July 2, 1915.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

33

held in Manchester, and attended by 832 delegates, repre-
senting 253 societies. Mr. Ainsworth, of Long Eaton,
said he understood that some time ago the directors were
engaged in certain negotiations in the colliery trade, and he
would like some information as to why the negotiations
ceased. Mr. T. Killon (chairman) replied that he did not
think the present an opportune time for dealing with
collieries. Several collieries had been offered to the
directors, but up to the present they had not received an
offer suitable to the society’s requirements. The matter
was continually before the directors, however, and the dele-
gates could rest assured that when a suitable opportunity
presented itself everything possible would be done to
seize it.

News has been received that Capt. Robertson, 4th South
Lancashires, has been wounded in Flanders. He is an
engineer with the Pearson and Knowles Coal and Iron
Company.

It was announced at the beginning of this week that the
Earl of Ellesmere is now commencing to work various new
mines at his Wharton Hall, Ashton Field and Brackley
collieries, in the Tyldesley and Little Hulton districts, the
requisite notices having been given to the local authorities.
At the last-named colliery additional by-product ovens—
there is already an extensive installation in operation there
—will probably be put down. In addition, his lordship is
sinking a new Arley mine—it will be nearly half a mile in
depth—at his Mosley Common Collieries, Boothstown, near
Manchester.

The board of management of the Lancashire and Cheshire
Miners’ Permanent Relief Society have decided to invest
£17,000 of the society’s funds in the Government War
Loan.

The Scot Lane Colliery, Blackrod (a newly-registered
concern), propose carrying out certain extensions, in the
shape of tapping new seams and effecting surface improve-
ments.

North Wales.

Considerable developments and extensions are now afoot
in this coalfield. In addition to the sinking of the new
colliery at Llay Hall, for the Llay Main Collieries Limited,
and another at Ifton Heath for Messrs. W. Y. Craig and
Sons, sinking operations have now been commenced at
Plasynmhowys (Flintshire) in connection with the West
Lees wood Colliery, while near by, at Leeswood, the
Tryddyn Colliery, which has been closed for some time past,
is about to re-commence operations, and to market their fuel
now that prices are good; and employment should be found
for quite a number of men if they are available.

Notts and Derbyshire.

Handsome Gift of Ambulances—New Plant at Blackwell—
Statues of Miners' Leaders Unveiled—Serious Accidents
at the Bentinck Colliery.

Mr. H. Dennis Bayley, who is a large coal owner in
Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, has returned from France
for a few days to endeavour to raise a fund amongst the
colliery owners and miners of the two counties to equip
and maintain two convoys of motor ambulances for the
British Red Cross Society and the St. John Ambulance
Brigade. Mr. Bayley’s appeal has met with complete
success, for at a meeting of coal owners at Derby, on
Friday, June 25, it was agreed to present a convoy to the
institutions named, at an estimated cost of from J-30,000 to
.£35,000. The convoy will consist of 50 motor ambulances,
four touring cars, and a repairing lorry with full equipment.
On the following day, at a meeting at Chesterfield of the
Derbyshire Miners’ Council, Mr. Bayley addressed the 85
delegates from the different lodges in the county, giving
details of his scheme. The delegates took up the matter
with enthusiasm, and decided to recommend the members
to combine with the Nottinghamshire miners in providing
and maintaining a further convoy, which it is estimated
will cost between £20,000 and £30,000. The matter also
came before the council of the Nottinghamshire Miners’
Association on Saturday, when it was reported that the
lodges had voted in favour of supporting the scheme, that
the required sum of money be taken out of the association’s
funds, and that -a levy be made on the members towards
the upkeep of the convoy.

The Blackwell Colliery Company Limited are to electrify
the plant at their “ A ” Winning Colliery by the installa-
tion of two 750 kw. mixed-pressure turbo-generators to take
the exhaust steam from the two winding engines and fan
engine. The existing underground haulages will be extended
by the addition of new haulage gears, and the steam
haulages will be converted to electric drive, thus taking all
steam away from the shaft. At the same company’s
Sutton colliery an addition is to be made to the generating
plant, by the installation of a 400 kw. compound engine
and generator, and a new fan to be direct-coupled to an
enclosed self-lubricating engine. The whole of this work
will be carried out according to the specifications, and
under the direction of Messrs. W. C. and K. A. Mountain,
of Newcastle-on-Tyne, as consulting engineers of the Black-
well Colliery Company Limited.

