November 5, 1915.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

931

of buying coal at £1 a ton for a year. It would mean they
would have to raise the price of gas nearly three times. The
country would not stand it. There was much lesis domestic
coal burned per head of the population than usual. He
could not conceive of an export tax being fixed upon coal
going to neutral countries, and not upon coal going to the
allied countries. He was quite sure that would be contrary
to all our treaties; because all those friendly countries had
the “ most favoured nation clause ” in their treaties, and
they could not put a tax on Denmark, for instance, and not
on Prance. The moment we stopped shipping to
Denmark, they would require to make arrangements
with Germany to get coal from Germany, and it
would give an entrance into Denmark for German
coal. Once in, she would probably remain there. As
he had already said, the simple way of causing no friction
with anybody was slightly to increase the output; he
thought 5 per cent, would do iE If the German Govern-
ment wanted to send coal to Italy, she could do it at any
time, because she had nothing to do but choose the men
who were able to work and send them to the collieries as
part of their military service. They had always held their
own to some extent in Denmark, and always had a good
trade in Italy.

Witness said he regarded as quite impracticable any system
of licensing, on account of the delay that would be caused.
With a stuff like coal, which after all was not of great value,
it is a different thing to when they were dealing with articles
of great value, like rubber and benzol. It was a question of
the large quantities that had to be dealt with in the coal
trade, so that there was no possibility of doing the trade if
the coal was to be held up anywhere. The Government could
say, “ You are not to be allowed to ship more than a certain
quantity to Italy,” a total quantity of so and so. If they
did that, they would at once require to establish an office
in London or somewhere which would authorise the ship-
ments to Italy till the quantity had been touched. The
merchants would have to find out if this office was going to
allow the cargo to go, or if there was not already enough sent
to meet the Government maximum. There were about 350
exporters in a fairly large way in Great Britain, and each one
of them might conceivably ship the whole quantity. He
could not conceive any way in which they could limit export
except by prohibiting it. It would never do to say from the
head office in London, ‘‘We will allow Stevenson to ship
80,000 tons of this 800,000, and we will allow Jones to ship
so and so, Brown to ship so and so, and Robinson to ship so
and so.” The other 300 odd people would say : “ But where
do we come in?” Then he might say : “ Apply, and we will
give you an authority”; and they got an authority, but
could not carry through the transaction. Of course, they
could do it by a clearing house, by the Government saying :
‘‘We will do all the shipping, and if you want to. ship coal
to Italy, you must apply to this office in London,” and the
Government would pool the thing and send it out. But the
organisation of that office would take months.

TRADE AND THE WAR.

The address of the Coal Exports Committee is now
Broadway House, Tothill-street, Westminster, S.W.

The concession 'allowing Greek steamers clearing for the
Mediterranean to carry cargoes of coal without licence has
been cancelled. Bunkers for .such ships are to be granted
under conditions governing as for neutral vessels.

Mr. John Hunter, managing director of Sir William Arrol
and Company Limited, has resigned his seat on the board
of directors of that company, and has accepted the invitation
of the Minister of Munitions to become director of factory
construction in connection with the National Projectile
Factories now being erected in various parts of the country.

The President of the Board of Trade, replying to a ques-
tion by Mr. Barnes last week, stated that the Board
of Trade suggested to the Glasgow Corporation, as to other
local authorities, that they should endeavour to make
arrangements with the local coal merchants similar to that
adopted in the London area. The Corporation asked for
legislation to provide for the retail price of coal being fixed
at the September level for the winter months; but he
thought the question was one which could be dealt with by
voluntary action.

In the House of Commons on the 27th ult., Mr. Perkins
asked the President of the Board of Trade whether, having
regard to the price of coal in the South of England, which
is due to decreased output, he would withhold licences to
export coal and coke except to the Allies of the United
Kingdom during the war. Mr. Runciman, in reply, stated
that the pit head price of coal lor home consumption was
restricted by the Price of Coal (Limitation) Act. The
export of coal and gas coke was closely watched by the Coal
Exports Committee, and he was not prepared to recommend
that licences for export to other than allied countries should
be withheld altogether.

It is understood that at the instance of the President of
the Board of Trade, ship owners are now being invited,
through the different societies, to furnish information with a
view to the more economical management of the many
hundreds of vessels at present in Government service. In
the course of a letter, Mr. Runciman admits that the present
apparent short supply of tonnage is due, to a large extent,
to the fact that vessels controlled by the Government are
not being put to their fullest and best use, and the informa-
tion desired is for confidential use in connection with a
proposed better disposition of requisitioned tonnage.

