612

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

March 19, 1915.

TRADE AND THE WAR.

Coal Exports to Neutrals : More Stringent Customs Regula-
b tions—Workers and the Control of Coal Prices—Cheap
Coal for the Poor — Gas Authorities and their Coal
Supplies : Deputation to the Board of Trade — The
Reduction in Output : An, Estimate—Rates of Exchange
—The Government and the Railways : Revised Terms
of Compensation—Railway Congestion—An Important
Electrical Contract Changes Hands. .

Since the removal in August last of the embargo on the
export of Welsh large steam coal to scheduled neutral
countries, the Customs conditions affecting the shipment of
coal from South Wales, as well as from other ports, have
been practically normal. During the past few days, how-
ever, clearance regulations have become more stringent.
An instruction has been given to the Customs authorities
at Cardiff to withhold clearances from neutral ships sailing
for neutral countries, and particularly to countries east of
Gibraltar. The apparent object is to obtain satisfactory
proof concerning the nature and destination of cargo, and
in cases where the authorities have been satisfied on these
points detained vessels have been given special clearances
and liberated. At Cardiff, on Wednesday, four other
Italian and two Spanish steamers loaded for Mediterranean
destinations were held up pending investigations.

The Committee appointed to consider the retail price of
coal has completed the hearing of witnesses, and is now
engaged in considering its recommendations. The report
will probably not be issued for some days.

' A national conference on food and fuel prices, promoted
by the Workers’ War Emergency National Committee, was
opened at the Kingsway Hall, W.C., on Friday. Mr. Arthur
Henderson, M.P. (chairman of the Labour Party), presided.
Discussion was confined to the subject of wheat and coal
supplies. The subject of coal prices was introduced by
Mr. Robert Smillie (president of the Miners’ Federation of
Great Britain), who proposed (a) that maximum prices for
coal should be fixed by the Government; (6) that railway
trucks, belonging both to the separate railway companies
and to private traders, should be pooled and run to their
fullest economic use; (c) that in fixing shipping freights
for coasting vessels under their control the Government
should have regard to normal rates rather than to the
excessive rates inflicted by private owners ; (d) that the
Government should commandeer coal supplies and distribute
to consumers through municipal or co-operative agencies.
Mr. Smillie said if the Government would act on these
resolutions the miners would be willing to waive any claim
they might have for increased wages during the present
crisis, but the miners were not prepared to go on paying
20 or 23 per cent, more for everything which they purchased
and, at the same time, see the cost of coal going up,
without a protest that they wanted additional wages during
this time. The propositions of Mr. Smillie were carried,
with an amendment that the Labour Party should divide
the House of Commons on the subject.

Some months ago the Government Committee on the
Prevention and Relief of Distress gave details of an offer
by certain coal merchants by which they undertook to
deliver coal of a certain quality in quantities of not less
than 1 cwt. at a time to the houses of any persons residing
in the Metropolitan Police district, who handed in at the
office of any of the merchants a ticket issued by a Relief
Committee. Now the Government Committee is circu-
larising the Relief Committees to the effect that, if no
advantage has been taken of this offer, this matter might
be reconsidered, in view of the high prices of coal.
Accordingly, these Relief Committees, who have hitherto
not taken advantage of the coal merchants’ generosity, are
now hastening to do so.

A deputation representing important gas authorities
attended at the offices of the Board of Trade on Wednesday,
the 10th inst., to point out the difficulties which they were
having because of the shortage of coal supplies. Mr. C. T.
Needham, M.P. for South-west Manchester, introduced the
deputation, which, in the absence of the President of the
Board of Trade (Mr. Walter Runciman), was received by
Mr. J. M. Robertson, Parliamentary Secretary to the Board.
The deputation discussed the matter with Mr. Robertson,
and suggested what seemed to them a way out of the
difficulty. Mr. Robertson said he would lay the deputa-
tion’s views before the Treasury.

