536

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN

September 10, 1915.

shaw Seven-feet Mine, £15; Wigan Four-feet Mine, £65
(cannel found in conjunction with this mine between 6 in.
and under 12 in. thick <£100, between 12 in. and under 18 in.
thick £150, and 18 in. and over £200); and Wigan Nine-feet
Mine, £60. Higher offers, suggestions, or objections to the
proposed lease are to be transmitted to the Charity Commis-
si oners in London.

During the hearing of a case at the Manchester County
Police Court on Monday, in which a Belgian employed as
a collier was summoned for neglecting to register as an
alien, Police-superintendent Keys informed the magistrate
that a large number of Belgian refugees are now employed
in the pits at Swintoji and Pendlebury.

The Hulton Colliery Company Limited, who are the
owners of extensive and well-equipped collieries at
Chequerbent, near Bolton, are now carrying out important
developments at Halsnead Park, near Cronton. Already
two shafts, each 21 ft. in diameter, have been sunk, and
another of 15 ft. diameter is now being sunk. Coal getting
was commenced several months ago, but only small
quantities are being won so far. About 200 men are
employed. Several seams of excellent coal are to be tapped.
In the near future it is expected that employment for some
hundreds of men and youths will be provided at the Cronton
collieries.

In connection with the visit of the British Association to
Manchester this week, the Clifton and Kersley Coal
Company Limited, of Clifton, near Manchester, invited a
party of members to' visit their Astley Green Colliery on
Thursday.

Notts and Derbyshire.

Shaft Accident at Burton.

The pit cage collision at the Donisthorpe Colliery, Burton-
on-Trent (one of the five pits controlled by the Moira Colliery
Company Limited), resulted in the death of one man and
injuries to 11 men and boys, bears a remarkable resemblance
to the accident at the Bentinck Colliery, Kirby, last June,
when 10 lives wrere lost. It appears that the last cage load
but one on the day shift was descending the No. 2 shaft, and
when about half-way down, it fouled the ascending cage.
The rope broke, the up-coming cage crashed back to the
bottom of the shaft, which is 300 yds. deep, and was wrecked.
Happily the rope of the descending cage remained intact,
and the cage remained suspended with its 14 occupants mid-
way down the shaft. Later on a doctor and some ambulance
men were lowered to the suspended cage in a hoppit. The
accident happened shortly before 7 o’clock, and it was noon
before the first of the injured men was brought to the surface.
By 3 o’clock all had been rescued and taken to the infirmary.
Meanwhile all the workmen had been withdrawn from the
pit by means of the No. 1 shaft. It is stated the cages
fouled the previous day, through some defect in the guides,
and that the damage had been repaired. The accident
resulted in the death of Ephraim White (21), miner, who
was in the ascending cage, and whose mangled remains
were found in the sump. The men were suffering princi-
pally from shock and injuries to their legs. The manager of
the pit, Mr. J. Armson, in a statement, said “ as far as is
at present known, an ascending cage got out of the guides
and struck the descending one. The impact broke the chain,
or bull link, which connects the six chains attached to the
top of the cage, and thus released the ascending cage, and
it crashed to the bottom of the shaft. The descending cage
got jammed, and therefore did not fall.” At the inquest on
White, which was held on Saturday, a verdict of
“ Accidental death ” was returned. Henry Banton, banks-
man, said that 15 cage loads of men descended before
the accident occurred. Answering Mr. W. H. Hepplewhite
(inspector of mines), witness said that when coal winding
the previous day the left side cage fouled the rods about
35 ft. from the bottom, and stopped work for a day. The
shaft was examined nightly after the men were out. An
onsetter said that the ascending cage, containing White
alone, came tumbling down the shaft, bringing with it a
lot of woodwork. The cage only reached the sump planks,
and wedged itself. Walter Clarke, shaftsman, spoke to
replacing the damaged rod after the wedging mishap, and
said that mishap had no connection with the disaster. He
did not know what gave way to allow the ascending cage
to fall back down the shaft. During the past twelve years
the cage had left the guide several times, but not of recent
years. The coroner said he did not see that any one was
to blame, as the colliery company had the shaft examined
regularly.

The news is confirmed that Capt. H. Tylden-Wright, of
the Notts and Derby Mounted Brigade of the Army Service
Corps, was wounded in the left thigh during the recent
British advance in Gallipoli, and is now in hospital in
Alexandria. Happily no bones were broken, and it is hoped
he will soon be convalescent. Prior to the war Capt.
Tylden-Wright held a responsible position on the staff of
the Bolsover Colliery Company. His interest in military
affairs dates back to the Boer War, when he was engaged
in South Africa as a mining engineer.

