292

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

February 5, 1915.

Notes from the Coalfields.

[Local Correspondence.]

South Wales and Monmouthshire.

The Question of Exorbitant Freights — Drastic Proposals
Mooted — Discussion by Chambers of Commerce at
Cardiff and Llanelly — Some Striking Figures
Quoted—Probability of Still Higher Rates—Senghenydd
Explosion Fund Executive.

Cardiff Chamber of Commerce discussed on Friday last
the question of freight rates, a question which deepens in
intensity as days go by. Cardiff Chamber had originally
five suggested recommendations for submission to the
Government, but the influence of shipowners in the member-
ship was strong enough to prevent discussion of some of the
more drastic—though those rejected were by far the most
interesting. The president (Mr. T. E. Watson) proposed
the adoption of three suggestions :—(1) Expedite the sale of
prizes and the employment of detained vessels; (2) quicker
despatch in the discharge of vessels hired by the Govern-
ment ; (3) relieve congestion at certain ports by making
greater use of neighbouring ports. In the course of his
remarks, he said that this was the most important question
which had in his experience ever been brought before the
Chamber. The enormous rise in freights had increased the
cost of coal to the Allies as well as cost of food to the people.
Coal used in France for carrying troops from Boulogne and
St. Nazaire to the front had risen 10s. to 12s. a ton; and the
cost o<f coal used in carrying Indian troops from Port Said
to Marseilles had increased £1 a ton. Bates from Cardiff to
Havre had risen from Is. 3d. to 14s. 3d. per ton; to St.
Nazaire from 6| fr. to 21 fr. Upon the rates of freight
between the United Kingdom and the Biver Plate the ship-
owner could, in a single voyage, make a profit equal to one-
third of the vessel’s cost, or at the rate of 100 per cent,
per annum. Mr. Watson added that German and
Austrian shipping taken off the market amounted to 13 per
cent, of the world’s tonnage; losses of our own shipping to
2J per cent.; and there -had been diminution in building.
Altogether, the reduction of available tonnage totalled 17
per cent. The Government were said to have taken up no
fewer than 1,500 steamers, one-sixth of the total number
registered in the United Kingdom, and they heard of some of
these lying weeks, and even months, absolutely idle. If the
management of these were put under a business committee
much of the delay could be avoided, and a smaller number of
vessels would be sufficient for the nation’s needs. For
relief of congestion and delay, South Wales ports could take
part of the goods diverted from Southampton to Liverpool
and London; and congestion at Bordeaux would be relieved
by use of Bochefort and La Bochelle.

Mr. W. W. Jones, shipowner, who seconded the motion,
said he was not going to deal with the president’s statement
as to the increased cost of coal in French ports, because it
must be obvious to those engaged in the coal trade that, the
basis of business being c.i.f., a retort was invited that had
better be withheld. He was particularly anxious that the
statements made should not go out as having been assented
to by all those present at the meeting. He added that the
highest rate from the Biver Plate had been as much as
67s. 6d., and not 57 s. 6d., as stated by the president. Mr.
T. Morel, shipowner, who also spoke, said that if the
Admiralty would handle vessels as quickly and well as was
done at Cardiff, there would be little to complain of. He
mentioned the instance of one Admiralty boat, for which in
ordinary circumstances 108 hours would be asked for loading,
which was completed in 36 hours. They might, he thought,
see freights lower between now and June. The president’s
motion was then formally submitted, and was carried.

Among the suggested recommendations originally men-
tioned, but not discussed, was one that is likely to be much
heard of if the extreme rates continue. It is to the effect
that the Government shall take up all British vessels on
time charter at a reasonable rate, and employ them at an
equivalent rate of freight, under the control of a small com-
mittee of shipping experts. Another proposal was that a
special war tax should be imposed on the abnormal profits
of vessels not employed by the Government. The question
is not likely to be allowed to remain where it is, for notwith-
standing Mr. Morel’s remark as to probable reduction, all
the indications of the moment are against his conclusion.
One of the immediate influences maintaining the high level
is the imperative demand of Italy for a heavy and prompt
supply of tonnage, both grain and coal being called for in
great quantity. Then there will come the demand of the
British Government for transport of troops, and supplies in
far heavier extent, as soon as the spring opens out. Ship-
owners whose vessels are under time charter to the Govern-
ment are making good profits from the transaction, though
the rates range from 9s. to 12s. per ton per month; and this
contention is being strenuously urged as a reason for com-
mandeering the whole mercantile marine. Italy and one or
two of the Scandinavian Governments have already had such
a proposal brought forward in relation to their own merchant
steamers.

