July 16, 1915.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

117

-bought in house coal round about half their supplies, or
what they Expected to require. All the Black shale pits
sold their coal on scale. The majority of house
coal would be on scale. Half their household coal was
bought at current prices—spot purchases, as they called it.
Collieries wanted a fixed quantity per month over the year.
It wap no good buying more than they could reasonably
clear in the summer months, with the result that in the
winter, when the house consumption increased by leaps and
bounds, they were in the market for a large portion of their
requirements.

Witness said they were not able to substitute house coal
for industrial coal to any very great extent. For instance,
they could not sell house coal for Nottingham hard steam.
Of course, there were some coals which got very near the
margin of either. They were not a best steam coal and they
were not a good house coal. They would answer steam pur-
poses, such as bunkering, and, on the other hand, they
would make a cheap house coal, a cheap kitchen cobble. Thus
he did not think the increase in the demand for industrial
purposes had aggravated the position in getting coal for
household purposes to any great extent. The reduction of
output and the shortage of coal was as acute in manufac-
turing coal as it was in house coal.

The Retail Trade in Manchester.

Evidence was given on March 5 by Mr. Samuel Allen,
the manager of t^e coal department of the Co-operative
Wholesale Society in Manchester, and Mr. Burgess, the
manager of the coal department of the Co-operative Whole-
sale Society in London. They stated that the total trade of
purely house coal in the Manchester district was getting on
to a little over 700,000 tons, in the London district 300,000
tons, and Newcastle would make it about 1,250,000 tons per
annum. They only supplied retail societies and their own
works. They measured up the probable demands to the best
of their ability, and covered themselves on contract. There
was a certain amount, of course, of current trade from perhaps
small societies who did not contract. Taking first the
Lancashire collieries, Mr. Allen said that Lancashire was a
decadent county for the production of coal. For the large
populations in Lancashire they had to draw from other
counties, and that was growing more every year. There
had been an associated body of Lancashire colliery proprietors
who had made their contracts to rise and fall with the
market, and to a buyer he had always had to be most
particular that he had been right at the rock bottom to start
with. That was to say, if there was a market advance, and
there was a call for a very big demand for coal that would
justify an advance, they would advance lOd. a ton in the case
of associated bodies. The same thing applied in the reduc-
tions. They generally made the contracts for house fire coal
to commence from July 1 each year. They had advanced lOd.
a ton during the war. If colliery proprietors found there
had been a big draw on the various classes of fuel, as an
associated body they advanced that fuel lOd. or Is. 8d. a
ton, and the retail traders would have to put it up by that
amount. The colliery took the initiative, and not the mer-
chants. In London it was the other way round. The
Staffordshire collieries were working now along with the
Lancashire collieries on a sliding scale.

During the last 20 years there had been a vast alteration
in the distribution of coals in the area. Fully 90 per cent,
of the coal was delivered in cwt. bags. In Hull each bag
would be about l|cwt., but in other towns it was lewt.,
with the exception of some of the Yorkshire towns, such as
Leeds, Bradford, Halifax, and Huddersfield, where there
were small cart-loads in bulk. The retailers had only
advanced their price lOd. per ton in Lancashire, Is. per ton
in Yorkshire, lOd. per ton in North Staffordshire, Is. per ton
in South Staffordshire, including Birmingham, and lOd. per
ton along the Lancaster and Furness line to Millom. That
was the ordinary winter increase. At the present time,
owing to the shortage of outputs, they were shorter in their
districts than in any other part of the country, owing to these
abnormal prices having been paid for London and the South.
They were dealing with over 100 collieries in the Manchester
area, and there was an average of from 22J to 40 per cent,
reduction in output. In consequence they had had to buy
some coals from Derbyshire, which had always been a
happy hunting ground in times of stress and difficulty, at
the prices that London buyers had been paying. Many of
their societies had been losing money. They had not
advanced the price of coal to the members, but they had
had to reduce it, and they had had to dole the amounts out
to the members, in most cases not more than 2 cwt. a week.