The Midlands.

Workers and the War—Pit Flooded at West Bromwich—
Cannock Coal Trade.

The war has occasioned a wave of industrial progress
throughout the Black Country the like of which has not
been witnessed certainly by the present generation. Collieries
and iron works are busy, and huge factories are springing
into being like the proverbial mushroom. Something
approaching a-quarter of a million capital is to be spent on
works extension by one Dudley firm. It is now announced
that another firm of manufacturers have purchased 50 acres
of land at Tipton, where employment will ultimately be
found for quite 5,000 hands. Tipton offers splendid facilities
for heavy trades, because of its unique system of waterways.
The difficulties of employers, however, centre round the ques-
tion of labour. Many hundreds of miners and iron workers
have joined the Colours, while others have drifted to other
industrial areas, where the inducements seemed greater.
Although wages have in some instances jumped to almost
fabulous figures, the lack of labour continues to be acutely
felt. It is feared the situation will get worse, and many
important firms have had to introduce female labour. At the
same time, the number of prosecutions at the various police
courts during the past week suggests that slacking is on the
increase. A number of colliers summoned at Bilston for
neglecting their work at the Baggeridge Colliery, were each
ordered to pay 10s. In supporting the cases, Mr. W. A.
Foster, the solicitor for the colliery company, said the men
absented themselves without warning or adequate reason on

two days. They should have done repairs to enable the day
shift to start, and, as a consequence of their absence, the
day-men had to do their own repairs, the drawing being 158
tons less. From August Bank Holiday workmen were
beginning to absent themselves on Sundays and Mondays, and
it was proposed, if the neglect continued, to claim damages
commensurate with the loss sustained.—Messrs. Joseph Penn
and Company, Cradley Health, iron manufacturers, prose-
cuted a number of their men for a similar offence. In this
case it was stated that the defendants went to a public house
early in the morning. They refused to leave, remarking that
they were going to have a spree. When the foreman met
them later in the morning they were in a helpless state of
drunkenness. This was the first time in the history of the
firm that they had had to prosecute any of their employees
for neglect. The chairman of the magistrates ordered the
defendants to pay 20s. each, observing that time lost meant
the prolongation of the war.—Another flagrant case came
before the Stipendiary at Brierley Hill, when Messrs. Roberts
and Cooper prosecuted one of their employees. Mr. James
Raybould, the works manager, said the action of the defen-
dant resulted in great delay and wastage of fuel. On August 5
defendant promised to keep his work, and the case was
adjourned for a month, but during this time defendant twice
absented himself. He was now ordered to pay 10s. damages.
—Tw’enty-three youths were fined at the Halesowen Police
Court for neglect of work. In this case it was stated that
owing to heat the senior employees of Messrs. Stewarts and
Lloyd requested that they should cease work at the furnaces
at midday, but a representative of the firm pointed out that
the soldiers in Gallipoli were enduring heat beyond all com-
parison to any which they were working under. The men
therefore withdrew their request, but unfortunately the
thoughtless and younger members took it into their heads to
leave off work, with the result that the whole works were
disorganised. Two of the furnaces remained completely idle.
The chairman (Mr. J. G. Reay) observed that each of the
defendants had an emblem in his coat, and it was clear that
in some hazy fashion they knew the country was in trouble.
The defendants were each fined 5s., which, it was stated,
would be devoted to some patriotic cause.

Two men were killed in an accident on Monday at the
Piercey Colliery, Albion, West Bromwich. The pit, an old
one, is being re-opened, and Mr. E. Williams, contractor,
was carrying out a contract to sink a new shaft a short dis-
tance from the old one. This had reached a depth of 76 yds.
When the contractor’s son, John Williams, and another man,
named Williams, were at work in the new shaft, water burst
into it out of the old one, and filled the shaft to a depth of
30 yds. with earth and water. The banksman noticed the
winding rope shaking, and, on going to the shaft head, saw
what had occurred, but there was no possibility of rescuing
the two men. Efforts are being made to clear the water out
of the pit in order to recover the bodies, but this will take
some days.

