128

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN

July 21, 1916.

as the Abercarn Fire Brigade, arrived, and the fire was got
under before any serious damage had been done.

An example of enormous profits made by some ship
owners is given by the annual report of Messrs. W. and C.
T. Jones Steamship Company Limited, of Cardiff, for the
year ending June 30. With a fleet of 13 steamers, the
capital of the company, being .£280,000, a profit of over.
£524,000 has been made during the year. No less a sum
than £320,000 has been set aside for excess profits duty and
income-tax, and a final dividend has been declared, making
a total of 25 per cent, free of income-tax for the year. So
recently as 1914 the profits were £54,000, whilst for the
year ending June 1915 the profits were £87,000.

It is contended that the embargo on bunker supplies for
neutral vessels has had <a determining effect in bringing
more tonnage to this country, and thus helping to reduce
freight rates, and two months’ experience of the limitation
of bunkers to vessels serving British ports appears to have
been effective in attracting steamers and lowering rates.
Taking Genoa as an example, it will be noted that the top
rate of £5 per ton has fallen back to 62s. 6d. ; and, with the
anticipation that vessels escaped from the Baltic are to be
available, still further reductions are confidently anticipated.

In aid of the dock deficit , another £20,000 has been paid
over by Swansea Corporation to the Harbour Trustees,
making a total of £85,000, more than half the total sum
guaranteed.

The coal trade returns for June relating to the Bristol
Channel ports show that, whilst bunker coals, in comparison
with the corresponding month of last year, rose from 274,215
tons to 297,408 tons, the total shipments of cargo were con-
siderably reduced.

Coal shipments are still made chiefly in foreign vessels
—'the huge preponderance at Cardiff being of a striking
character. During June, 377 cargoes were shipped in
foreign-owned steamers, and relatively few in British;
whilst at Newport 109 were foreigners and 44 British; the
proportion at Swansea being 233, against 56. The report
which has been current as to the Admiralty releasing
tonnage wherever possible, in order to relieve the coal-
carrying trade, may be true, for the percentage of foreign
vessels engaged on coal, which was 76 during June, was
slightly higher in May; it was 77-3 in April, and 80-25 in
March. Partly, no doubt, the limitation scheme in regard
to France is responsible for neutral tonnage coming into the
more profitable line of the American and other trades. The
restrict,ion upon shipments in British vessels operated with
drastic effect in regard to Italy during June, for out of 42
cargoes not one went in a British vessel; whilst at Newport
27 cargoes out of 28 were taken by foreigners, and out of 12
cargoes sent from Swansea only two British vessels were
employed.

It was understood that the organisation of the authority
in France to deal with coal export from this country would
be in operation by July 15; but, in view of any possible
delay, the committee in South Wales arranged a temporary
modification of their scheme, to operate during the current
month. The local committee will deal with advance appli-
cations for licences to export, and these will be issued
available for July only. This Cardiff committee met for the
first time on Monday, and one of the first discoveries they
made was that delay in issuing licences was due to exporters’
failure to give necessary particulars.

Owing to an appeal from the Government that the
August holiday should not be observed, Mr. Evan Williams
stated at the Conciliation Board that the owners would have
the pits open, and that they were prepared to regard any
arrangements for foregoing the August holidays as merely
a postponement and not as a giving up by the workmen of
the holidays. Mr. Winstone, on behalf of the workmen,
stated that a conference was.being called to consider the
matter.

On the same day the executive council of the Federation
met, and had before it the holiday question. There
appeared to be prevalent at the council an opinion that as
the holidays had previously been interfered with, consider-
able difficulty would be experienced in getting the men to
acquiesce in an abandonment, particularly as it was alleged
that a promise had been made that the Whitsuntide holidays
should be given in August. Decision was deferred on the
matter until after a conference of delegates to be summoned
for August 1.

Blaina miners resolved to notify the executive of the
Federation that they will work during August bank holidays,
provided time and a-half is paid for Tuesday and Wednes-
day.

The secretary of the district Coal and Coke Supplies Com-
mittee for South Wales and Monmouthshire has written to
the Oystermouth Council stating that the committee has
considered the question of meeting the. requirements of coal
for household purposes during the coming winter. Their
proposal is that a committee should be established in each
town of Monmouthshire and South Wales, in order to
obtain information from coal merchants as to the monthly
quantity they have previously purchased, the collieries from
which they have obtained the coal, and other necessary par-
ticulars ; and that the local committee shall deal with all
detailed questions that may arise from time to time; refer-
ring to the Board of Trade Committee only such questions
as they cannot deal with themselves. The letter further
suggests that householders should gradually obtain supplies
at the present time, and thus relieve the heavy pressure in
September and October.