The suggestion that a Chemical Intelligence Department
should be instituted by the Government as a branch of the
Board of Trade was discussed on Monday at a meeting of the
Society of Chemical Industries in London. In outlining
the scheme, Dr. Foster said in addition to carrying out
research work and collecting information, the Department
might include the establishment of a permanent exhibition
or museum of chemical products and material in which the
application of chemistry was involved. Prof. Armstrong
held that chemists must now organise. • He thought Dr.
Foster’s scheme ought to take the line, not of forming a
Chemical Intelligence Department as a branch of the Board
of Trade, but to make the Board of Trade an Intelligence
Department. Mr. P. Ashley, of the Board of Trade, and
Dr. Heath, of the Board of Education, attended the meeting,
and intimated that they were present in their official
capacities, and would report on the discussion to the heads
of their departments.

The Trade and Commerce Committee of Newcastle Cor-
poration has been in communication with the Board of Trade,

enquiring what other provincial cities are doing, and whether,
in view of the fact that many of the poorer people buy coal in
small quantities from hawkers, the arrangements made in
London or the provinces with the principal merchants have
resulted in reasonable prices being charged in such circum-
stances. The Board has replied that, as regards sales in
small quantities, the margin agreed with London merchants
to cover expenses of delivery and profit is 2s. higher for coal
sold from trolleys than for coal sold in bulk, and that the
Board hopes that the merchants who supply the trolley men
will be able to control their prices to a considerable extent,
and, further, that, should the prices charged by the small
dealers be unreasonably increased, certain of the larger mer-
chants have intimated that they are prepared to open depots
in the poorer districts for the sale of coal in small quantities.
The committee reports also that the town clerk has circularised
all the county boroughs in the kingdom, and has received
replies from 63 towns. These show that in 11 boroughs the
matter has been dealt with, in 38 towns the subject is under
consideration, and that in 14 boroughs no action has been
taken.

Sir Norman Hill, secretary of the Liverpool Steam Ship
Owners’ Association, has revised the report presented last
July on the effect of the war on shipping engaged in overseas
trade, so that the conclusions now shown cover the first com-
plete year of hostilities. The outstanding points in a
comparison between the conditions under which the oversea
trade of the United Kingdom has been carried on before and
after the outbreak of war would appear to be :—The prodi-
gious demands made by the Admiralty on the mercantile
marine for both ships and men. In addition to the patrol
and mine sweeping services, upon which hundreds of vessels
are employed, the Admiralty has taken up about 800 ocean-
going steamships. Under normal conditions these vessels
carry inwards in the year on ocean voyages upwards of
10,000,000 tons weight of cargo. The second point is the
manner in which the volume of imports has been main-
tained, although the greater part of the supplies from the
continent of Europe has been cut off, and these have been
replaced from far distant countries. Another point has been
the concentration of the imports at the comparatively few
ports of the United Kingdom which are capable of accom-
modating ocean-going steamships. The fourth feature has
been the importance of maintaining the inter-foreign voyages
so as to assist in the adjustment of trading balances with
other nations. These points illustrate the necessity for the
utmost economy in the use of not only ships, but also of the
facilities of our large ports, and of the means of distribution
from those ports.—The Board of Trade have had their atten-
tion called to statements that the Government contemplates
the requisitioning of the entire British mercantile marine.
These statements are without foundation. The Government
have, however, decided to take powers to deal, by means
of the requisitioning of a sufficient number of vessels, with
cases where an emergency of national importance exists at
any time, in any particular market, owing to an absence
of tonnage, and, further, to regulate the employment of
British shipping in the carriage of cargo between foreign
ports by means of licences. A letter, dealing with the posi-
tion in the South Wales coal trade owing to the lack of
ships, has been received from Mr. Walter Runciman by Mr.
Clement Edwards, M.P. for East Glamorgan, in which the
writer states that the blockage of South Wales railways and
the threatened drop in the demand for South Wales coal,
which may affect work in many parts of the coal field, was
very largely in his mind. He hoped the steps which he
would announce next week would show that the Government
was doing what it finds possible consonant with naval and
military requirements. In the House of Commons on
Tuesday, the Prime Minister stated that the shipping
question had been under the consideration of a Cabinet
Committee. Their recommendations had been adopted by
the Government, and would be carried into effect without
any delay.

