February 26, 1915.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

445

refused to endorse the candidature of Mr. J. G.
Hancock, M.P., the agent of the Notts Miners’
Association. There now appears a possibility of the
association becoming its own political unit.

Conferences of the Miners’ Federation of Great
Britain have taken place during the week on the
matter of the new general wage agreements. No
decision has been reached as to the period of termina-
tion of the present agreements, and the question
stands adjourned until April 28. The executive
committee has been instructed to negotiate for an
advance in wages, necessitated by the higher cost of
living. A conference to discuss the matter will be
held on March 18.

The Committee which has been appointed by the
Board of Trade to enquire into the causes of the
present rise in the retail price of coal sold for
domestic use, especially to the poorer classes of
consumers in London and other centres, consists of
the following members :—Mr. Vaughan Nash, C.B.
(chairman), Prof. W. J. Ashley, Mr. W. Crooks,
M.P., Mr. J. J. Dent, Mr. A. W. Flux, and Mr.
Stanley Machin. Mr. H. E. Dale will act as secre-
tary to the committee. Any communication on the
subject should be addressed to the secretary, Detail
Coal Prices Committee, 6a, Dean’s-yard, West-
minster. The Committee held its first meeting yester-
day (Thursday) at 5, Dean’s-yard. It was decided
to invite evidence from consumers and the various
interests involved. The Committee will meet again
to-day.

In the House of Commons yesterday Mr. Bowlands
asked the Secretary to the Board of Trade whether
his attention had been called to the further rise in
the price of household coal; whether investigation
had taken place; and, if so, when might action on
the report be expected. Mr. J. M. Bobertson, in
reply, said the Committee were fully aware of the
urgency of the matter. Questioned further as to the
great influx of coal into London at the present time,
and whether steps would be taken to advise the
public not to buy, in order to bring the coal dealers
to their senses, Mr. J. M. Bobertson answered that
the suggestion would be considered.

The Chief Inspector, in his General
Visual Beport for 1913, stated that “ a
Indicators, certain amount of dubiety appears
to exist in the minds of colliery
managers and others interested in collieries as
to the meaning and effect of some of the General
Begulations relating to signalling in connection
with winding in shafts.” These Begulations
came into force on duly 1, 1914, but colliery
owners and makers of signalling appliances were
equally uncertain as to the interpretation of certain
of the Begulations, and a policy of “ wait and see ”
was adopted in consequence. Sir Bichard Bedmayhe,
in his report which appeared last month, has
endeavoured to clear up some of these doubtful
points, and he has indicated further a number of
appliances which appear to him to fulfil the require-
ments of the Begulations. It is evident, however,
that certain points are still obscure, if we may judge
from the discussion on Mr. Wilfrid Davis’s paper
before the North of England Institute, a report of
which appeared in the last issue of the Colliery
Guardian, and the Chief Inspector may have to
issue a further explanation of the one that he has
just issued.

The trouble has chiefly arisen over Begulation 95,
which was added at the instance of the winding
enginemen, and reads as follows :—

In connection with every winding engine there shall
be provided an appliance which shall automatically
indicate in a visible manner to the winding engineman
(in addition to the ordinary signal) the nature of the
signal until the signal is complied with.

At that time the visual indicator was a facility which,
in the case of mines, had not been provided for.
The makers, however, were not slow to turn their
ingenuity to account; but some of the earlier devices
placed on the market were tabooed by the Home
Office because it had not been understood that the
Begulation requires not only a numerical indication
(this is optional), but an actual literal indication of

the signal to be given. This requirement has now
been fulfilled, but other difficulties have cropped up.
The Home Office is opposed to what have been
termed “cumulative” signals, and there has been
some doubt, not only as to the point at which an
“advance” or “cautionary” signal should be
obliterated, but also as to when an “action” or
“ executive ” signal should be removed. Sir Bichard
Bedmayne has cleared awmy this last point to some
extent by explaining that

action signals, that is to say, signals requiring the
engineman to move his engine, must remain on the
indicator until complied with ; but “ compliance ” is not
intended to mean “ completion.” So soon as the winding
engineman sets his engine in motion to carry out the
order signalled, he complies with the signal. It is
advisable that the signal should be effaced as soon as the
engineman sets his engine in motion so as to leave the
indicator clear for any further signal that may lie given,
e.g., “stop.”

The case of the “advance” signal is still obscure.
In some of the systems “ approved ” by the Home
Office, the “advance ” signals “men on” or “men
riding” remain on the indicator until the “action”
signals “ 1 ” or “ 2,” as the case maybe, are removed
by the act of starting the engine. It is now main-
tained that the “ advance ” signals should be removed
before the “action” signals are given. This, indeed,
may be inferred from Sir Bichard’s explanation,
although the latter is not very clear. He says :—

The cautionary or advance signals, e.g., “men on” or
“men riding” should only be obliterated either by the
person giving the signal or automatically by the giving
of the action signal. Thus it is not advisable that the
engineman should obliterate any signal except in the
action of setting his engine in motion.