Saturday last was a memorable day in the history of the
Derbyshire Miners’ Association. In front of the offices in
Saltergate, Chesterfield, statues of the two great leaders,
the late Mr. James Haslam, M.P., and the late Mr. W. E.
Harvey, M.P., were unveiled by their life-long colleague,
Mr. Barnet Kenyon, M.P., in the presence of a crowd of
about 3,000, including, besides a large proportion of miners,
many of the leading townspeople. The monuments, which
are similar, are well executed. They are of white marble,
and stand 7 ft. 6 in. high on pedestals of Derbyshire stone,
making a total height of 15 ft. Representations of a
miner’s safety lamp and a pick are engraved in the stone,
and are surrounded by laurel leaves. The inscriptions
are :—“ Erected by the Derbyshire Miners’ Association in
memory of James Haslam, M.P., one of the founders of the
Association, and its general secretary from 1881-1913 ”; and
“ Erected by the Derbyshire Miners’ Association in memory
of Wm. Edwin Harvey, M.P., one of the founders of the
Association, and an official from 1883 to 1914.” Mr. James
Martin, J.P., of Staveley (president of the association),
presided at the ceremony, and said he looked back upon his
long association with Messrs. Haslam and Harvey with a
good deal of pride. When the two leaders began their
missionary work in Derbyshire they were called agitators,
demagogues, disturbers of the peace, and if either of them
was seen going to a colliery it was at once said, “ There is
going to be a strike.” They had lived to see the day when
people held a different opinion. Such men as Messrs.

Haslam and Harvey were not agitators, but men imbued
with the highest principles, which they carried out for the
benefit of their fellow men. Mr. Kenyon, unveiling the
statues, said both men lived long enough to see the utter
uselessness of strikes, and for the last 20 years of their
lives, at all events, they were opposed to strikes, especially
sectional strikes, which were so damning to the working
classes. The Derbyshire Union had the cleanest hands of
any union in the world from that point of view. It was
because they had kept out of strikes and out of the law
courts as much as possible, that the Derbyshire Association
held the position of being the richest per member in the
world.

The Bentinck Colliery at Kirkby, in the centre of the
Mansfield coal field, was the scene, on the 21st ult., of an
alarming fire. The outbreak originated in the lower storey
engine-house of No. 1 shaft, a large two-storey building
containing powerful engines, air compressors, and other
machinery, and was discovered shortly before 7 o’clock, but
the building was doomed, for the flames rapidly extended
and ultimately completed its destruction. Immediately the
outbreak was discovered all the fire brigades in the district
were summoned, and also the Nottingham Fire Brigade.
The Kirkby, Sutton, and Mansfield Brigades were quickly
on the scene, but before they arrived, Mr. Huskisson
(instructor) and four men, with a motor van, from the
Mansfield Rescue Station, had reached the colliery. The
rescue party took with them a number of patent fire extin-
guishers, and with these appliances they accomplished very
good work. The brigade were able to obtain a plentiful
supply of water from a reservoir on the colliery premises,
but it was some considerable time before the flames were
overcome. When the flames were fiercest one of the
winding ropes gave way, and the cage was precipitated
some distance down the shaft, but was prevented from
falling to the bottom by a safety apparatus. It is under-
stood that the damage is estimated by the management at
between £4,000 and £5,000. It is not anticipated that the
workmen will suffer, because arrangements are being made
for an afternoon shift, so the 1,900 men and boys will be
kept fully employed.

A most serious accident occurred at the same colliery
early on Wednesday morning, June 30, when, owing
to an extraordinary accident, two cages in the No. 2
shaft collided with each other, with terrible results.
12 men being killed and seven injured, two of them seriously.
How the cages caught each other in the shaft is a mystery,
for they had been working all right, and hasty examination
after the accident showed that neither the ropes nor the
girders were damaged. From official details supplied by
Capt. Muschamp, the agent of the company, it appears
that the daymen were being taken down the shaft when the
cage, containing 14 workmen, collided midway in the shaft
with the ascending cage, which held five of the night men.
The impact of the collision was <so violent that 10 men were
thrown out of the descending cage and fell to the bottom of
Hie shaft, a distance of 200 yds., and were instantly killed.
Two other men were killed in this cage and two injured,
and all the men in the ascending cage were hurt. Both
cages were badly damaged. Most of the day men had been
taken down before the accident happened.

Sir Arthur Markham, M.P., has taken Newstead Abbey,
the historic home of the Byrons, and will probably go into
residence there next month. He intends opening the gardens
and grounds to the public every Wednesday afternoon on
payment of a small fee, the proceeds to be handed to the
Belgian Red Cross Society.