Mr. J. P. Houfton, the chairman, presiding at the half-
yearly meeting of the Mansfield Railway Company, at the
Victoria Station Hotel, Nottingham, on Monday, March 15,
said he estimated that the output in this country to-day
was 30 per cent, less than before the war. So far as the
steam and gas coal collieries were concerned, and to a large
extent the house coal collieries, that appreciation in value
had not gone into the pockets of coal owners. It was
customary to contract for from 80 to 90 per cent, of the
output. Most of the present contracts were made on July 1,
before the war. There was practically no free coal left.
He did not think that 2| per cent, of the coal at the
collieries with which he was connected had been sold at
these high prices. The output of the collieries was down
20 per cent., and their profits by the same amount. The
owners were worse off than before the war.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, with whom were the
Lord Chief Justice and the Governor of the Bank of
England, recently received at the House of Commons the
sub-committee appointed by the Commercial Committee of
the House of Commons, to see what steps should be taken
to get rates of exchange fixed between neutral and Allied
countries so as to prevent the fluctuations which so
hampered commerce. Mr. Lloyd George said he had
specially arranged with Russia that no embargo should be
placed on butter, wheat, or foodstuffs so far as this country
was concerned. With regard to America, so long as we
enjoyed the confidence which existed with regard to loans,
it would not be to our advantge to borrow there at present.
With regard to the • question of the Argentine, he was
greatly interested, and promised to give it his earnest and
careful attention. With regard to France, he had not
heard that France would place between 20 and 30 millions
of Treasury bonds on this market, and there was no need
for her to do this, having regard to the enormous resources
that country enjoyed.

It is announced that the Government and railways had
come to terms with respect to the compensation the latter
will receive as the outcome of the Government having
taken over control. It is stated that the Government has

offered to make up the difference in the net earnings
between 1913 and the current year, instead of 1914 as at
first proposed, provided the railways agree to bear one-
quarter of the recent rise in railwaymen’s wages. ’

A special supplement to the I ondon Gazette contains a
proclamation by the King adding further articles to the
list of articles to be treated as absolute contraband of war.
Amongst these are to be found : Tin, chloride of tin, tin
ore, castor oil, paraffin wax, copper, iodide and lubricants.

The arrangements which the Institute of Industry and
Science have been making for some months past for a,
conference in London of the leaders of industry and science
to discuss the British position have now been completed,
a~d a conference is to be held at the Mansion House on the
25th inst.

The Local Government Board have issued a circular to
local authorities on the subject of the organisation of
labour. The Board state that they have received a
communication from the Committee of Imperial Defence,
who emphasise the importance of releasing male labour of
high physical quality so far as possible from other occupa-
tions, and of substituting, where necessary, men of more
advanced years, or, where conditions allowed, women
workers. The circular urges that only men who are
indispensable for the work of the local authority should be
refused permission to enlist, that artisans who belong to
trades needed in arsenals, dockyards, and armament
factories should be released, wherever possible, and
encouraged to find employment there, and that where there
is a demand for labourers on railways, in docks, and on
farms, &co the local authority should facilitate the transfer
to those employments of any men who can be spared.

In the House of Commons, last week, an extraordinary
instance of delay on the railways was given by Mr. Hohler,
who asked the President of the Board of Trade whether he
had made any enquiry as to why 22 trucks of coal,
particulars of which, with the number of each truck and
the dates of despatch, were given him by letter dated
February 23 last, and which were despatched by railway
from the Pinxton, Creswell and Exhall collieries between
December 22, 1914, and January 29, 1915, consigned to the
Gillingham Co-operative Society Limited, Gillingham,
Kent, had not been delivered up to February 24 last.—
Mr. Robertson, in reply, said the Railway Executive
Committee had informed him that eight of the trucks in
question, were known to have arrived, and others had
probably been delivered. Apart from these particular
trucks the supply of coal to the society appeared to have
been well maintained. There had been a great increase in
the amount of coal put on rail for this district, and it had
been necessary to regulate the flow of the traffic.—Mr.
Hohler suggested that the railways should be closed for
passenger traffic from Saturday midnight to Sunday
midnight, with a view, during that period, to enable the
railway companies to deal with the congestion of goods
traffic in their sidings.