Northumberland and Durham.

Slackers Denounced—Hebbum Colliery's New Manager—
Knotty Point—Compensation Arrangements—Decreased
Coal Shipments.

Abstention from work by miners was referred to at a
Durham Aged Miners’ Homes “ Rose Day ” at Crook on
Saturday. Father Hayes said he had been asked by the
men’s own officials to refer to men absenting themselves from
work on Saturdays and Mondays. The man who to-day was
a slacker was a traitor and a cad. Coal was the backbone of
our fighting force, for it lay at the root of munition making.
The Durham miner was not a man to be won by threats. If
the Government spoke straight, and assured him that his
work was necessary, there would be a big response. But 10
per cent, of the men were losing work in the country, and this
“ lying-off ” on Mondays and Saturdays was not fair to the
brave fellows, who were daily shedding their blood for the
country.

The Blyth Harbour Commissioners report that during

June 282,968 tons of coal and coke were shipped from the
port. The imports included 3,750 loads of mining timber.

Capt. Arthur Magnus Spence, of the Royal Engineers, who
has been wounded, was well known in Durham colliery circles
as mining engineer to the Consett Iron Company.

Mr. Beecher Williams, late of Stanley, who has received a
commission in the R.G.A., relinquished the offer of an assis-
tant managership of mines in the Malay States when war
broke out and joined the Colours. He was seriously gassed
at Loos, and has been in six different hospitals since, but is
now better.

It is announced that Gunner Edward Coverdale, of the
R.F.A., w7ho, before the war, was employed as a stoneman at
Addison Colliery, Ryton-on-Tyne, has been awarded the
Victoria Cross. The gunner, who is 27 years of age, is a son
of Mr. William Coverdale, deputy overman, of Hamsterley
Colliery.

Wm. Armstrong, 20, putter, at Ous ton E pit, Birtley, was
fined £10, with the option of two months’ imprisonment, for
having ill-treated a pit pony by striking it over the head with
a pick shaft. It was stated that he left the pony when he
went to his breakfast, .and that it followed him, whereupon
he struck it over the eye with the pick shaft, so violently that
the shaft broke.

The personal friends of Mr. Joseph Severs, who, after
having been for four years under-manager at the Brockw7ell
seam of the Dean and Chapter Colliery, has been appointed
manager of the Hebburn Colliery, joined with the officials
and workmen at the former colliery in presenting Mr. Severs
with a double gold albert and medallion and a silver cigarette
case and matchbox, suitably inscribed, together with a
diamond ring for Mrs. Severs. Mr. J. H. Allison, assistant
manager of the colliery, presided over the gathering at which
the presentation was made.

The old headquarters of the Durham Miners’ Association,
now superseded by the comparatively palatial premises at
Red Hills, Durham City, were offered for sale by auction last
week. For the miners’ hall itself £2,000 was the highest
offer, and the lot was withdrawn. The two agents’ houses
adjoining the hall were sold, that which was the residence of
the late Mr. John Wilson, M.P., realising £475 and the other
£505. Other property belonging to the association, and
situated in Crossgate, immediately behind the Miners’ Hall,
was offered, but no sale was made.

Helping to rid a fall of stone in the main engine plane,
near the shaft in the Hutton seam of Boldon Colliery, No. 3
pit, in mid-June, Thomas White, 52, was pinned down by
the legs by another fall. One leg was broken. He died on
July 13. At the inquest, medical evidence was to the effect
that White died from blood-poisoning, not set up directly, as
might be thought, by the accident, but due to tonsillitis, which
was owing, probably, to the man’s weakened condition
because of the accident. A verdict in accordance with this
evidence was returned.

A rather knotty point arose before Judge Bonsey, at Auck-
land County Court, last week, in the action brought by four
Butterknowle miners against Messrs. Lowson Brothers,
colliery owners, Morley, near Evenwood, for wages due.
Each plaintiff claimed £1 6s. 2d. wages under the Minimum
Wage Act, and the case had been adjourned so that it might
go to arbitration, it being agreed that judgment should be
given in accordance with the award. The arbitrator had
awarded a total of £4 0s. 3d., and Mr. Heath, for the
plaintiffs, asked for judgment for that amount, with costs.
The judge replied that his recollection of the case was that he
had no jurisdiction, and he did not think, therefore, that he
could make an order for costs in a case which should not have
come before him. Mr. Heath retorted that his Honour should
have struck the case out if that were so. Mr. Dawson, for
respondents, said the dispute arose on the question whether a
war bonus should be regarded as part of the wages. The
men’s representatives met the owners, but the owners refused
to pay on the legal objection. The speaker had been willing
for his Honour to try it, but the latter held that he had no
jurisdiction, and that it must go to arbitration. Therefore,
Mr. Dawson submitted that the court could not enter judg-
ment on an award made under the Act, and that, having no
jurisdiction, the court could not award costs. Judge Bonsey
concurred in this contention.