Mr. Robert Smillie (chairman) and Mr. J. S. Middleton
(secretary), on behalf of the War Emergency Workers’
Committee, state that the committee has been informed by
the Board of Trade that the arrangements made with
several hundred London coal merchants for a limitation of
coal prices will apply until further notice; and that the
maximum sum to be added to the pit head prices, which
are limited by statute, is to be 7s. 6d. per ton (and in some
cases 6d. per ton extra for wagon hire), with 2s. per ton
extra for trolley coal. The committee is advised that,
according to this arrangement, the maximum retail prices
per ton in London should not exceed :—Best Wallsend, 35s.;
best Silkstone, 34s.; Derby brights, 32s.; bright house,
31s. 6d.; best kitchen, 31s.; best bright nuts, 31s. 6d.; best
hard cobbles, 30s.; stove nuts, 29s. Trolley coal (Derby
brights) should not exceed Is. 9d. per cwt. These prices
are far in excess of those prevailing a year ago, and are, in
the opinion of the committee, exorbitant. A committee of
the coal merchants have since interviewed the Board of
Trade, and have been informed that the notice was not
authorised by that Department. The committee further
state that the prices quoted are inaccurate.

A supplement to the Board of Trade Journal gives
particulars of the goods affected by prohibitions of export
regulations in the United Kingdom, allied countries, and
neutral countries in Europe. From the United Kingdom,
coal tar and its distillation products, from benzol to cresol
inclusive, and all coal tar products used in dye manufacture,
may not be exported at all, whilst coal (except bunker coal,
by permission) and gas coke may not be exported to any
foreign destination other than British possessions and pro-
tectorates ; Denmark prohibits the exportation of coal, coke,
coal tar and coal tar products for dyestuffs; France, coal
(except for ships’ own bunkers), coke and tar (including
tar products); Greece, all coal except bunker coal; Italy, coal
tar, benzol, and all timber; The Netherlands, coal (except
for ships’ own bunkers, coke, briquettes (except charcoal
briquettes), coal tar and tar products for making dyestuffs;
Norway, coal and coke, peat, coal tar and tar products for
making dyestuffs; Portugal, fuel; Roumania, coal and tar;
Russia, coal, coke, pitch, tar, tar products, and timber
(except that pitch, tar and timber may be shipped direct
to allied countries, in neutral ships); Spain, coal; Sweden,
coal, coke, briquettes, and other fuel; Switzerland, coal,
coke, and other fuels, pitch, coal tar, and coal tar products
for making dyestuffs, timber.

In Denmark, licences to export are granted for the month
by the Ministry of Justice. In France, provision is made
for exemption, applications for which must be made to the
Commission Interministerielle des derogations aux pro-
hibitions de sortie.” Greece allows exceptions in special
cases; and Italy grants licences for prohibited articles. The
Netherlands issue licences valid for one month. Norway
and Roumania grant export permit J an special cases.

Russia allows pitch to be shipped direct to allied countries in
Russian or allied vessels, and under special conditions in
neutral vessels. Sweden prohibits the transit between the
United Kingdom and Russia of all goods on the list. In
Switzerland, exceptions may be allowed by the Federal
Council.

INDIAN AND COLONIAL NOTES.

India.

Mining Education in Bengal and Bihar and Orissa.—The
Government of Bengal have informed the Indian Mining
Association that they cannot hold out any definite promise
that a school of mines will be established within the next
five years. The evening classes will be continued on the
lines recommended by the advisory committee after the
establishment of the school of mines. Suitable candidates
from Bengal and Bihar and Orissa will have the first claim
to admission to the proposed school of mines; but when the
number of vacancies exceeds the number of qualified
candidates from Bengal and Bihar and Orissa, applications
from mining students from other parts of India for admis-
sion into the school will be considered. The coal industry
has been asked to provide one-third of the following recurring
annual expenditure during the first four years :—The first
year, Rs. 26,952; second year, Rs. 32,792; third year,
Rs. 37,832; and fourth year, Rs. 51,888; and thereafter
one-third of the estimated annual recurring expenditure of
Rs. 70,368. If, and when, financial conditions admit of
their considering the scheme for the establishment of a
school of mines, the Government of Bengal will be prepared
to take into consideration the question of providing the
whole cost, both initial and recurring, from provincial
revenues. Towards the initial non-recurring expenditure of
Rs. 1,50,000 connected with these proposals, the Indian
Mining Association was asked to pay Rs. 50,000. The com-
mittee of the association have agreed that the coal mining
industry should bear its share of the expenditure. As
regards the initial outlay which was to be expended on new
lecture halls and housing accommodation for the staff, the
committee considered that as these buildings would remain
Government property, Government should be asked to bear
the entire initial outlay connected therewith. With regard
to the items of recurring expenditure the committee con-
sidered that the entire mining industry, and not the Indian
Mining Association only, should bear the third share which
the association was asked to provide. As regards the
manner in which these annual sums should be collected, the
committee thought this matter might be left to the local
Government to determine; but they decided to suggest that,
if necessary, the Road and Public Works Cess might be
increased to provide the expenditure.