It may be remembered that in 1907 the Durham Collieries
Electric Power Company Limited arranged with the New-
castle-upon-Tyne Electric Supply Company Limited and the
associated companies to operate and maintain the Phila-
delphia power station, increasing the capacity from 6,000 kw.
to 10,000 kw. The Philadelphia station was purchased
by the Lambton and Hetton Collieries Limited, and the
colliery company some 18 months ago decided to remove
five of the turbines and instal three A.E.G. machines, each
of 6,000 kw., capacity at 0 75 factor, running at 2,400 revolu-
tions per minute. In consequence of the war, the contract
placed with the Berlin firm was cancelled, and the order has
now been divided amongst Messrs. James Howden and
Company Limited, of Glasgow, Messrs. Siemens Brothers
Dynamo Works Limited, and Messrs. W. H. Allen, Son, and
Company Limited, of Bedford. It is anticipated that the
thermal efficiency of the station, when operating these new
sets, will be at least as favourable as at any other station
operating under similar conditions, the steam consumption
figures guaranteed being exceedingly low. An interesting
feature of this scheme is that an arrangement has been
entered into with the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Electric Supply
Company Limited, whereby they are to supply the labour
for the operation of the station, and also to provide a
stand-by supply to the colliery company from the network
of cables at Philadelphia. Hitherto the Lambton and
Hetton Collieries Limited have purchased the power for
their important group of collieries from the Durham
Collieries Electric Power Company, and in order to ensure
greater reliability the stand-by required at the station is
to be provided from the network of the Newcastle-upon-
Tyne Electric Supply Company and its associated companies
instead of putting down additional spare plant at the
Philadelphia station.

An important conference took place on Wednesday at the
Treasury to consider proposals arising out of the decision
of the Government to take over control of additional
factories for the production of war material, and also the
question of the efficient organisation of the factories now
engaged in that class of work. About 100 representatives
of the great trade unions were present. Mr. Lloyd George
and certain members of the Imperial Defence Committee,
several naval and military officers of high rank,, and
Government officials interested in these questions also took
part in the preliminary stages of the discussion. It was
decided to appoint a committee of seven Labour officials,
representative of all sections of the industries concerned,-to
act as an advisory committee to the Government.

The destruction of the port buildings at Zunguldak by
the Russian fleet deprives Constantinople of coal supplies
obtained from the Heraclean collieries, which result is
highly important, in view of the report that all the coal
stocks at Constantinople were said to be long ago
exhausted. The Turkish capital is thus confronted with a
coal famine.

The Board of Agriculture has drawn the attention of
owners of woodlands and others to the fact that some
collieries are still finding a difficulty in securing adequate
supplies of pit wood. Landowners may find this a favour-
able time to sell at a remunerative rate timber of which
they have hitherto found it difficult to dispose to advantage.
As a rule, however, collieries are not prepared to buy
standing timber unless the woods are in their immediate
neighbourhood. Information as to the kinds of timber
required, marketing, and other matters in this connection,
will be found in a special leaflet, No. 17, copies of which
may be obtained post free on application to the Secretary
of the Board of Agriculture.	’

In connection with the Thermit process for welding rails,
Mr. Hughes, the Attorney-General for the Commonwealth
of Australia, has suspended the patents in favour of the
Engineer-in-Chief of the Commonwealth Railways. This
chemical process of welding rails is used by practically
every municipality owning an electric tramway system.

According to the German official' wireless news, the
mining Company Gierchey Heirs (? Gelsenkirchen) have
subscribed <£250,000 to the German war loan.

Mr. Redfield, United States Secretary of Commerce, has
made a report to the Senate upon the American manu-
facture of dyestuffs, to the effect that chemical works in
the United States are ready to embark capital and
enterprise in “ building up a distinctly American coal tar
chemical industry u«ing entirely American crudes and
intermediaries, providing there is adequate legislative
prohibition against both ‘ dumping ’ and unfair restraint of
American trade by the arbitrary action of foreign monopoly
permitted by foreign law, and not as yet forbidden by our
own.” What is needed, says Secretary Redfield, is a law
“placing a foreign monopoly on the same basis as, an
American one.”

Further consideration has been given by the electricity
committee of the Hammersmith Council to the question of
coal supply for the electricity undertaking. At the beginning
of February it was agreed to purchase and store coal up to
a maximum quantity of 3,000 tons. Since that time orders
have been placed for a considerable quantity of coal, but
only a small portion has been actually delivered owing to
the difficulty experienced in connection with freightage.
As the storage capacity has been considerably increased by
the completion of the storage tanks, the committee has
accordingly arranged to purchase an additional 3,000 tons
of coal, the orders for which will be placed as favourable
opportunities arise.

