July 21, 1916.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN

129

in Bradford are largely concerned in this class of trade, and
that a very Large proportion of their bad debts proceed from
this type of customer. In some cases, it was stated, certain
customers had been owing sums varying from £1 to £3 for
several years, and though they continued purchasing, the
arrears were never wiped off, and often they simply got
further into debt. In his annual balance sheet the merchant
who kept a proper set of books would probably show all
these items under the head of “ Sundry debtors,” but very
little though should convince him that as assets their value
was decidedly problematical. The sub-committee had gone
very fully into every aspect of the question. The majority
of the recommendations made by the committee have been
adopted by the general membership, and the committee are
considering certain suggestions given to them by the
members of the section.

The executive of the Yorkshire Miners1 Association, at a
meeting at Barnsley, discussed the question of war pensions,
and the treatment of discharged soldiers and sailors. Mr.
Smith stated that the executive had had before them a large
number of cases of discharged soldiers and sailors who had
been discharged without any provision being made forthem.
The executive strongly protested against this inhuman treat-
ment of men who had become incapacitated through rheu-
matism and other diseases. These men were not receiving
any pension, although they were following their industrial
occupation, and earning good wages up to the time of enlist-
ment. The executive decided to bring these cases to the
notice of Yorkshire members of Parliament, and to urge that
some definite action should be taken. With regard to war
pensions, the executive passed a resolution that the whole
cost should come out of the national exchequer.

On Monday, in connection with the accommodation shaft
which is being sunk at Skiers Spring, near Wentworth
Station, by Messrs. Newton Chambers and Company
Limited, of the Thorncliffe Collieries, Miss Newton, Chapel-
town, started the electric winding engine. This engine is
the first to be installed in the district. The current is con-
veyed by overhead wires from a steam turbine at Rocking-
ham Colliery with high tension alternating gear. Among
those present were Mr. T. C. Newton (chairman of directors),
Mr. W. Newton Drew (managing director), Mr. W. Hay
(general manager of the collieries), Mr. D. Russell (assis-
tant general manager), and others. When completed, the
shaft will obviate long walks underground.

Lancashire and Cheshire.

Boy Fatally Jammed—Report on Subsidences.

Pte. H. Baker, who served an France with the Royal
Fusiliers (Public Schools Battalion) and was last week
gazetted a second lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers, was
on the office staff of the executors of Messrs. J. Hargreaves
Limited, colliery proprietors, Burnley.

The opening of the Hulton Colliery Company’s' new
collieries at Cronton, near Rainhill, is expected to give a big
impetus to the growth of that locality, as many additional
houses will be required for the workers.

The Manchester City coroner on Monday held an enquiry
as to the death of Ronald Ridgeway, of Harpurhey, a pit
lad, who died from injuries received through being jammed
between some coal tubs and a wall. It appeared that the
deceased was at the head of a pony and seven tubs, and when
the pony had passed through a doorway and tunnel he was
caught in a space of 54 in. Samuel Gallimore, another pit
lad, said he was showing the deceased his work that day.
One trip had already been made when Ridgeway was killed.
He could not account for the deceased being wedged in the
position he was found in. A verdict of “Accidental death ”
was returned.

The Worsley Urban District Council have appointed a
sub-committee to report on subsidences which have occurred
in the vicinity of Lord Ellesmere’s Bridgewater Collieries,
Worsley.

Notts and Derbyshire.

The council of the Notts Miners’ Association on Saturday
accepted the Federation recommendation to advise members
to postpone the August holidays. The council 'Suggested that,
in consideration of the willingness of the Notts miners to
forego holiday for an indefinite period, an opportunity pre-
sented itself to the owners to make a donation of Is. per
employee to the Red Cross Society out of the profits they will
make by working the pits during the holiday. It was pointed
out that the men are not asking for extra payment. The
council also accepted the new rules for the settlement of dis-
putes which have been before the branches for three weeks.

Kent.

Miners from Ireland—Meetings of Allied Companies—Local
Enlistments.

Up to last Saturday the deep sinking at Snowdown Colliery
reached 2,442ft., the distance sunk during the week being
19 ft. The sinking has been through very hard ground, but
is now an sandy bind.