The Midlands.

Prices on Cannock Chase—Carnegie Heroes in North
Staffordshire.

Coal prices continue very high in South Staffordshire and
Shropshire, and consumers, especially householders, are
displaying some alarm at the point to' which values have
ascended. Factors are said to be demanding 30s. per ton
for domestic coal in the town yards, and even at this figure
they are exhibiting a very independent spirit. Pit prices
are also very high. As a specimen of the prices now quoted
in the Cannock, Hednesford and Pelsall districts, the
current list for fuel delivered into boats of one of the best
known second-class collieries in that area may be named.
Best deep coal is quoted 20s. per ton, deep one-way 19s. 6d.,
large kibbles 19s., shallow best hards 20s., one-way coal
18s. 6d., mill coal 18s., and forge 16s. and 17s. per ton.
The price-list of the same class colliery when the year
opened stood at :—Best deep 17s., deep one-way 16s., large
kibbles 15s., shallow best hards 16s., one-way coal 14s., mill
coal 12s., and forge (screened) 11s. Current prices on to
rail for “ London brights ” from the same (second-class)
collieries, suitable for bagging purposes, are 18s. per ton,
and nuts 17s., as against 13s. to 13s. 6d. per ton at the
beginning of the year. Mixed coal and lumps, described as
a good hot free-burning coal, is quoted 18s. to 18s. 6d. on
rail, against 14s. 6d. to 15s. six months back; kitchen or
steam cobbles of 4 in. to 12 in. size 17s., as against 13s.
previously; nuts of 2 in. to 4 in. cube, clean and of good
quality, 18s., compared with 14s. previously; and a useful
kitchen coal known as ‘‘large one-way” 18s., contrasted
with 12s. 6d. last January.

News has been received at the North Staffordshire Mines
Rescue Station of awards of the Carnegie Hero Fund
Trust. William Aldridge has been awarded £10 and an
inscribed silver watch for rescuing a boy from a disused
pit shaft full of water. Aldridge has received already the
bronze medal of the Royal Humane Society and the
society’s testimonial on vellum. A framed honorary certifi-
cate and £10 each have been awarded to Ernest Jones and
Isaac Sutton, two Halmerend colliers, who showed con-
spicuous bravery in the rescue operations following an
explosion at the Minnie Pit, Halmerend, last January.

Kent.

Final appeals of an urgent character were issued by the
Shareholders’ Committee and Messrs. G. Thomas (Dover)
and A. Wells (Canterbury) concerning the raising of the
new capital for Tilmanstone Colliery. The necessity of
providing the £50,000, which is the minimum sum on which
the old debenture holders will agree to the new scheme, was
strongly impressed. This money was to have been raised
by June 30. and there is good reason to hope that this was
achieved, £42.000 having been raised by Saturday last.
The Treasury have given their consent to the raising of
£75,000 of this new second debenture issue.

The necessary machinery and equipment being now in
position, the sinking to the Snowdown “ Hard ” seam will

be resumed at Snowdown Colliery this week end. The
working of the Beresford seam is to be continued as at
present.

Scotland.

Scottish Co-operators as Colliery Owners.