Mr. Allen quoted the following retail prices :—Birkenhead
best coal Is. 4d. per cwt., small nuts Is. Id.; Liverpool,
best coal Is. 6d. (Deep Arley coal from Lancashire), ordinary
best coal Is. 3jd., and nuts Is. 3d. Liverpool paid a higher
price than Manchester, because it was further from the pits,
and they had a particular class of coal that would not sell
in Manchester. Manchester and district were on a hard
coal, Liverpool districts were on a soft coal. It was a very
good coal, but a tender coal, and a Manchester buyer would
not look at a tender coal, whereas Liverpool wanted it, and
would not break a hard coak They had a seconds house coal
in Liverpool which sold at Is. 2d. to Is. 3d.; Stalybridge,
best coal Is. 3d., best nuts Is. 2d.; Nelson, best Yorkshire
Haigh Moor Is. 4d., Silkstone best Is. 3d., Silkstone house
Is. 2d.; Warrington, household coal Is. l|d. (this is only a
second or third class coal in Warrington, and does not com-
pare with Manchester, Liverpool, or Bolton); Crewe, best
Staffordshire Holly Lane Is. 3|d., nuts Is. 3d., seconds coal
Is. Id.; Colne, best coal Is. 5d. (that is the best selected
Haigh Moor Wallsend), best coal Is. 3d., best nuts Is. l|d.;
Hull, best coal Is. 4d., nuts and cobbles Is. Id.; Bradford,
best coal (best Haigh Moor) Is. 5d., nuts and cobbles
(seconds quality) Is. Id.; Keighley, best coal Is. 5d., Silk-
stone Wallsend Is. 4d., nuts and cobbles Is. Id.; Sheffield,
nuts and cobbles Is. 2d. They had scarcity, but no rise
in price. On the other hand, an ordinary trolleyman, who
was not in a large way of business, got whatever price he
could.

Co-operators and the London Trade.

Mr. Burgess, who followed, said that they were perhaps
more speculative than they were in the North. He found
that the speculative contracts that he had made totalled
185,000 tons for the London area, out of about 300,000 tons.
A lot of them were bought specially, and he had ignored
them. He sold 186,000 tons. Now, this coal was bought in
June at figures varying from 9s. 9d. at the pit to about 14s.,
with rates varying from 5s. 3d., plus Is. wagon (that is,
6s. 3d.), to 8s. 2d., plus wagon. With Silkstone and Derby
brights, the prices were generally fixed on a sliding scale.
None of the other classes of coal were bought on this sliding
scale arrangement. The sliding scale related to the better
classes only. There was only one case in his knowledge
where it did not apply, and that was with regard to one of

the stove coals. Everything was at fixed prices below
bright nuts. The collieries were giving on an average 90
per cent, of the contract qualities. They were passing on
the 90 per cent, to the societies. But witness thought the
collieries had treated them with consideration, as far as they
possibly could, having lost as many men as they had.

lief erring to the question of transport, Mr. Burgess said
they had absolute control of about 650 wagons for this
London area, but he had picked up 330 wagons on hire
between November 18 and January 18, at figures which
were very little above the normal. During December 250 of
his wagons made 449 journeys, or If journeys per month, as
against the normal 2| journeys. They had had perhaps
1,000 or 1,500 wagons other than their own during the month
of January, and had had them all at the scale charge of
Is. and Is. 3d. respectively. They had not had to pay the
3s. hire which had been spoken of. He had had wagons
which had been two months on a journey, but that was not
usual.

Witness said he knew nothing of any “ coal ring or com-
bination,” but he did know that big firms met together in
No. 8 room and fixed the prices. That was the London Coal
Merchants’ Association room, and No. 9 was the colliery
agents’ room.

Witness referred to the case of one particular colliery who
knocked off 20 per cent., but actually delivered 140 per cent.,
charging an excess price on 60 per cent. There was another
case in which they let them have 75 per cent, of the coal
under contract. It was for 416 tons a month, and they had
316 under contract. They had had 716 in all, and that left
400 they charged extra on.