The Llanelly Chamber of Commerce has also discussed the
question of rates of freight, a resolution being passed calling
upon the Government for action. One speaker, Mr. D.
Williams, J.P., said that that day a limit of 13s. per ton
had been placed on a cargo of coal to be shipped from
Swansea to Dieppe, whereas in normal times the rate at this
time of year would be about 5s. 6d. An offer, however, of
18s. per ton was made for the boat, and therefore the
particular cargo referred to could not be shipped. He added
that the demurrage on boats to France was extraordinarily
heavy, and he knew of cases where £200 had had to be paid.
So it was therefore profitable to owners to keep their boats
idle. Mr. Williams further said, dealing with the effect of
high rates upon the tin-plate trade, that if these were main-
tained, it would absolutely mean the closing of tin-plate
works. Something must be done to moderate the exorbitant
prices now being charged for sea carriage of their products.

The Senghenydd Explosion Fund Executive Committee
held its formal meeting in Cardiff, and Mr. Evan Owen, the
secretary, submitted his report. The two funds of
Senghenydd and Glynea had been merged, the total number
of victims being 217 widows, 522 children, and 47 other
dependants, with eight additional dependants who had
since been added. Temporary relief in the form of
grants had been given to a considerable number
of partial dependant relatives. The total amount obtained
in subscriptions was £127,000; and since the agreement in
September upon the terms of the trust deed, the sum remain.

pit.
the

per

Byhope has done better—with 58J per
At Silksworth, however, 635 out of a total “possible”
It is interesting to

At Seaham Colliery,

Murton Colliery has

terminate their engagement.

to concentrate on the Hazard

ing had been transferred from the hon. treasurer to the
trustees, and these had decided to invest £96,000 in certain
securities. Belief and expenses up to the end of the year
amounted to nearly £2,000, and there still remained a large
sum uninvested. The work of administration has been
undertaken by the South Wales Miners’ Provident Society,
as agreed at the representative meeting last year. The report
and statement of accounts was adopted, upon the motion of
Mr. John Williams, M.P. The finance committee was
re-elected, and other necessary business was transacted.

Northumberland and Durham.

Fire at Seaton Delaval—More Recruiting Records—Changes
at Hetton.

A somewhat alarming fire—extinguished, fortunately,
before any damage was done to the machinery—broke out in
the winding engine house at the Old Pit, Seaton Delaval
Colliery, last week. The blaze was extinguished after about
an hour’s work by the night shift men at an adjoining
The cause of the outbreak is a mystery, inasmuch as
pit has been closed down for some time.

There seems to be, happily, no finality, short of 100

cent., to the recruiting records which are being set up in
the two counties. As mentioned a fortnight ago, Boldon
and Ashington have done well, each having enlisted about
41 per cent, of those of its male adult population who were
eligible to serve,
cent.

of 820 have enlisted, or 77-44 per cent.

note that these two collieries, although, under different
ownership, are very near neighbours.

760 of 1,451 eligible have volunteered. Of that number, 429
are married miners and 331 single. Murton Colliery has
contributed 570 men. Hylton Colliery has contributed over
400 of 800 men employed there. Over 300 members of the
Seghill branch of the Northumberland Miners’ Association
are serving with the Colours, over 200 members of the
Burradon branch have enlisted, and Stanley has sent over
1,000 recruits. A certain Sunday newspaper is offering a
monument, to be sculptured by an eminent architect, to the
village of not more than 5,000 inhabitants which raises the
most recruits in proportion to its population.

Several interesting and important changes have been
made and new schemes have been set afoot since the
Lamb ton and Hetton Collieries Limited acquired the under-
taking of the Hetton Coal Company, so far as the North
Hetton Pit at Moorsley and the Hazard Pit at East
Bainton are concerned. The men employed at the Moorsley
Pit have received notice to *	" '

The colliery, once one of the largest in the Hetton district,
has been declining for isome years, and it is evidently the
intention of the new owners to concentrate on the Hazard
Pit. It is proposed to lay a railway line from the latter
pit, crossing the main road from Sunderland to Durham at
East Bainton, and joining the company’s own system at
Fencehouses. At present the coal is carried on the North-
Eastern Bailway Company’s lines. An application to cross
the road with the line has now been presented to the
County Council. Of the several seams at the Moorsley Pit,
only two have been worked of late, viz., the Five Quarter
and Main coal seams. It is possible, however, to work the
Five Quarter seam from the Elemore Colliery and the Main
coal from the Hazard Pit. The company may take advantage
of this, as the expenses of working these seams from the
Moorsley Pit are very heavy, the seams now being a long
way in-bye. Less than 200 men and boys are affected by
the notices, which terminate to-morrow, and it is expected
that the greater part of them will be able to find work at
the Hazard Pit.