At a representative meeting of Scottish co-operators,
held at Barrhead, an interesting discussion took place on
the expediency of working, under the aegis of the Scottish
Co-operative Wholesale Society, a series of co-operative coal
mines. The subject was introduced as the outcome of a
paper read by Mr. Joseph Sullivan, one of the agents of
the Lanarkshire Miners’ Union. At the outset, Mr.
Sullivan remarked that the business incidental to the
getting, raising and selling of coal was one of the most
difficult problems the co-operative movement could face.
He believed, however, the time had really come when
co-operators should seriously consider the acquisition of coal
mines. If his opinion was asked, he would say it would be
better to get, df possible, a virgin field, for the reason that
they would be expected to fit up a model colliery. Perhaps
it would be better if the investigations and other prelimi-
naries were left in the hands of some outside the responsible
officials of the co-operative movement. If a virgin field could
be secured, they would require to prove it. His information
was that the Diamond Drilling Company would contract to
put down a bore commencing at the surface with a
diameter of 9 in., for 15s. per foot for the first 500 ft., and
25s. a foot for the next 500 ft., or 1,000 ft. for £1,000. For
sinking and fitting two shafts 100 fms. deep, with one pit-
head arrangement—one shaft to have cages to carry two
tubs, the other cages to carry one tub—the total cost would
be £54,160. This wrould be the inclusive cost of a pit com-
pletely fitted and ready for working, and it also included the
sum involved in six months’ working expenses for
developing and opening out. If an excessive quantity of
water or exceedingly hard metal were encountered, the cost
of sinking the two shafts might run into six figures; which,
of course, would throw the whole estimate out. He was
indebted to a friend in the trade for the following informa-
tion as to the cost of production in two different districts in
Lanarkshire. The first was a thin seam, 1 ft. 7 in. in
height and machine cut. Wages, 7s. 8‘73d.; timber, 9‘98d. ;
furnishings, 2’09d.; electricity, 0’46d.; boiler fuel, 4’48d. ;
explosives, 0’73d.—a total cost of 9s. 2'47d. per ton. Other
charges, including insurance, rates, depreciation, main-
tenance of all kinds of machinery and royalty, amounted
to Is. 8’10d., making the cost per ton 10s. 10’57d. The
average realised selling price for the month of March was
11s. 2'99d., which gave a gain of 4*42d. per ton. For the
month of April the total gain per ton was 10’42d. The
other instance was that of an ell coal—a coal much used
by co-operative societies. It was a seam 4 ft. 6 in. The
total cost of production in this case was only 8s. 2‘56d. per
ton, while the realised price was the same as in the other—
namely, 11s. 2d. per ton—thus showing a margin of 3s. per
ton. The output in March for the first seam was 2,626 tons,
and in the second seam 4,154 tons. Critics might say that
the output in these sections was not large. A colliery
costing between £50,000 to £75,000 would require at least
10,000,000 tons of workable coal in order to ensure that an
adequate return would be got. There was no doubt of this,
that when prices were low, owners had a difficulty in
making ends meet. Employers with large outputs generally
contracted ahead two-thirds of the output, the other third
being placed on the market at a high price. That to some
extent explained why the return for March was only
Ils. 2’99d. per ton, whilst round coal was selling in the city
of Glasgow at probably 25s. per ton. In the course of his
paper, he (Mr. Sullivan) had tried to show the difficulties
before them in this venture; but he had also shown how it
would be possible to get a good return. If they as
co-operators could assist their members by getting them coal
at a reasonable price, just as they had kept the shop-keeping
class from putting up prices for the other necessaries of life,
the return would come both ways—in the profits earned
and in the reduced price of the commodity. Mr. Murray
(Barrhead) moved the following resolution :—“ That a
committee be appointed to enquire into the co-operative
ownership of coal mines, collect information, and report.”
In support of his resolution, Mr. Murray mentioned that
Messrs. John Watson Limited had offered to pay the City
of Glasgow £600 for 31 years, coal or no coal, for the right
to work any coal found on Robroyston Estate. If coal were
found, this firm wrere prepared to pay a royalty of 6d. per
ton on coal, and royalties on any other mineral found.
Messrs. J. Watson Limited, he remarked, hoped to get an
output of 500 tons daily, and to give the City of Glasgow a
revenue of £3,000 per annum. The motion for the appoint-
ment of a representative committee was agreed to.

The engineer of the St. Pancras electricity undertaking
reports that it has been found from past experience that
anthracite peas and Mansfield nutty slack are the most
suitable classes of fuel for burning on the Crosthwaite
firebars.

The city of Philadelphia, acting on the recommendation of
the Franklin Institute, has awarded the John Scott legacy
medal and premium to Mr. Herbert Alfred Humphrey, of
London, and to Cav. Ing. Alberto Cerasoli, of Rome, for the
Humphrey pump for raising water by the direct application
of the explosive energy of a mixture of combustible gas and
air. The first installation of a Humphrey pump was made
at Dudley Port, in England, in 1909.

Replving in the House of Commons on June 24 to Mr.
Ginnell, Mr. Pretyman said he had no reason to think that
the development of the manufacture and distribution of peat
fuel had been in any degree impeded by the action of coal
owners. He doubted whether any steps that could be taken
would be likely to result in an appreciable addition to our
Juel supplies from this source in the near future, and, as at
present advised, he saw little advantage in appointing a
Committee to consider the problem.

An interesting point in connection with a coal contract
is mentioned in a report of the St. Pancras Council this
week. Messrs. J. H. Beattie and Company Limited wrote
that they had successfully resisted a police summons for
shooting coal by means of their motor lorry at Prince of
Wales-road baths. They based their price on having to
deliver a proportion of fuel by horses and vans, and in con-
sequence of this decision they can allow 9d. per ton off
their tender price on all coal delivered to the baths by
motor lorry.