The executive committee of the Northumberland Miners’
Association has decided, with reference to the many war
appeals : “ That we express the opinion that the money
needed under the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ War Pensions
Act ought to be provided by the State, and protest against
the necessary provision for disabled soldiers and sailors and
for dependants of others killed during the war being
left in any degree to voluntary contributions. As all these
men were sacrificed for the country, the country, in justice,
ought to take the responsibility of fully providing for these
disabled men and the dependants of those others who lost
their lives in the nation’s service. ’ ’ Another resolution affirms
the committee’s disinclination to take any part in connection
with the proposed Northern Gavell Memorial Hospital for
disabled soldiers, “ as, in our opinion, this is the duty of the
State and should not be left to charity.”

Mr. William Weir’s report, as compensation agent, to the
Northumberland Miners’ Association, shows that, during the
quarter ended June 30 last, the amount paid to dependants
of those killed by accidents in and about the mines was
£2,344 11s. lid. on 12 claims. Three cases had been before
medical referees and 14 disputed cases had been dealt with.
An analysis of these latter shows that the men gained their
point in seven cases, accepted a compromise in six and lost-
one claim outright. Mr. Weir states : ” I feel compelled to
again draw our compensation secretaries’ attention to the
agreement we have with the owners regarding our light work
compensation men, that is, in regard to the five days per
week. We find that some managers will persist in basing
our night work compensation men off five-and-a-half and, in
some cases, six days per week instead of five, which means a
reduction in the man’s compensation. Some of these cases
have gone on for a number of years, and, when we do come
across them, we have a good deal of trouble in arriving at a
settlement in order that the party 'affected is satisfied. The
owners, during the quarter, have issued instructions to their
managers that all men who may have commenced light wrnrk
and became entitled to part compensation as from January 1,
1916, and all subsequent cases, shall be entitled to the same
advances as may take place from time to time in the county,
but this will carry with it a reduction in their part compensa-
tion. Should a reduction take place, they w7ill suffer the
same, but will have their compensation increased, which
should leave them to receive in part compensation half the
difference between the w7ages they are earning at the time of
the accident and those which they will receive with the
altered percentage. The above arrangement is not to apply

to anyone who commenced before January 1, 1916, unless
such was the custom at the colliery in which they are
working.”

The returns laid before the Tyne Improvement Com-
missioners at their meeting in Newcastle last week showed
a large decrease in the coal shipments from the river during
the half-year just ended, as compared with the correspond-
ing half of last year, and also a decrease when compared
with those for the first half of 1913, the last year of peace.
The figures w^ere, respectively : 6,341,515 tons, 6,973,095
tons, and 9,685,631 tons. The decrease was one of 9-06 per
cent, when compared with last year’s figures, and 3'4*53 per
cent, when compared with those for the corresponding period
of 1913. The “ silver lining ” to the cloud is to be seen in
the figures for coke shipments. These amounted to 416,265
tons for the half-year just ended, 141,851 tons for the first
half of last year, and 148,669 tans for the first half of 1913.
Thus, the latest figures show increases, respectively, of 193*45
per cent, and 179*99 per cent., which is very good. The
June figures were fairly well in keeping with those of earlier
in the year. ’ Coal shipments totalled 1,037,423 tons for
cargoes, a decrease of 59,265 tons when compared with those
for June last year, and of 339,379 tons when compared with
the 1913 figures; 111,936 tons for bunkers, an increase of
10,694 tons when compared with -those of June last year, and
a decrease of 74,758 tons when compared with those for
June, 1913; and 92,725 tons of coke, an increase of 70.868
tons on 1915, and of 61,975 tons on 1913—-truly astounding
increases.

Mr. Horace Westoil, who has been assistant dockmaster at
Tyne Dock far the last two years, has been transferred to
Hartlepool, where he will act in a similar capacity under
Capt. Nicholson, formerly dockmaster at Tyne Dock.