A party of miners have come from Portadown, Ireland, to
the East Kent collieries, the arrangements having been made
by Mr. J. Johnston, a North of Ireland gentleman promi-
nently connected with the Kent coal enterprise since its early
days. There >are also about sixty miners from Somersetshire
now working at these collieries.

The output of the Snowdown and Tilmanstone collieries
is now nearly 4,500 tons of coal a week.

A final call of 2s. 6d. per share on the £1 shares of the
Chislet Colliery Company has been made by the directors.

The ordinary general meetings of the following Kent Coal
Concessions Allied Companies have been called for Thursday,
July 27, at the Cannon-street Hotel :—South-Eastern Coal
Field Extension Limited, 11 a.m. ; Extended Extension
Limited, 12 noon; Deal and Walmcr Coal Field Limited,
12.30 p.m.; the Guilford Colliery Limited, 2.30 p.m.; Inter-
mediate Equipments Limited, 3.15 p.m. At each of the
meetings the chairman will make a statement as to the com-
pany’s affairs, and will then propose an adjournment, the
accounts and balance sheets to be presented at the adjourned
meetings. The heavy amount of work, the depletion of the
companies’ staff, and of the auditors’ staff have prevented the
accounts being ready on July 27.

The military representative for the district announces that
the following are the numbers of men from the local collieries
who have joined the Colours since the outbreak of the war :
From Snowdown Colliery, 217; from Tilmanstone Colliery,
101; from Chislet Colliery, 30.

An old mansion, Elvington Court, near Tilmanstone
Colliery, has been, acquired, and is being converted into
billets for miners, about 100 of whom can be accommodated
there.

Scotland.

Lawsuit over Coal Washing Plant—Hamilton Subsidences—
Collieries Flooded—Three Fatalities.

Sergt. Edward Starrs, l/7th Highland Light Infantry,
has been awarded the D.C.M. for conspicuous bravery at
Gallipoli. He was formerly a miner at Kenmuirhill Colliery,
Cambuslang.

Mr. D. Robertson, hill foreman at Broomhouse Colliery,
was run down by a wagon, which passed over his leg. He
was removed to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, but died 12
hours later. Mr. Robertson was for 40 years in the com-
pany ’s employment.

It is reported that the difficulty of dealing with the water
at No. 5 Woodend Colliery, West Lothian, has been over-
come, and that work will be in full swing at an early date.

Mr. Richard Berry, who for some years held the position
of manager at the Lindsay pit, Kelty, has been transferred
to Lassodiemill Colliery, belonging to the Fife Coal
Company. The workmen at Lindsay Colliery have presented
him with a handsome gold watch as a token of regard and
esteem.

Lord Anderson, in the Court of Session, Edinburgh, has
ordered proof and conjoined counter actions between Messrs.
Dickson and Mann Limited, Bathville Steel Works, Arma-
dale, and Messrs. Newton, Chambers and Company Limited,
Thorncliffe Iron Works and Collieries, near Sheffield. In
November 1912, Messrs. Dickson and Mann contracted to
supply the Sheffield company with coal washing and silt
recovery plant for £9,862. They carried out the contract,
they say, and now sue for £1,063 as the balance of the price,
and for £253 as the price of spare parts supplied. Their claim
is resisted by Messrs. Newton, Chambers and Company on
the ground that they failed to execute the work contracted
for, and in their action the Sheffield company seeks payment
of £8,624 as loss sustained through the alleged inefficient
working of the plant from the time when it was started on
August 3, 1914, down to the raising of the action. They
claim a further sum of £3,000, which, they say, will have
to be expended in order to make the washery efficient. The
Armadale company is alleged to have given a guarantee that
the plant would be capable of dealing with 200 tons Of nuts
and 300 tons of small coal per day of ten hours, the dirt being
washed out from the small coal, so that not more tfyan two
per cent, of dirt would be left in, and that there would not
be more than one per cent, of coal in the dirt washed out.
After working the completed plant for a short time it was
found, they say, that the amount of coal it could treat did not
exceed 350 to 400 tons in ten hours instead of 500 tons con-
tracted for, while the dirt left in after washing greatly
exceeded the stipulated maximum of 2 per cent., and the
amount of free coal left in the dirt was not less than 8 per
cent. Messrs. Dickson and Mann reply that they did not
profess to be experts regarding machinery for the production
of coke, and were not consulted with reference to such
machinery. The plant they supplied was a coal-washing and
silt recovery plant, and was not designed to eliminate from
the dust or silt those constituents of it which ‘are not of a
coaly character, and no guarantee, they say, was given
regarding the silt. It was all along, if properly worked,
capable of treating of the stipulated quantities. The other
averments made against the plant are denied.. The proof is
expected to extend over a fortnight.

