May 14, 1915.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN

1033

price of coal for the coming year’s requirements, and thus
avoid a very serious effect upon the general welfare of the
nation. It was stated at the meeting that the Corporation
had given away 220 tons of coke to the relief committees.

An official statement has now been issued regarding the
finding of coal at Rossington. Upon the authority of Mr.
Maurice Deacon, managing director of the Colliery Com-
pany, it is gathered that the actual depth at which the
Barnsley bed was reached was 872 yds. The thickness of
workable coal has been found to be. 6 ft. 7 in., a little less
than one-third of which is hard coal. The actual period
occupied in the sinking of the shaft was two years and two
months, which included the putting in of a length of 188 yds.
of tubbing, about 22,000 galls, per hour of water being
tubbed back. The No. 2 shaft has now attained a depth of
over 600 yds., and the coal will probably be reached in the
early autumn. In the meantime, the guides will be fixed
in the shaft, and the usual preparations made at the pit
bottom for heading out. It is interesting to add that the
whole of the plant necessary for a daily output of 4,000 tons
is practically complete.

The remarkable growth of the new district around
Bentley has led the South Yorkshire Coalfields Church
Extension Committee to erect a handsome church near
Bentley Colliery, the site having been generously given by
Messrs. Barber, Walker and Company, owners of the pit,
who have contributed in other ways to the object.

The first meeting of creditors in the Central Silkstone
Collieries Limited was held on the 30th ult. at Liverpool,
under the presidency of Mr. T. W. J. Britten, the assistant
official receiver. The London Official Receiver, who has the
matter in. hand, has sent a lengthy statement of observations
in the case, and in this he set forth that the winding-up
order was made on November 17, 1914, on a creditor’s peti-
tion. The liabilities expected to rank amounted to £4,827,
and the net actual assets to £25,924, leaving an estimated
surplus of £21,097. The company was promoted by a Mr.
Andrew Anderson, and was registered on June 10, 1907,
with a nominal capital of £50,000. It was formed to acquire
as a going concern the undertaking and all and any of the
assets and liabilities of the New Wallsend Main’ Colliery
Company Limited. In November 1908 the company was
converted into a private company. The first registered office
was in London, and it was afterwards transferred to Liver-
pool, and thence to Rock Ferry. The company also carried
on business at the collieries,.Barnsley, up to February 1913.
Liberty having been given by the court in a debenture action
to the receiver for debenture holders to sell the whole of the
assets of the company, the property was subsequently valued
at £4,875, and .of this sum £60, the deposit paid by the
purchasers, was allowed to be retained by the receiver for
general purposes, and of the balance of £4,275, the payment
of £3,206 odd was ordered to be made to the holder of the
prior lien debenture in respect of principal and interest. The
receiver reported that the ultimate proceeds were not suffi-
cient to cover the payments ranking in front of the holders
of the £10,000 debentures, who would, therefore, not receive
any payment. The failure of the company was attributed
to lack of capital, losses on working owing to the bad quality
and insufficient quantity of coal mined, and to heavy
expenses incurred in the maintenance of roads in the main
drift. No proposal being forthcoming, the. meeting was
declared closed, and a meeting of contributories was
adjourned.

Lancashire and Cheshire.

The Hulton Pollution Case : Judgment.

At a meeting of the Westhough ton District Council held
last week, it was decided, in view of damage caused by
subsidence, which had been sustained at Roger’s Farm,
and which materially interfered with the new sewage
works, that arrangements be made for a meeting between
the landowner and the colliery owners, with a view to
estimating the amount of the damage.

On Monday flags were flying from the headgears at Lord
Ellesmere’s various collieries in Walkden and adjoining
districts, and from his workshops and headquarters at
Walkden, to signalise the birth of a son and heir to his
lordship.