The Cannock coal trade is very brisk. The advice to
householders by the Board of Trade to anticipate winter
requirements by stocking to storage capacity, is, apparently,
being taken seriously, merchants having been very busy.
The call has, however, embarrassed the trade somewhat,
as the usual summer contracts have by .no means been
fulfilled, and the pits will commence the autumn season
under difficulties through arrears of orders. Domestic-coal
merchants state that prices now stand ad; about 27s. 6d. per
ton for best coal delivered. Collieries consider they are
entitled to 4s. a ton advance over pre-war rates on list
prices. Merchants state that they themselves are entitled
to the 2s. per ton increase over and above the advance
demanded at the pit head owing to increased costs for
conveyance and handling. The domestic trade between the
Black Country and the Cannock Chase pits is conveyed
chiefly by canal, and of late boatmen’s wages have risen
considerably, wharf charges have increased, and other costs-
items have also gone up. Current prices for best hand-
picked coal vary at the pit head from 20s. to 21s. and 22s.
per ton, according to size; while deep-one-way coal varies
from 18s. to 18s. 6d. and up to 19s. 6d., according to size.
Steam coal is quoted 15s. at the pit head.

The Recruiting Committee at Leamington Spa, at the
request of the War Office, is raising an Army Troops Company
of the Royal Engineers, and there are vacancies for three
surveyors and three draughtsmen, a class difficult to meet
with. Any young man wishing to join this branch of the
Army should communicate with Mr. Philip Mordaunt, hon.
secretary to the Recruiting Committee, Town Hall,
Leamington.

Somersetshire.

On Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Sidney Crees, of the firm of
Messrs. Wainwright, Laver and Crees Limited, offered for
sale by auction, by instructions received from the High
Court, the colliery plant at Edford Colliery. The plant had
been catalogued in 208 lots, but according to the conditions
of sale was offered first in one lot. There was a large
attendance of prospective buyers from the locality, from
Bristol, Bath, Bridgwater, Sheffield, Birmingham, and else-
where. The property was disposed of in one lot at £400 to
Mr. Holder, of Bristol.

Kent.

With the approval given by the judge, at the adjourned
hearing in the Vacation Court, of the scheme of the East
Kent Colliery Company, the difficulties of the company should
be at an end, as the necessary funds have been provided by
the shareholders to give the colliery at Tilmanstone a fair
opportunity for some time to come. It is hoped by the time
it is necessary to provide the remaining £100,000 of the
second debentures—required to a very large extent for the
sinking to the deeper seams—that matters will have so far
improved in the condition of affairs generally that the money
will be readily forthcoming. The position in the Kent coal
field is rapidly being cleared up, in spite of the very adverse
conditions caused by the war, and there is every prospect of
the industry being put in a firm financial position.

Scotland.

Glasgow and the Limitation Act—Storage of Explosives—
Gas Companies and Their Coal Supplies.

A number of retail and wholesale coal merchants in
Glasgow on the 1st inst. appeared before a meeting of
Glasgow Corporation Special Committee on the Prices of Coal
for Domestic Supplies. Conn. Dollan, the convener, on
whose motion the committee was appointed, presided. The
coa] merchants made statements as to the effect of the Price
of Coal (Limitation) Act on prices, and gave information as

to the cost of coals to them at the depots, and the cost of
distribution. At a further meeting of the committee on the
next day, it was decided to request representatives of coal
owners to meet with the committee. The committee had
under consideration a letter from the Board of Trade direct-
ing the attention of the Town Council to the probability that,
owing to the number of miners who have joined the Colours,
the supply of coal for home consumption in the coming winter
would be less than usual. Mr. Runciman had been able to
make an arrangement with the principal merchants for the
limitation of the sum which they charged over the cost of the
coal delivered at the station or siding to cover expenses of
distribution and profit, and the Board asked the Council to
consider whether in the present abnormal circumstances an
arrangement on somewhat similar lines with the merchants
in their area might not be practicable.

The employees of Legbrannock Collieries in the Holytown
district of Lanarkshire have presented Mr. Walter Nisbet,
manager, with a purse of sovereigns and a silver-mounted
walking stick on the occasion of his leaving to fill a similar
appointment with the Murdostoun Coal Company, Cleland.

At a meeting of the Scottish branch of the National
Association of Colliery Managers, to be held on Saturday.
Mr. Richard McPhee, general manager in the Bothwell
district for Messrs. Wm. Baird and Company Limited, will
deliver a presidential address. His subject will be ” Some
Notes on the Working of an Extensive Colliery Without the
Use of Ponies.” The papers to be discussed include those
by Mr. John George on “ The Electric Safety Lamp,” and
Mr. Mungo Mackay on “ Some Notes on Systematic
Timbering.”