The Northern Colliery Officials’ Association held a meet-
ing recently, and a newspaper report states :—” The general
secretary explained that every possible peaceable means had
been used by the executive to obtain the courtesy of a hear-
ing from the Durham Coal Owners’ Association. A note of
warning was sounded that, to refuse a friendly interview with
their own official representatives in the mine was un-English,
and therefore indefensible. The contention- that peaceful
associated effort was not for the colliery official was a start-
ling reminder that mining commercialism and morality were
wTide apart, and that to treat the colliery official the same
as the miner of 50 years ago was now raising the question
of federation and other serious mining official questions.”

Before the Durham County Court judge last Monday, Mr.
H. F. Heath, the legal adviser and advocate of the Durham
miners, claimed compensation for Dorothy Jane Horrocks,
widow, of Thornley, from the Weardale Steel, Coal and Coke
Company Limited, in respect of the death of her brother,
Edward S. Kyle, whose body was found in the engine house
at Thornley Colliery. Mr. Heath submitted that the position
in which the body was found was not consistent with death
from natural causes, and called Dr. Ryan as a witness. The
medical man stated that, as the result of a post-mortem
examination, Kyle had been found to have suffered from
heart disease. Mr. Edgar Meynell submitted that, in view
of that evidence, the respondents had no case to answer, and
Mr. Heath concurred. The judge found for the respondents.

George Duggan, hewer, on Wednesday last, w7as charged
with breach of contract by having absented himself from
work at Waterhouses Colliery on several recent occasions.
” Is it not in your power to discharge him? ” asked the
chairman, and added, ” We could then conscript him.”
Mr. Proud, solicitor for the coal owners (Messrs. Pease and
Partners Limited), replied that other proceedings w7ere
likely to be taken. It was stated that Duggan, from whom
the firm claimed £10 nominal damages, had lost 50 shifts
since February last. In one period of eight weeks, he had
only worked six shifts. He had been cautioned several
times and had been before the colliery tribunal. Since
then he had never worked a full week. He was absent
nearly every Monday. This year alone the firm had lost 193
tons of coal owing to his absence, representing a loss of over
£100. The Bench ordered Duggan to pay the £10 claimed.

The question of the hours of employment of boys under
the age of 14 years released from school for the purpose of
working at collieries during the period of the war, occupied
the attention of the Durham County Education Committee
on Wednesday, and it was agreed that the hours of labour
must not exceed 53 per week, less the legal time allowed
for meals. On the advice of the clerk of the County Court, it
was decided that the case to be stated by the magistrates for
the opinion of the High Court as to the illegal employment
of boys should not be proceeded with.

Cleveland.

The quarterly returns of the Middlesbrough Chamber of
Commerce just issued show7 the total value of goods, other
than coal and coke, exported to foreign and colonial destina-
tions from Middlesbrough during the three months ending
June 30 last to be £4,364,687, as compared with £1,882,467
for the second quarter of last year, and the value of such
goods exported during the first half of this year to be
£7,813,665, as compared with £3,371,094 for the first half of
1915. The number of blastfurnaces in operation at Middles-
brough at the end of June was 45, as compared with 44 a
year ago, and the output of pig .iron for last quarter totalled
552,000 tons, of w7hich 236,000 tons w-ere Cleveland pig and
316,000 tons haematite, spiegel, basic, and other special irons.
The production of pig iron for the corresponding period a
year ago amounted to 536.000 tons, composed of 236,000 tons
of Cleveland pig and 315,000 tons of haematite, etc. Imports
of foreign iron ore to Middlesbrough during last quarter
reached 605,717 tons, as compared w’ith 452.862 tons for the
second quarter of last year. The total imports of ore for the
half-year reached 1,046,738 tons, as compared with
841,192 tons for the first half of 1915.	'

Yorkshire.

Question of Weekly Accounts—War Pensions—New Shaft.

Mr. C. B. Crawshaw7, of Rufford Lodge, Dewsbury, chair-
man of the West Yorkshire Coal Owners’ Association, has
received a message from Major-General O’Gowan, calling the
attention of the Coal Owmers' Association to the excellent
v'ork of men of the K.O.Y.L.I. in the British advance.

The coal merchants’ section of the Bradford Chamber of
Trade has under consideration the subject of the best method
of dealing w’ith the accounts of customers who pay weekly,
and a sub-committee is making close enquiries, under the
direction of the chairman of the section (Mr. H. Triffitt) and
Mr. H. Mosley, the initiator of the movement. The com-
mittee have reported that the majority of the coal merchants