At the Chancery Court in Manchester on Tuesday, the
Vice-Chancellor, Mr. Stewart Smith, K.C., gave his
judgment in the action against the Hulton Colliery Com-
pany Limited, the trial of which occupied 14 days in
January and February. The six plaintiffs are the Laburnum
Spinning Company Limited, the Atherton Cotton Spinning
Company Limited, Gamble and Smith Limited, F. W.
Boath and Company Limited, E. A. Eason, and Jones
Brothers Limited, all of whom carry on business as
spinners, manufacturers, or dyers in Leigh and Atherton,
and they asked that the Hulton Colliery Co. be restrained
from discharging polluted water into the Carr Brook, which
is used by them for industrial purposes. Other relief
included an enquiry as to damages, the amount down to
July 1913 being estimated at £10,000. The Vice-
Chancellor said the water was alleged to be pumped from
two groups of pits, the first known as the School and Arley,
the second as the Pretoria. In respect of the first group,
the defendants claimed a prescriptive right to pump polluted
water into the stream, but no such right existed with regard
to the Pretoria pit, the sinking of which was begun in 1900.
The action itself was started in 1911, and came on for trial
on July 1, 1913, when the parties agreed to a judgment
based upon admissions by the defendants that they were
not entitled to turn into the stream water of such a
character that it would cause the stream to reach the lands
or works of the plaintiffs in a less pure condition than in
1891. They committed wrongdoing in that respect, but said
they would remove all objection by purifying the water.
Between the date of that judgment and the end of the year
the colliery company installed close to the Pretoria pit a
purifying plant on the Archbutt-Deeley system. Solid
matters in suspension were deported in the settling tanks,
and the water, which was very hard, containing carbonate
of lime and magnesium in solution, was treated with soda
ash and other chemicals. The effluent was a clear bright
soft water, but heavily charged with sulphate of soda, and
saline in taste in consequence of the chloride of sodium in
solution. Before it passed into the stream it was mixed
with the water coming from the School and Arley pits,
which was. not subjected to any process of treatment. The
plaintiffs were not satisfied with the results, and after some
months spent in negotiations, the present motion for injunc-
tion was launched in December last. Two questions of
fact were raised. What was the condition of the water
flowing down the brook in 1891? Was the stream now

rendered less pure by any act or omission, for which the
defendants were responsible? In 1891 the water pumped
into the brook came only from the Arley and School pits,
which worked the following seams :—The Plodder, at a
depth of 81yds.; the Yard mine, 110 yds.; the Half Yard,
155 yds.; the Three-Quarters, 181yds. All these were
drained by pumping through the School pit, while the Deep
Arley, at a depth of 263 yds., was drained by winding from
the Deep Arley pit. The Plodder water was very highly
charged with iron, and was locally known as ochry water;
it had the reputation of being the worst mine water in this
respect. Sometimes the ochre was deposited to the depth of
| in. in the levels through which the water flowed. There
was a considerable conflict of evidence whether the volume
of this pit water had increased between 1891 and the
present time, one suggestion being that the defendants had
tapped a large accumulation in the lower workings, but he
came to the conclusion that there had been no substantial
variation in quantity or in hardness during that period. But
it was clear the pollution of the stream as a whole had
increased. The condition of it in 1891, and for some years
after, had been described by several witnesses, who said
that though traces of ochre were to be seen from time to
time, vegetation was plentiful, and fish not uncommon, trout
and carp being caught, while the water was satisfactory
for boiler and condensing purposes. During the year 1900
the defendants began to sink the Pretoria pit, now one of
the most important in Lancashire, and a large quantity of
water from the Plodder and the Half-Yard got through a
fault and was pumped at the Pretoria pit. From that time
the pollution of the brook grew steadily worse. The fish
and vegetation disappeared, and the water itself was
exceedingly bad, very hard, and heavily charged with
ochre, the presence of which in the stream was no longer
exceptional and transitory, but permanent. The treatment
to which it was now subjected eliminated all solids in sus-
pension by natural settlement in settling tanks. Iron in
solution, carbonate of- lime, and magnesia were removed by
the addition of lime and soda ash. The final result was
that more than an equivalent bulk of sodium sulphate was
formed, and with other sulphates and chlorides remained in
solution, and give rise to the objections on the part of the
plaintiffs. The average daily quantity of treated water
sent into the brook from the Pretoria pit was said to be
38,000 galls. But for the treatment, it would admittedly
have been an increase of pollution since 1891, and it was
not less a polluting w^ater because the lime, magnesia, and
sulphates were replaced by an equivalent body of sodium
sulphate. The defendants had failed to displace evidence
which he thought was conclusive that the stream and its
added components when fit reached the Laburnum mill
dam and the Atherton mill lodges was not now in as pure
a condition as it was in 1891 at those places. The mill
owners complained of the effect upon their boilers, econo-
misers, and condensers of the mud caused by the increase
of the ochre, and the probability of danger and expense from
the sodium sulphate. There was a considerable body of
evidence that a solution of sodium sulphate which became
super-saturated by being left in a boiler would cause hard
scale and produce dangers. He had no doubt, and was
prepared to find as a fact, that, quite apart from the agree-
ment made in July 1913, the defendants were causing the
brook to be polluted to an extent which would be an action-
able nuisance to the owners of the Laburnum and Victoria
mills, and if that were the issue between the parties, the
plaintiffs would be entitled to an injunction. Under those
circumstances, he had decided to grant an injunction,
following the terms of the agreement restraining the defen-
dants from turning into the stream water of such a
character as to cause the water of the stream to reach the
plaintiffs’ land and premises in a less pure condition than it
reached them in 1891. The defendants must pay the
general costs. In conclusion, the Vice-Chancellor said these
were very abnormal times, and the raising of coal at these
pits might be of very great importance, not only to the
parties, but also to the nation. He suggested that in the
public interest no steps should be taken which would
hamper the colliery company in fulfilling wfliat might be a
national duty. — Subsequently Mr. Radford, wrho repre-
sented the plaintiffs, stated that terms had been agreed to
under which the operation of the injunction would be
suspended for three months. The enquiry as to damages
would include any which might have been sustained since
particulars were delivered.