There are few streets and thoroughfares in Hamilton where
it is possible not to find perceptible evidence of the havoc
wrought on public and private property by underground
workings. It has been quite well known hitherto that the
town’s gas pipes and mains were more or less affected by the
subsidences, but it is only now that the general public learn
of the extent of the leakage (10 per cent.) that has taken
place during the past year. The gas manager unhesitatingly
blames the mineral workings.

At the present moment the chief topic of conversation
amongst prominent members of the iron and coal trades in
the Coatbridge district is that of the proposed new steel-
works for Lanarkshire. The site will extend to at least
thirty acres, and the estimated cost of the new works has
been mentioned at over £1,000,000.

Intimation has been received that Bte. Ernest Thompson,
Highland Light Infantry, was killed in action on July 1. Pte.
Thompson, who was 20 years of age, enlisted at the out-
break of war, prior to which he was employed in the office of
the United Collieries Limited at Foulshiels Colliery.

A young lad named John Craw met with an accident at
Dykehead Colliery, Larkhall, which has since proved fatal.
The lad, who was employed at the surface of the pit, was
caught in the creeper chain and received severe lacerated
wounds to the hips.

Three collieries in the Lothians are suffering from flooding
owing to heavy rains and the overflowing of a reservoir.
Expensive auxiliary pumping has been installed.

Three fatal accidents at collieries were investigated by
Sheriff Umpherston and a jury in Dunfermline Sheriff Court.
The first enquiry related to the death of a female pithead
worker at Valleyfield Colliery, who died from injuries received
by being crushed between a loaded hutch and a coal tipper
which she was operating. The evidence showed that this
loaded hutch was allowed to run forward instead of having
a“ snibble ” inserted. The jury gave a verdict to that
effect.—The second case concerned the death of an electric
linesman who commenced to repair an electric cable.
Deceased sent his assistant to switch off the 3,000 volts
alternating current, and, seeing him returning, presumed
the current was off, whereas the assistant had been unable
to make the line dead. The line was a bare overhead three-
wire system.—The third enquiry was with reference to the
death of a jigger engineman at No. 11 pit, Lumphannans,
who was caught between a power belt and pulley in motion.
The jury, in passing .a formal verdict, added a rider to the
effect that the accident was probably due to deceased oiling
machinery whilst it was in motion.

In the Fife coal trade there is a fairly brisk demand for
the cheap class of coal, and a limited demand for the better
sorts. These, however, are heavily railed out of the country
for special purposes, so that the collieries are better employed
than the shipping returns indicate, while some coal is being
placed to stock.

A misprint in our last issue credited Meth.il with coal
shipments in June amounting to 913,698 tons, instead of the
actual quantity, 91,698.

PARLIAMENTARY INTELLIGENCE.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—July 18.

Coal Prices.

Sir A. Markham asked the President of the Board of Trade
whether he was in a position to make a statement as to the
steps he proposed taking to regulate the price of coal; and
whether he would consider the desirability of substituting the
average prices of each quality of coal for the standard instead
of the cor. espon ding price.

Mr. Harcourt said that he was not in a position to make a
definite statement.

Mr. O’Donnell asked whether the President of the Board
of Trade had received a resolution from the Tralee Urban
Council complaining that the price of coal there was 55s. per
ton; and, seeing that this price would make it impossible for
the poor to have fires during the coming winter, and would
affect the price of gas, whether he- would take steps to provide
a steamer which would occasionally bring coal to Tralee at a
reasonable freight.

Mr. Harcourt said he had received the resolution, and
would see whether anything could be done. The shortage of
tonnage was general, and it was not possible to secure speci-
ally low rates of freight for any particular locality.

LABOUR AND WAGES.

South Wales and Monmouthshire.