Africa.

A New Colliery.—The latest addition to the producing
collieries of the Transvaal is the Spitzkop Colliery, situated
at Ermelo. This is an adit, and consists of two seams,
7 ft. and 6 ft. in thickness respectively. Operations are
being concentrated on the 7 ft., or main, seam. The area
of the property is about 1,800 morgen, and it is estimated
that the coal content of the two seams, after making allow-
ances for pillars, etc., is some 20,000,000 tons. About 4,000
tons per month, mainly from development faces, are being
screened and trucked, and an additional screening plant,
capable of dealing with 1,000 tons per day, is in course of
erection. The property is owned by a strong Capetown
company, with Sir Frederick Smith as chairman, and the
mine is in the capable hands of Mr. J. M. Martyn. The
company is now only in its syndicate stage, and will, in
all probability, be re-floated in the near future.

Canada.

The Canada Mines Act.—For many years past the
Canadian Mining Institute has urged the Dominion Govern-
ment to enact a law prescribing the conditions under which
title to mineral rights on Crown lands under federal control
might be acquired. At present, instead of a law there are
regulations which are subject to frequent and arbitrary
changes by “ Order in Council.” This has resulted in a
condition of instability, and has on numerous occasions been
productive of loss and hardship to both prospectors and
investors. In consequence of the institute’s representations
concerning the defects of this system, and of the recommenda-
tions of a Select Parliamentary Committee, the Government,
in 1910, decided to introduce a Mines Act. Owing to a com-
bination of circumstances, it was never, however, submitted
to Parliament. In the meantime the original draft, as
printed, has been revised by some exceptionally capable critics,
and it is hoped that the Bill will be adopted by Parliament at
its next session. A brief summary of the main provisions of
the Bill, as submitted to Parliamentary counsel, is given in
the Bulletin of the institute. To acquire title to mineral
lands, the applicant must be a British subject, over 18 years
of age, and must hold a miner’s licence. Incorporated com-
panies are likewise required to take out a licence. Officials
of the Mines Department are prohibited from holding any
mining property. Crown lands, whether surveyed or unsur-
veyed, are open for prospecting and staking, with the excep-
tion of Indian lands and reserves, and Dominion parks,
forests, or other public reserves. The leasehold principle of
tenure is applied throughout the Bill. No lease will be
granted for a longer term than 42 years, but lessees are given
the right of renewal as often as they desire, subject to the
provision of the Acts and Regulations in force at the time of
such renewals. The provisions in respect of mining rights in
coal lands are contained in Part V. of the Bill. A coal claim
may not exceed 2,560 acres. Its length must not be over
21,120 ft., nor may the length exceed four times the breadth.
No person may stake more than one coal claim during a
licence year. In surveyed territory the claim must consist of
contiguous sections or legal subdivisions; in unsurveyed terri-
tory, if it can be described by sections or subdivisions, the
applicant may apply for it, at his own risk, by description;
or the claim must be laid out in a solid block, rectangular in
form, where possible. Within 60 days after recording appli-
cation must be made for a lease for a term up to 42 years.
Rental is fixed at 1 dol. an acre per annum, while royalty at
the rate of 5c. a short ton will be collected on the merchant-
able output up to January 1, 1930, after which date it will
be increased to 10c. a ton. The working conditions require
that if the claim is within 10 miles of the railway, the lessee
must mine and produce ready for shipment certain quantities
of coal, not exceeding 10 tons per annum, for each acre
leased; but if he expends at least 2 dols. per acre in develop-
ment operations the former obligation may be waived.