Notts and Derbyshire.

Commission for a Colliery Manager — Winding Accident at
Bestwood.

Mr. George Dixon, who was manager of the High Park
and Watnall collieries, Nottinghamshire, belonging to
Messrs. Barber, Walker and Company, at the outbreak of
the war, and who enlisted as a private in the Coldstream
Guards, has been granted a commission for service in the
field. He has been appointed a second lieutenant in the
Royal Engineers.

At Best wood Colliery on Monday, 12 men were on the
lower deck of a descending cage, and eight on the upper
landing. When between 20 and 30 yds. from the bottom of
the shaft, the cage went at a terrific speed, the result being
that the occupants were thrown in a heap. Two men were
injured, and the other occupants of the cage suffered from
shock. The cause of the mishap was not explained, but it
was claimed that the men were saved from a worse fate by
the action of the steam brake, which was introduced about
a year ago.

A joint meeting of members of the Notts >and Derbyshire
branch of the Association of Mining Electrical Engineers
and the Midland branch of the National Association of
Colliery Managers was held at the University College,
Nottingham, on Saturday afternoon, Mr. J. Strachan being
in the chair, when a paper was read by Mr. E. Kilburn
Scott and Mr. L. F. Frogarty on “ Preventative Devices
Against Lightning and Surges.” The paper, which was
illustrated by a number of diagrams, during the reading
of which several experiments were made, dealt with various
types of arresters, resistances, choke, coils, earth plates,
electrical surges, and protective condensers.—The chairman
remarked that whilst the war was absorbing a good deal of
the attention of those connected with mining and electrical
matters, it was at the same time their duty to welcome new
devices and improvements in connection with the working
of collieries. When he read of the poisonous gases which
the Germans were using, he wondered whether'some elec-
trical devices would be resorted to, for the Germans were
violating nearly all the laws of warfare as drafted by the
Hague Convention, which he thought was regarded by them

as the vague convention. Discussion followed the reading
of the paper.

Mr. J. Strachan, of Stanton Hill, presided at the annual
meeting of the Midland branch of the National Association
of Colliery Managers which was held at the University
College, Nottingham,, on Saturday afternoon. With regard
to members on active service, it was reported that at the
council meeting of the association at Leeds it was decided
to compile a list of all members serving with any branch
of H.M. Forces, and that such members should have their
subscription remitted as from April 1, 1915,’ during the
time they were serving.—The secretary (Mr. R. Laverick,
Nottingham), in his report, stated that the branch had now
a membership of 139, compared with 142 last year. The
finances were in a satisfactory condition, for there was a
substantial balance in hand.—Mr. Strachan, who has been
president of the branch for the past two years, expressed
regret that Capt. Muschamp, of Mansfield (the president-
elect), was unable to attend owing to pressure of other
duties.—On the proposition of Mr. J. W. Eardley, Alfreton,
seconded by Mr. P. G. Vickers, the retiring president was
thanked for his services ; and Mr. Strachan, in reply, wished
the association continued success under the presidency of
Capt. Muschamp.

Lieut. F. B. Lawson, of the 8th Battalion, Sherwood
Foresters, the elder son. of the vicar of Old Basford,
Nottingham, who has been reported wounded in the war,
was a mining engineer in the Notts coalfield when war
broke out. Having the advantage of a military training at
a public school, he was given a commission, and posted to
the 8th Sherwood Foresters as early at September 1. For
some time he has been fighting in Northern France and
Belgium. Fortunately, the injury to Lieut. Lawson, who
is spoken of as a young officer of exceptional promise, is not
serious.