Speaking of the comparative prices in London and Man-
chester, witness said they used the term of Silkstone in
London for a slightly different quality. The best coal did
not come to London, excepting in isolated cases. In Man-
chester they would call the London Silkstones second Silk-
stones. Then, again, it was well understood that there was
a higher price charged where there was a lower railway
rate. When there was a higher railway rate, they nearly
always sold the coal at a lower rate. London was largely
a dumping ground for certain supplies. Iri numerous
instances London coal merchants had come to him
saying, “ Cannot you persuade your people to raise their
prices? They are undercutting us.” He had reason to
think from observation that they averaged 5s. per ton below
what the other people were charging in the self-same area
for the lower grade qualities. In the better grade qualities
the price was not so high comparatively. It was only 4s. or
5s. more, and in the lower grade qualities it was 10s. In
the lower grade qualities the societies did keep the prices
down to some extent, but they had not got their full supplies
from the collieries; consequently they had to supplement
them with anything they could buy outside at high prices,
and had had to pass it on to the societies; they had also had
to charge high prices to keep people from rushing for them.
The ordinary cartage expenses ought not to exceed 3s. per
ton in London and 2s. 6d. in the country, and office expenses
Is. 6d. in addition to that. If cartage expenses were double
—including wages—it only amounted to 3s. a ton, and they
were not double, because wages had not gone up, or only
4d. per ton in the London area. If they were to allow 5s.
per ton for cartage expenses all round, he should like to do
all the work and pay all the office expenses out of it. The
increasing distributive expenses cannot be more than Is.,
allowing for everything. Witness said the working classes
that bought from the trolley bought Derby brights, a sliding
scale coal, and which they might call the index coal of
London. So that, as far as the trolley trade was concerned,
half the additional price was going to the collieries. The
ordinary householder in humble circumstances got the lower
grades below the brights. That was 80 per cent, of the
total trade, so that the colliery did not participate in that
advance. Mr. Allen here added that what was a first-
class coal in London, the Derby bright, was only a third-
class coal in the North. Some of the cotton workers in
Lancashire and the woollen workers in Yorkshire earned
good money, and they would have the best stuff. The Com-
mittee would be surprised at the amount of best Haigh
Moor and Silkstone Wallsend coal that was used by them.

The Use of Interned Shipping.

Lieut.-Col. A. Leslie, organising secretary of the
Admiralty Coasting Trade Office, was called on March 8.
He said the office was designed to bring into use certain
interned enemy vessels primarily for the relief of the coal
trade of London, from which many steamers for various
purposes had been diverted. They would have 32 steamers
running principally from the Tyne and G-ranton and Methil,
and other places in the Firth of Forth, mostly to London.
They were not colliers, and so they were not all regarded as
unmixed blessings by the trade. Some of the smaller boats
were being used as far as practicable for the relief of the
southern ports where coal was very badly wanted too. For
the week ending February 21 there were shipped 28,000 tons
of coal to London, and 3,900 tons to southern ports. The
next week they shipped 29,633 tons to London and 350 tons
to Brighton, otherwise Shoreham. They tried to use the
service for public utility companies as much as possible.
The actual handling of the coal was done by contractors. It
was the declared intention of the Government to try to
reduce the rates as much as possible. The stress of labour
had interfered with the matter of getting crews, and the
ships bad not been turned in all cases so quickly as they
ought to have been. The people they got were not always
the type they ought to be, and one or two of the skippers
had not turned out to be quite satisfactory, although they
had been selected as carefully as they possibly could be.
The crews were very much out of hand; that is to say, they
signed on and got certain advances, apparently, and then
disappeared in some cases, or got in liquor. The working
of the ships was entirely done by the joint managers in
Newcastle. The Government had not done anything under
their managers to attempt to carry the goods themselves.
They had always been, day for day, a little below the
market rates. The point was that the coal trade would
have been 130,000 tons worse off in London if they had
not had these steamers. Of course, the great bulk of the
domestic coal was railborne. If they were charging, say,
5s. a ton less freightage than the ordinary shippers, they
would have to show favouritism either to the coal owners or
to the freighters. He thought it would put prices up,
because it would drive all the other ships off the market, and
they would go somewhere else where they would get better
paid. They had not enough ships to command the market.

Witness also referred to the London Coal Advisory Com-
mittee. That, he said, was a committee which was brought
about with a view to try to find out the position of the
various public utility companies as regards their sources of
supply, stocks and consumption, and also to endeavour to

work in such a manner that anyone of these public utility
companies finding itself getting very much into a hole for
supplies of coal would be able to get, through this com-
mittee, a recommendation for priority of service. It was a
committee of the interests involved, which was instituted at
the instance of Admiral Slade, chairman of the Overseas
Prize Committee, or it was suggested by the President of
the Board of Trade.

(To be continued.)

PRICE OF COAL (LIMITATION) BILL.