Exemplary punishment was meted out at South Shields
last Tuesday to John Hume, a driver at St. Hilda Colliery,
who had cruelly ill-treated a pony on January 27. It was
stated that Hume was assisting another boy to limber the
pony, when the animal jumped forward and broke away'.
Hume remarked that it was very funny that the pony’s
tongue should have come out. He later confessed to the
manager that he had hold of the pony’s tongue, and that
the pony moved forward, leaving the tongue in his hand.
About 4 in. of the animal’s tongue was missing, and the
animal was now under treatment at the colliery hospital
farm. The presiding magistrate, Aid. Wardle, fining Hume
£10 and costs, said that was the worst case of cruelty that
had ever come before the Bench. It was an atrocity, and
gave one the creeps to think that there should be a boy in
this world who could do such a thing.

Pending mechanical re-arrangements at Messrs. Strakers
and Love’s Willington Colliery—locally known as Sunny-
brow—the miners and heapstead workers have received 14
days’ notice to terminate their employment on Saturday
week.
tricity
which
while,
nearly
the same firm.

Mr. C. B. Wilson, who has transferred his services from
the South Derwent Coal Company to Messrs. J. Bowes and
Partners’ offices at Fontop Colliery, has received a fumed
oak writing desk from the officials and workmen at South
Derwent, West Shield Bow, and West Stanley collieries.

Mr. Geo. Harper, colliery manager, of Villa Beal, is
stated to have been granted a commission in his old batta-
lion, the 9th Durham Light Infantry.

Cumberland.

A Baths Ballot.

A Marchant steel mill is to be added to the plant of the
Workington Iron and Steel Company. It is four months
since a beginning was made with the necessary work, which
is being done as time and opportunity permit. The shortage
of labour, consequent on the war, makes it inevitable that
some months must elapse before it is completed.

A ballot was taken at the Harrington Colliery, belonging
to the Workington Iron and Steel Company, on Wednesday
last week, with the object of ascertaining whether the
workmen there employed favoured the adoption of baths at
the colliery. The result was that 296 voted for the pro-
posal and 200 against. As a two-thirds majority is required
to carry such a scheme into effect, the matter will fall to
the ground, unless arrangements can be made to meet the
wishes of a large number who favour the idea.

The management, it is said, proposes to have elec-
installed as a motive power at the colliery, work
will take about three months to accomplish. Mean-
it is hoped that the men and boys, who number
300, will find work at the Brancepeth Colliery of

Yorkshire.

Humber Coal Exporters1 Association — The Growth oj
Doncaster—Colliery Costs in West Yorkshire—Electrical
Breakdowns—Earth Tremor in South Yorkshire Coal-
field.

At the annual meeting of the Humber Coal Exporters’ and
Shippers’ Association, held at Hull on Friday last week,
presided over by Mr. E. J. Adderley (chairman), a report
was read showing that the past year had been one which
provided unprecedented opportunities of proving the useful-
ness of the association, not only to the members, but to the
Humber coal trade generally. A long series of meetings had
been held in regard to straightening out financial problems
brought about through the war. Various matters in which
the association had proved of use included the Coastcon
charter, railway rates to King George Dock, the Yorkshire
strike, the Baltcon Arbitration Tribunal, legalised certificates
for shipment of coal to Bussia, uniform South Yorkshire
certificates, towage charges at Hull, Humber pilotage orders,
coal trimmers’ agreement, proposed charge for shipping
alternate parcels of coal, wharfage charges on coal at Hull,
transfer of traffic shipment to land sale, drop dues, loading
turns at Boston, and colliery owners and foreign Govern-
ments. Mr. E. J. Adderley (Humber manager for Messrs.
W. Cory and Sons Limited) was re-elected chairman for
the third year in succession, and Mr. B. Moorby vice-
chairman).

Owing to increasing prices of coal from the producers, the
Bradford Coal Merchants’ Association last week decided to
further advance the retail charges to the public.