The Midlands.

Nystagmus and G.I.P. : A Conflict of Expert Opinion.

His Honour Judge Ruegg, K.C., gave an important
reserved judgment at the Stoke-on-Trent County Court on
Wednesday in an arbitration under the Workmen’s Com-
pensation Act, in which the parties were the Stafford Coal
and Iron Company Limited and Oldfield. The applicants
asked for the review and termination of an agreement
registered in April 1912, under which weekly compensation
of 12s. 4d. was secured to Oldfield, who was suffering at
the time from miners’ nystagmus. Compensation was paid
until March 1913, when the workman returned to the com-
pany’s employment, doing light work at the pit bottom.
He continued this light work until August 1914, when it
was found necessary to remove him to an asylum, where he
is now suffering from general paralysis of the insane. On
his behalf it was submitted that this disease was due
indirectly to nystagmus. Reviewing the evidence, his
Honour said general paralysis of the insane was a disease
found in syphilitic subjects only. It was also admitted
that the disease could be set up by any exciting cause. His
Honour went on :—“ That the disease of miners’ nystagmus
—like many other diseases—may affect the nervous system
is no doubt true. That it may cause mental depression of
a serious kind is the opinion held by Drs. Moody and
Shufflebotham. In this case, Dr. Shufflebotham, Dr. Moody,
Dr. Menzies, and Dr. McDowell expressed their view that
in the absence of .any history of any other exciting cause,
it was reasonable to connect the G.P.I. with the nystagmus
as cause and effect. All these medical gentlemen were men
of large experience, some of them with very special experi-
ence of the disease of miners’ nystagmus, but they all
agreed that before this case no case was within their
personal knowledge or cited in the text books in which
miners’ nystagmus had caused G.P.I. On the other side,
Dr. McMurray and Dr. Stanley Barnes were of opinion
that no connection was established in this case between
the two diseases. Dr. McMurray’s evidence is important,
as he treated the man in the first instance for miners’
nystagmus. He says the attack was only a slight, one.
The man suffered from headache due to astigmatism, which
was set right by glasses. There was no loss of vision in
this case, and in the doctor’s opinion nystagmus only causes
mental depression where it results in some loss of vision.
To use his own words : ‘ I may almost say the depression
is in proportion to the loss of vision.’ I believe that the
nystagmus had disappeared long before the man taken
to the asylum. Dr. Menzies says no signs of nystagmus
were present on his admission. ... If the original mental
depression could be said to be due to the nystagmus (and
I am not satisfied that it was not one of the early symptoms
of the G.P.I. itself, i.e., itself a manifestation of the
disease) the worry was not about the disease, which I think
caused the man little pain or personal inconvenience, but
about the pecuniary position in which they were placed by
having to live on practically half wages. It is not neces-
sary to decide this point, but I hold a strong view that a
disease brought on by such a cause only would not be
sufficiently connected with the accident to render the
employer liable. After all, the compensation is fixed by
Act of Parliament, and if a man induces a disease uncon-
nected with the accident by worrying about the insufficiency
of his compensation, I think a new cause intervenes, to
which alone such disease or aggravation must be attributed.
On the whole, though, I think it is impossible to say with
certainty that the nystagmus had nothing to do with the
G.P.I.; it is, in my opinion, equally impossible.to say that
it had. The whole case is founded on conjectures, and the
conjectures which connect the two diseases in this case, in
my opinion, fall far short of reasonable proof. The
employers’ application must succeed.”

Kent.

The Tilmanstone Colliery.

Coal from the Snowdown Colliery is now again on the
market in East Kent towns, the output having increased
and passed the company’s contracts, which for some time
Avere in excess of the output. The warrants for the half-
year’s interest due on May 1 on the Snowdown Company’s
prior' lien bonds have been posted. The company is nov^
reported to have reached the profit making stage.

A meeting of the shareholders in the East Kent Colliery
Company to receive the report of the advisory committee
concerning the company’s Tilmanstone Colliery, took place
on Wednesday afternoon.

There was a large attendance at the adjourned meeting
of the East Kent Colliery shareholders on Wednesday, to
receive the report of the advisory committee concerning the
colliery and the re-construction proposals. The committee