The following is the text of the Government Bill,
introduced by Mr. Runciman in the House of Commons
this week, to provide for the limitation of the price of
coal :—

1.—(1) Coal at the pit’s mouth shall not be sold or
offered for sale by the owner of the coal or on his behalf
at a price exceeding by more than the standard amount
per ton the price of coal of the same description, sold in
similar quantities, and under similar conditions, at the
pit’s mouth at the same coal mine on the corresponding
date (or as near thereto as, having regard to the course
of business, may be practicable) in the 12 months ended
June 30, 1914 (in this Act referred to as the correspond-
ing price).

(2)	The standard amount shall be 4s. : provided that
the Board of Trade may, by order, if they are satisfied,
as respects any class of coal mines specified in the order
or the coal mines in any district so specified, that owing
to special circumstances affecting those mines the stan-
dard amount of 4s. should be increased, substitute for
that amount such higher sum as they may think just
in the circumstances; and as respects those mines this
Act shall have effect as if the higher sum so substituted
were the standard amount.

(3)	If any person sells or offers for sale any coal in
contravention of this section he shall be liable on sum-
mary conviction to a fine not exceeding £100 or, at the
discretion of the court, to a fine not exceeding treble the
amount by which the sum paid or payable for any coal
sold by him in contravention of this section exceeds the
maximum sum which would have been paid or payable
for the coal if there had been no contravention of this
section.

(4)	This section shall apply to a case where the
owner of coal at the pit’s mouth has sold or offered to
sell that coal at a price which includes the cost of
railway or other incidental services besides the actual
value of the coal at the pit’s mouth, as if he had sold or
offered to sell it at the pit’s mouth at a price reduced
by an amount representing the cost of those services.

2.	—(1) If in any proceedings for the recovery of a fine
under this Act any question is raised as to the corre-
sponding price of any coal (including any question as to
the cost of railway or other incidental services), the
court shall refer the question for determination by the
Board of Trade, and the decision of the Board shall be
final and conclusive for all purposes.

(2)	If for any reason there are not adequate data at
any coal mine from which to ascertain, in accordance
with the foregoing provisions of this Act, the corre-
sponding price at that mine, the Board of Trade may fix
that price having regard to data afforded from sales of
coal at other mines.

(3)	The Board of Trade may require the owner of any
coal mine to furnish such information as appears to
them necessary for the purpose of carrying into effect
this Act; and if any person refuses to furnish any such
information when so required, or furnishes information
which is false in any material particular, he shall be
liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding
£100.

(4)	The Board of Trade Arbitrations, etc., Act, 1874,
shall apply as if this Act were a special Act within the
meaning of the first-mentioned Act.

3.	—(1) This Act shall not apply to any sale of coal
for export, or to any sale of coal for the manufacture of
patent fuel for export, or to any sale of coal to be used
on any ship.

(2)	This Act shall not apply to the sale of coal sup-
plied in pursuance of a contract made before the
commencement of this Act.

(3)	This Act may be cited as the Price of Coal
(Limitation) Act, 1915.

(4)	This Act shall have effect during the continuance
of the present war and a period of six months there-
after.

Imports of Pit Props in June.—During June 180,466 loads
of pit props were imported into the United Kingdom, the
value being £291,423. The imports in June last year
amounted to 329,128 loads, and the value £413,985. The
total imports during the first six completed months of the
year were 1,084,542 loads, valued at £1,780,804, as compared
with 1,186,573 loads, valued at £1,332,597, in the corre-
sponding period of 1914.

Imports of Iron Ore.—During the six months ended with
June, 3,063,515 tons of iron ore, valued at £3,349,880, were
imported into the United Kingdom, as compared with
3,060,639 tons, valued at £2,779,874, in the first half of 1914,
and 4,022,629 tons, valued at £3,814,258, in the first half of

1913.	Of the total, 83,087 tons, valued at £103,585. were
manganiferous, as against 78,034 tons, valued at £60,757, in

1914.	From Spain we imported 58,638 tons of manganiferous
ore and 1,986,133 tons of other sorts, the figures for the
corresponding half of 1914 being 54,352 tons and 1,769,728
tons respectively. In addition, 134,526 tone of manganese
ore, valued at ,£330.749, were imported, as against 244.465
tons, valued at £509,310, in 1914.