The Conciliation Board, at its sitting on Monday, was
presided over by Mr. E. Williams, and a most interesting
feature of the proceedings is that one more endeavour was
decided upon to bring to an end the Gelli dispute, which
has lasted for five years. This is a question as to arranging
a price list for a seam, and has been over .and over again
before the Conciliation Board without a final decision being
reached.

The question of absenteeism again came up, the chairman
referring to the fact that difficulties had occurred at several
collieries with regard to the setting up of joint committees
to deal with the matter. He stated that the proposal for
dealing in this way had emanated from the workmen’s
representatives, in order that the output might be increased,
and therefore the owners urged them to take the necessary
steps for ensuring that joint committees should be estab-
lished at all the collieries. Mr. Winstone, acting president
of the Federation, in reply, declared that he and his
colleagues were anxious to make the scheme a success, and
they would do everything possible to see that the ncessary
steps were taken to put the proposal into force.

A further advance of 12J per cent., in addition to the
previous war bonus, has been confirmed by the Ministry of
Munitions in respect of the wages of tinplaters, the advance
taking effect as from July 3.

At their half-yearly meeting, the Cardiff, Penarth, and
Barry coal trimmers decided that during the period of the
war the fixing of a new wage-rate should be left in the
hands of their representatives on the Bristol Channel port
conference, these to negotiate with the newly-appointed
trimming board.

Swansea Chamber of Commerce on Monday had before it
the question of trimming rates, the men desiring 12J per
cent, additional war bonus (making 25 per cent, on the
tariff, and being a further demand upon the double rates
charged for neutral vessels). This w’ill be dealt with by the
Bristol Channel Joint Trimming Board.

The Bla.ina miners resent the anti-absenteeism plan, and,
instead of carrying out the recommendation of their federa-
tion executive and appointing a local committee, they have
decided to send a letter of protest through their secretary.
On the same subject the Rhymney Valley miners have, on
the contrary, unanimously agreed, at their district meeting,
that a committee shall be formed at each colliery.
The leading members of the executive are strongly urging
the men to carry through the scheme which the central
executive has recommended, pointing out that the alterna-
tive may be drastic Government action, and that for the
sake of trade unionism, and in order to maintain their
independence, they should act according to the recommenda-
tion and at each colliery appoint a committee.

It has been difficult to understand why the anthracite
miners have alleged that Judge O’Connor went beyond his
power in recommending that 45-78 per cent, should be
merged in the standard, and an explanation has now been
published, in which it is argued on the men’s behalf that
the question of merging any figure is totally distinct from
the disputed point which was submitted to arbitration. The
argument is that Judge O’Connor has decided that the
anthracite rates in June 1882 were the anthracite rates of
1879; and that, as the Conciliation Board agreement of 1915
states that the new standard of that year should be an
addition of 50 per cent, to the 1879 standard, this settles the
matter without any award on that particular point by Judge
O'Connor.

The Committee of Production has given a decision in
respect of the iron founders of Cardiff, who sought an
increase of wages, and an alteration of their starting time
from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. The committee award is a wage
advance of Is. 2d., but they did not authorise any change
in the time of starting work.

An agreement has been reached whereby 2| per cent, is to
be paid the workmen at Lower Varteg Colliery, in respect
of the use of electric lamps.

At the Duffryn Rhondda level and pits of the Cynon
Colliery, in the Avon Valley, notices have been tendered by
more than two thousand men'to terminate contracts. The
grievance is that the employers have refused to pay an
extra half-shift, in addition to what has already been paid.

North of England.

The North Durham Miners’ executive have recommended
the members, in view of the national urgency, to postpone
the August holiday. Coal owners have consented to pay boys
Is. and men 2s. extra for work on the forthcoming Bank-
holiday, and the milters’ executive recommend the members
to devote this extra payment to some charitable object.

The executive committee of the Northumberland Miners’
Association decided on Tuesday to recommend the county
miners to work on August Bank-holiday. It was announced
that the owners had agreed to pay extra wages to workers,
as was done on Whit-Monday, viz., 2s. for men and Is. for
boys working on that day. The executive committee strongly
recommended the branches to devote this extra payment to
the Northumberland Aged Miners’ Homes Association, the
Red Cross Society, local war relief funds, or any other
charitable agency.