A number of prosecutions for contraventions of the Coal
Mines Act were dealt with in Hamilton Sheriff Court last
week. Five cases .related to Murdostoun Colliery, Cleland,
and dealt with the storage of explosives. Four brushers
admitted that on May 27 they stored explosives underground
instead of taking them out of the mine at the end of
their shift and returning them to the appointed place of
storage. They were each fined £2, with the alternative of
10 days’ imprisonment. William Lithgow, colliery fireman,
Christina-place, Bellside, Cleland, was also charged with
having on May 27, in Murdostoun Colliery, stored under-
ground a quantity of explosives, which he failed to take
with him at the end of his shift and return to the appointed
place of storage; failed to keep a quantity of explosives in
a suitable case or box, until it was about to be used, and
gave it out before that time; and failed to see that the
brushers who were under his charge understood and carried
out their duties as required by the Coal Mines Act. An
agent, who appeared with the respondent, tendered a plea
of “ Guilty ” on his behalf. He explained that what
Lithgow had done had been the practice at the pit since
he went there seven years ago. The Fiscal remarked that
the Home Office, on whose instructions all the prosecutions
had been made, took a serious view of this case. There
had been an explosion in the pit, and the mines inspectors
in the course of their enquiries came across six chests con-
taining explosives—gelignite and detonators. The back
shift fireman admitted that he had left his box in the chest
referred bo, -and also that he had given the brushers
detonators at the beginning of the shift. There were 48
detonators left unused at the close of the shift, and these
were kept underground. In fairness to the fireman, it
ought to be said that that was the first occasion on which
he had left explosives overnight. The Sheriff said he was
not surprised at the Home Office taking a serious view of
the charge, because, unfortunately, one found there was a
reluctance to follow any new legislation restricting methods
of working. He did not say it was only among miners that
this occurred—he had seen it among the members of his
own profession. A reluctance to fall in with the dictates of
the law simply because it was the law was foolish. This
law was intended for the safety of the miners, and it ought
to have been obeyed. He accepted the statement that the
accused acted more through carelessness than design, but he
could not do otherwise than impose a fine of £3 or 15 days’
imprisonment.

In Hamilton Sheriff Court, Hugh Lynch, colliery fireman,
was charged with having in Houghhead Colliery,
Uddingston, failed to keep four detonators in a proper case
until they were about to be used for the purpose of shot
firing. On behalf of the respondent, who admitted the
offence, an agent contended that the Order which Lynch had
contravened was loosely framed and indefinite. No time
was fixed within which the detonators should be issued, and
that -was left to the discretion of the respondent himself.
In the circumstances, the agent asked that the respondent
should be dealt with as leniently as possible. The Sheriff
dismissed Lynch with an admonition.

The annual meeting of the North British Association of
Gas Managers was held in the Freemasons’ Hall, Edinburgh,
on Friday last, when the president (Mr. J. B. Scott, Cowden-
beath) delivered an interesting address, in the course of which
he touched upon several aspects of the Price of Coal (Limita-
tion) Act. He thought it was rather difficult at the moment
to say what the ultimate result of this Act would be, but he
did not think it would lower prices to the extent a first
glance would lead one to expect. In fact, he was inclined
to think that the prohibition of the wholesale shipment was of
far more importance to home industry than the passing of the
Price of Coal (Limitation) Act. A few of his own experiences
in this connection would, he thought, prove interesting. In
April and May last he took in quotations for coal, and the
increase of price ranged from 8s. 6d. to 10s. a ton over last
year’s price. He bought a small quantity at that figure, but,
later, when the Government took hold of the shipment, the
prices immediately came down. Since then he had been
buying from week to week at an average of 5s. increase over
last year’s prices, or 16s. per ton. Supposing he made a con-
tract now under the new Act, he might have to go back to
September 1913, and there he found his price was 13s., and
that plus the 4s. allowed by the Act would bring up his price
to-dav to 17s., or Is. per ton more than he had been paying
all the summer. The coal owners had been twitted about
taking this Act lying down, but he (Mr. Scott) thought they
had been wise. They could see quite a good time in front
of them, and, best of all, they were now protected by Act
of Parliament so long as the war lasted and for six months
thereafter. No doubt the amendment which was added would
relieve a little those statutory undertakings which contracted
in May at very high prices, but it was no use at all to the
Scottish gas companies, who were practically all non-
statutory. It was difficult to see why non-statutory gas com-
panies should not get the same advantages as statutory
companies in a matter of this kind, because they were equally
supplying a public necessity. It might be their own fault
that they were not statutory companies, but the result was
those who had bought their coal at the high prices were com-