Had it not been for the discovery of coal in the Doncaster
district some few years ago, and its consequent rapid and
remarkable development as a colliery centre, it is certain that
Doncaster to-day would still have been the old-fashioned
ding-dong agricultural borough as of yore. Now, however,
with the recent extension of the borough, it has blossomed
out with a population which would entitle it to county
borough powers, which will doubtless be the next step. The
full effect of the town’s transformation is shown in the Bill
which the Doncaster Corporation are promoting in this
session of Parliament, and which provides for an expendi-
ture upon various developments of £196,600. This sum L
exclusive of the cost of passing the Bill through Parliament.
The expenditure will be incurred under the following heads :
On street widenings, £50,000; on the construction of a
service reservoir at Warmsworth, £16,000; on the erection
of new municipal buildings, £30,000; on new gas works,
£65,000; for the erection and equipment of an isolation
hospital, £35,000. A few years ago such things were
undreamed of.

At the annual general meeting of the proprietors of the
Lofthouse Colliery Limited on Saturday at Leeds, Mr. A.
Armitage, chairman of the company, who presided, alluded
to labour difficulties, which, he said, had meant that they
had lost 58 working days. They were suddenly laid idle nine
days before the general strike of Yorkshire miners through
the surface men ceasing work without notice, and this meant
a considerable loss to the company. The cost of coal getting
was never so high as at the present time, both in labour and
materials. The price of timber so largely used in the pit
workings for the safety of the men had advanced enor-
mously since the outbreak of the war, and it was now diffi-
cult to buy it. Then, owing to so many of the company’s
men having joined the Forces, there was a shortage of
labour. When the surface men struck work it left them
without any house coal for their customers’ requirements,
and they had to buy in the open market.

At a meeting of the Yorkshire branch of the Association of
Mining Electrical Engineers, held at Leeds on Saturday,
under the chairmanship of Mr. A. B. Chaytor, a paper on
“ Typical Breakdowns in Colliery Electrical Plant and their
Prevention,” by Mr. L. Foster, was read. The author
divided breakdowns, generally speaking, into three classes.
One consisted of those caused by lack of proper attention
and care, including a want of systematic periodical
opening out of the machines for inspection, cleaning, and
general overhaul. He urged that if the windings were
cleaned and varnished occasionally, a number of break-
downs would be prevented. At one colliery in the North of
England, where seven coal cutters were in use, the machines
were only allowed to work in the pit three weeks continu-
ously. After that period each was brought to the bank and
overhauled and cleaned, so as to be in good order when put
to work again. Another class of breakdowns was due to the
machines being quite unsuitable for their work and situation.
In mining work partially open or protected type machines
were often used when they met the requirement of the
Begulations, whereas on account of the surrounding dust and
dampness the enclosed type, with separate fans, or, pre-
ferably, pipe ventilation, should have been used. Break-
downs were also due to faulty design, defective material
and workmanship. Another paper which was read and dis-
cussed was by Mr. B. H. Willis, of the Lancashire branch,
and dealt with turbine pumps.

A mining district which is going ahead very rapidly is
that of Bolton-on-Dearne. Last week the West Biding
County Council held an enquiry into the application of the
Urban District Council to increase its membership from nine
to 12. It was pointed out that since the Council was created
the population had increased 221 per cent., and the ratable
value 132 per cent. The financial responsibilities were
greater, and the work of the Council had increased in every
direction. The argument was that for the best interests of
the district it was necessary the Council should be increased,
as its present members could not be in two or three places
at once. Objection was taken by one ratepayer on the
ground that the Council were not asking for the district to
be made into wards. It is generally expected, however,
that the County Council will agree to the application.

Hemsworth, with its great pits and ever-increasing popu-
lation, is going in for a big housing scheme for the miners.
At last week’s meeting of the Bural Council, a resolution
was moved to consider the appointment of a fully-qualified
architect to prepare the housing schemes for the Hemsworth
Union, which schemes are expected to involve a capital
expenditure of over £150,000. One member urged that as
the various townships will have to bear the cost of their
individual schemes, it was only fair the parish councils
should have the option of appointing whom they pleased.
It was decided, however, that it would be better to leave
the matter in the hands of the Bural Council, who would
probably make the best appointment.

Alarmist reports were current in Doncaster and district on
Tuesday last to the effect that there had been another
serious disaster at the Cadeby Colliery. Investigations by
our Doncaster correspondent showed that nothing more