At the meeting of the Lambeth Board of Guardians, on
Wednesday, the Contracts Committee reported that only
two tenders were received for the supply of coal for the
next six months. Having regard to the uncertainty which
at present exists in the trade in consequence of the war,
the clerk was authorised to write firms to submit prices
for a month’s supply.

MINING AMD OTHER NOTES.

A meeting of the members of the Association of Mining
Electrical Engineers (Notts and Derbyshire Branch), will
be held on Saturday, March 20, 1915, at the University
College, Nottingham, at 3.30 p.m., when the papers on
“Turbine Pumps for Colliery Pumping,” by R. H. Willis;
and “ Utility of Surface Earthing on Armoured Systems,”
by William Webster, will be discussed.

At the weekly meeting of the London County Council,
the chairman of the Public Control Committee (Mr. U.
Fisher) said since the outbreak of the war 23 convictions
had been obtained by the nine coal officers of the Council
in respect of offences under the Weights and Measures
Acts, and five further cases were pending. In view of the
high price of coal and the possibility of a further rise, the
coal officers had been instructed to be particularly alert in
seeing that purchasers received full weight.

Mr. William Edgar Allen, of Whirlow House, Sheffield,
chairman and founder of Messrs. Edgar Allen and Company
Limited, Imperial Steel Works, Tinsley, who died on
January 28, at 77 years of age, left estate of the gross
value of <£271,068 19s. 10d., of which the net personalty has
been sworn at <£251,792 14s. 9d.

The Geneva correspondent of the Matin states that for
the past fortnight a gigantic fire has been raging at a
Strassburg coal depot on the Rhine. About 4,000 wagons
have already been destroyed, and all attempts to master
the fire have, so far, been abortive, owing to the fact that
the contact of the water with the burning coal has resulted
in the formation of a kind of thick crust, which has
immensely favoured the fire. The German firemen
endeavoured to pierce this crust by tunnelling, but merely
succeeded in causing explosions. The police are trying to
discover the cause of the fire.

Notice is given that the Collos Portland Cement Company
Limited have made application for the restoration of the
patent granted to Heinrich Colloseus for an invention
entitled “ Improvements in Apparatus for Pulverising
Blastfurnace Slag,” numbered 14329 of 1905, and bearing
date tJuly 11^ 1905, which expired on July 11, 1914, owing
to the non-payment of the prescribed renewal fee.

A meeting of the Institution of Civil Engineers will be
held at Great George-street, Westminster, S.W., on Tuesday,
March 23, at 8 p.m., when discussion will take place on the
paper on “The Improvement of the River Clyde and
Harbour of Glasgow, 1873-1914,” by Sir Thomas Mason,
Assoc.Inst.C.E.; and a paper will be read (time permitting)
“ On Impact Coefficients for Railway Girders,” by Charles
William Anderson, M.Inst.C.E.

The annual report for the year ended June 30, 1914, on
the working of the Boiler Explosions Acts, 1882 and 1890,
has just been issued by the Board of Trade. During the
period named, 64 preliminary enquiries and four formal
investigations have been held under the provisions of the
Acts. The 68 explosions thus dealt with caused the death
of 22 persons and injuries to 74 others. The 22 deaths
were caused by 11 explosions, of which eight occurred on
land and three on ships. The number of persons killed is
below the average (26’3) for the 32 years since the Act
came into force, but the number of injured is above the
average. It is satisfactory, the report states, to be able to
record a drop in the number of explosions which occurred
during the year, which is below the average (72’8). The
68 explosions arose from the following types of boilers or
vessels .-—Thirteen horizontal multitubular boilers; seven
vertical boilers ; three Lancashire and other flue boilers;
four locomotive boilers ; two water-tube boilers ; five tubes
in steam ovens; two heating apparatus; 11 steam pipes,
stop-valve chests, &c.; three hot plates, &c.; three calenders,
drying-cylinders, &c.; three steam-jacketed pans; three
rag boilers, kiers, stills, &c.; nine miscellaneous. The
causes of the 68 explosions were as follow:—Twenty
deterioration or corrosion; 19 defective design or undue
working pressure ; four water-hammer action; 12 defective
workmanship, material, or construction ; nine ignorance or
neglect of attendants ; four miscellaneous.