The italics are ours; it would appear from this
that the “advance” and “action” signals are to be
removed by separate agencies. This, no doubt, is a
matter that can be provided for. Mr. Arthur
Andrews, at Newcastle, stated that the Home Office
had given, him a further interpretation, namely, that
“ 4 ” and “ 5 ” (“ raise steadily” and “ lower
steadily”) are not “executive” or “ action ” signals,
but “ advance ” signals,” and, consequently, the
indicator must be set back to zero by the person
giving the signal before “ 2 ” or “ 1 ” are given.

In view of the uncertainty that prevails as to the
nature of the requirements, we take this opportunity
of stating that we have ascertained from the Home
Office that the facts stated by Mr. Andrews are not
correct. The only advance signal is “men.”

It must have caused no little surprise to many
that the Home Office should assume the responsibility
of approving any of these indicators, because it is
quite foreign to the usual procedure. Probably the
object was to give owners and managers a “ visual
indication” of what was in the minds of the Home
Office, since the verbal explanations have failed to
achieve their object.

A Blue Book has just been pub-
The lished,-*' giving . the Minutes of
Dominions Evidence taken by the Dominions
and the	Boy al Commission in London last

Imperial year. This Commission was appointed
InstituteB some years ago for the purpose of
investigating the natural resources,
trade and legislation of certain portions of His
Majesty’s Dominions. Four interim reports have
already been published, and much invaluable
information has been made accessible to those
who are interested in our Empire beyond the
Seas. A very wide area, both in a geographical and
industrial sense, has been covered in these reports.
We propose, however, at present, to confine our
attention to one small branch of this enquiry—
viz., the mode of working of the elaborate organisa-
tion, known as the Imperial Institute, set up
in 1893 in London for the purpose of bringing
colonial productions prominently before the British
public, and amplified in 1894 by the formation
of a Commercial Intelligence Department, charged
amongst other things with the collection of informa-
tion relating to the undeveloped resources of the
British Empire. As a show place and a pleasure

* [Cd. 7710J

resort, with the advantages of a London club thrown
in, the Imperial Institute was a failure, and in 1899
the huge building was taken over by the Govern-
ment, and let out on lease in portions, one part being
assigned to the University of London, and one part
to the Imperial Institute, which still pursued its
commercial products investigation scheme, although
this might seem to have clashed somewhat seriously
with the newly-established Commercial Intelligence
Department of the Board of Trade. The inevitable
result was the transfer in 1903 of the whole organi-
sation to the Board of Trade. The Board of Trade,
having already their own Commercial Intelligence
Department, delegated the detailed management of
the Institute to the Colonial Office, with certain
reservations, the arrangement being terminable at six
months’ notice.

The work of the Imperial Institute differs entirely
from that of the Commercial Intelligence Branch of
the Board of Trade. Its chief activities are devoted
to the scientific investigation and valuation of the
natural resources of the Dominions, colonies and India.
The Commercial Intelligence Department of the
Board of Trade is essentially an information bureau
dealing with the whole commercial world. The dis-
tinction is made clearer by a consideration of what
the Imperial Institute has clone by way of introducing
into commerce new products, and new processes of
preparation of natural productions. Many raw
materials from our colonial empire have thus been
able to find a market in this country, new industries
have been developed and economic uses have been
found for products which would otherwise have been
neglected as having no commercial value. Not only
has a large number of vegetable products been thus
turned to account, but new minerals have been dis-
covered and made marketable. Amongst the latter
may be mentioned Ceylon thorianite, now in demand
exceeding its supply, and readily sold at high rates,
which have reached £1,470 per ton on rich consign-
ments. Another instance is the establishment of the
tin mining industry of Northern Nigeria, due almost
wholly to the pioneer work of the Imperial Institute.

With regard to fuel supplies the Imperial Institute
was not slow to recognise the potential value of the
extensive brown coal deposits of Southern Nigeria,
and by exhaustive trials and research it has now
established the advisability of erecting a briquetting
plant in that country for the production of a cheap
and inexhaustible supply of native fuel. In addition
to this an important discovery of bituminous coal has
been made in the same colony.

The above examples very inadequately illustrate
the scope of the work of the Imperial Institute; but
unfortunately the work accomplished has not by any
means approached the potentiality of such an organisa-
tion if it had been free to expand unfettered in
regard to funds and space for development. With
regard to space the original imposing building has
been gradually absorbed for other purposes, until
the Imperial Institute itself has been almost squeezed
out altogether. As to funds, its only sure income is
less than £4,000 a year from endowments. This is
supplemented by contributions from the Dominions
and Crown Colonies, all more or less precarious,
contingent upon which is a Treasury grant of £1,500
a year, with certain other more or less conditional
allowances which together are not only meagre in
themselves but so uncertain that Prof. Wyndham B.
Dunstan, the director, finds a difficulty in attracting
a staff of the required standard of qualification for
the work undertaken. It is the old story of a good
work starved by inadequate support. It is, we fear,
only another proof of the small value the Govern-
ment places upon scientifically trained men, not-
withstanding its boasted eagerness for efficiency.
Prof. Wyndham Dunstan asks for a permanently
assured income of £10,000, which would be secured
by a Treasury grant of £7,000, as already made to
the National Physical Laboratory. With this sum
and the contributions from the Dominions and other
sources, he thinks he would then secure £25,000 a
year, the minimum needed to enable the Institute to
discharge efficiently its truly imperial functions. It
is a modest request, and one that should certainly be
granted.