government Board the right to work
this coal was eventually leased to him at a sum which, in
the aggregate, it was estimated would work out at a very
large figure, the coal under the Race Common alone being
believed to be worth £450,000. The leasing price agreed
upon was £25 per foot of seam per acre, the lease to applv
only to the Barnsley seam, and a ” minimum rent ” being
fixed. The lease is for 60 years, having been dated from
April 1908. No rent was payable for the first two years,
but since then the Corporation have been receiving * some
minimum rents.

Thus matters continued until a year or two ago, when a
big surprise was sprung upon the Yorkshire coalfield by the
announcement that the leases of the coal in the Cantley
district of Doncaster had been acquired by a ” private
person.” It soon leaked out that the latter was Sir Arthur
Markham, M.P., who, already interested in some of the
most important and successful collieries in the Doncaster
district, had now secured from Earl Fitzwilliam the leases
of the coal under his estates and under the Doncaster Cor-
poration lands and Race Common. This settled once a”d
for all that Lord Fitzwilliam was not going to play the role
of colliery owner on his estate here, as he does elsewhere.

Since then boring has taken place at Armthorpe and near
Cantley, but operations have now been suspended pending
the application to the Corporation, the result of which is
awaited with considerable interest.

The old town of Bawtry, near Doncaster, is expecting to
reap considerable benefit from the prospective collieries at
Firbeck and Harworth, and through the projected railway
which will link the town up with that of Worksop. It will
be remembered a counter proposal was put forward by the
companies interested in the South Yorkshire Joint Line.
This was to construct a light railway to convey the coal
traffic to their line. This proposal is, it is reported, not
meeting with much enthusiasm in the district, the more
popular scheme being that which will link up town with
town.

Yorkshire people will hear with interest that Mr. John
Stobart Charlesworth, a member of the well-known firm of
J. and J. Charlesworth, colliery proprietors, Rothwell, has
been appointed major in the new miners’ battalion of the
King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, now in training at
Farnley Park. Major Charlesworth and his family have
done a great deal to assist recruiting in the county, especi-
ally among the mining population. He is a son of Mr. C.
E. Charlesworth, of Conyngham Hall, Knaresborough, who
was recently appointed High Sheriff of Yorkshire.

At a special meeting held last week, the Barnsley Town
Council unanimously resolved to raise, house, and equip a
second battalion of Kitchener’s Army. The title of the
battalion will be “ The Barnsley and District,” and the
Corporation will look to the populous district around to
assist them with recruits. In Barnsley it is felt to be a
standing disgrace that 75 per cent, of the recruits enlisted
throughout the country are married men.

Lancashire and Cheshire.

Waste Gases as Fuel — Internal Combustion Engines—
Wigan Council and the Sale of Coal.

It was announced at the beginning of this week that pre-
parations had been pushed forward for the sinking of the
new Arley mine at Lord Ellesmere’s Mosley Common
Collieries, Walkden.

Following upon the erection of finely equipped pit head
baths at Messrs. Fletcher, Burrows and Company’s collieries
in the atherton district of Southern Lancashire, illustrations
of which appeared some time ago in the Colliery Guardian,
experimental pit head baths were opened on Monday this
week at Sir John Thursby’s pits at Reedley, near Burnley.
A majority of the men had voted in favour of the provision
of such baths.

“ Internal Combustion Engines from a Commercial Stand-
point ” was the subject of a paper read by Mr. J. G.
Walthew, A.M.I.M.E., at a meeting of the Manchester
Association of Engineers on Saturday last. He said that
engineering must be to a very great extent a compromise.
Frequently the engineer’s proposals had to be modified for
commercial reasons, and that applied not only to individual
installations, but also to standard apparatus. To-day com-
mercial influence was greater than ever, and although it
might sometimes appear to be imposed on the engineer, yet
it had often proved a beneficial factor in the development
of design. The improvements in the small and medium gas
or oil engine had been very extensive, many being the direct
outcome of commercial criticism and of severe but friendly
competition between manufacturers. The result was a high
standard for a British-made engine in the markets of the
world. Dealing with the large gas engines (horizontal
type), he remarked that in this country they had not made
the same progress with engines over 500 b.h.p. as upon the
Continent, one reason being that abroad more attention had
been given to the use of waste gases from blastfurnaces and
coke ovens, for which those engines were very suitable. The
financial interest and control exercised by the banks in
industrial undertakings on the Continent had given their
engineers opportunities of installing and developing the
large gas engine under very favourable conditions. Apart
from those reasons, which applied mainly to the development
of the gas engine in connection with waste gases, coal was
cheaper in England than throughout the Continent gener-
ally, so that in this country the saving with gas power com-
pared with steam power was not so great. At present it
would appear that there was a very small demand for these
engines, but with the further utilisation of blastfurnace and
coke oven gases, there should be an improvement.—Mr. A.
W. Coster said he was interested m the references to blast-
furnace gas and coke oven gas. It was encouraging to know
that a large firm in the North had placed an order for
engines using such fuel, because in that respect Germany
had got a great lead. At Krupp’s works there were engines
aggregating 36,000-horse power which consumed the gases
now wasted in the great iron and coal centres of this
country. No one would disagree with him in saying that
those waste gases should be utilised more, and it had been
nroved that in a steam engine they did not give anything
like the output that was got when they were used directlv
in a gas engine. The amount which developed 4.000-horse
power in the steam engine would give 10.000-horse power
in the gas engine. It should be the aim of all the great
makers in this country to develop those resources now going
to waste, and therebv help to win a great commercial
supremacy-. — Replving to the discussion, Mr. Walthew
remarked that blastfurnace gas was becoming better appre-
ciated, and in the immediate future there would be con-
siderable changes in that direction, which would be for the
benefit of gas engine makers and of the country also.

At the. monthly meeting of the Wigan Town Council on
Wednesday-, Conn. J. R. Holland moved : “ That this
Council, finding that competition in the price of coal has
practically ceased to exist, owing to the formation of a
ring among contractors, and the ratepayers having conse-
quently’ suffered from unduly high prices for this indis-
pensable commodity, calls upon the Government to take
steps for the acquisition of national coal mines in order that
the municipalities and other public bodies may be supplied
at cost price and mav no longer be placed at the disadvantage
of having to buv from an anti-social monopoly.” The reso-
lution was carried by 24 votes to 16.

North Wales.

Sale of a Colliery—Light Railway Scheme.

Some interest has been aroused in colliery circles by the
fact that the Wirral Colliery, near Neston, is to be sold as
a going concern on December 14, the company having gom
into voluntary liquidation. This colliery has been worked
a goodly number of years now, but it is estimated that the