August 18, 1916.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN

321

boys brought down about two tons of roof. Burke was fined
34s., and the other defendants '24s. each.

Mr. H. Smith, president of the Yorkshire Miners’ Asso-
ciation, speaking at Pontefract on Saturday in support of a
resolution condemning the Board of Trade for allowing the
South Wales coal owners to advance the price of coal, “ with-
out making due provision for preventing hardship to the
poorer classes,” said the advance was unfair to coal owners in
other districts. He asserted that although prior to war the
price of coal at Cardiff was 16s. per ton, the owners managed
to manoeuvre the figure to ‘20s., and, under the Price of Coal
(Limitation) Act, to 24s. So that, with the present conces-
sion, they were able to obtain 26s. 6d., as compared with
” cur price of 9s. 2d. in July 1914, and 13s. 2d. now.” The
miners did not want unrest; they desired unity. This move
in South Wales had put the Miners’ Federation into such a
difficult position that he was afraid, unless the Government
withdrew the concession, there was trouble ahead. The
most serious feature of the position was that this half-crown
had been given without consulting the workmen, whereas
now that an application had come from another district, the
Government wanted to know what the men had to say. If
Cardiff could have the advance, he should not oppose it in
'Yorkshire, but the public would suffer.

Mrs. Hackett, of Mexborough, widow of Sapper William
Hackett, V.C., who died last June while rescuing a number
of men entombed in a gallery owing to the explosion of a
German mine in France, has received from the officers and
men of his company a cheque for £67. Mrs. Hackett has
also received a letter from the Bishop of Sheffield, Dr.
Burrows, who says : “ In all the great deeds of the war I
recall nothing more heroic than your husband’s act of
sacrifice. Colliers are famous for their devotion to comrades,
even unto death, but this, I think, surpasses all, and I am
proud to be the bishop of a diocese producing such splendid
men.”

At the meeting of Henry Briggs, Son, and Company,
Limited, it was announced that absenteeism at the com-
pany’s pits was 13} per cent., of which 8 per cent, was pre-
ventable. The chairman regretted that the result of the
appeal made to miners to work the fullest possible time was
disappointing. The company’s output had increased, but,
even so, the customers’ demand for supplies could not be
met.

Reports which we have received state that the sinkers
engaged in the No. 1 shaft of the Hatfield Main Colliery,
near Doncaster, reached the Barnsley seam of coal this week.

Lancashire and Cheshire.

Developments at Hollinwood,—New Plant at Walkden—
Canal Traffic—By-products from Collieries.

Important developments, a correspondent understands, are
to be carried out on the surface and below at Messrs. W.
and R. Marland’s Bower Colliery, Hollinwood, near
Manchester.

The generating station which has been erected at Lord
Ellesmere’s Mosley Common Collieries, Boothstown, near
Manchester, has now been started, and, in addition to
supplying current to the Mosley Common pits, is also pro-
viding electricity for various purposes for his lordship’s other
collieries in the Walkden district. Extensive air compress-
ing plant is also being installed in a new building erected
at his lordship’s Bridgewater (Sandhole) Collieries, Walkden.

The collieries of Messrs. Fletcher, Burrows and Company
Limited in the Atherton district, near Manchester, closed
down last Friday night until yesterday. Necessary repairs
have been carried out during the stoppage.

Increasing cargoes of coal are being carried on the Bridge-
water Canal from Lord Ellesmere’s, Astley and Tyldesley
Coal Company’s, and the Clifton and Kersley Coal Company’s
pits. Improvements at tips and the putting into requisition
of more barges are amongst the developments to be carried
out. The Clifton and Kersley Coal Company’s new collieries
are situated almost on the canal at Astley Green.

Last week a motor ambulance van, which had cost £300,
was presented to the East Lancashire branch of the British
Red Cross Society by the coal merchants of Manchester and
adjoining districts, members of the Manchester Coal
Exchange.

At the Drill Hall, Atherton, last week, Mr. Robert A.
Burrows, of the firm of Fletcher, Burrows and Company,
Atherton, opened a campaign for securing more liberal pen-
sions for our disabled soldiers and sailors and better allow-
ances for the widows and children of those who have fallen
in the war.

The Bolton Field Naturalists have paid another visit to
the Bradshaw Hall Colliery, Bolton, through the courtesy
of the manager, Mr. John Lievesey. Under the direction
of Mr. J. Lomax, A.L.S., the party were soon at work
gathering fossils. Mr. Lom^x subsequently gave an instruc-
tive and interesting account of the formation of the fossils.

There is a large and increasing output of motor spirit and
other valuable by-products from Lord Ellesmere’s Brackley
Collieries, Middle Hulton, near Bolton, where various
improvements have lately been effected.

The Warrington Co-operative Society has forwarded the
subjoined letter to Mr. H. J. May, the secretary of the Parlia-
mentary Committee of the Co-operative Congress :—” Our
committee last night were considering new coal contracts for
the coming winter, and we find that, in addition to difficulty
in getting supplies, we are faced with an increase over last
year’s contract prices equal to an all-round advance of 5 per
cent., or Is. per ton. Our committee wish you to protest to
the Government against this increase.”

The Rev. A. J. Phillips, vicar of Christ Church, Pendle-
bury, who for over three years has occupied the position of
chairman of the local joint committee under the Miners’
Minimum Wage Act for the Brackley, Ashton Field, and
Wharton Hall group, has accepted the invitation of the
miners to remain in office another year.

One of the oldest collieries in the kingdom is still working
in the Manchester district. This is the Wet Earth Colliery,
Clifton, near Manchester, owned and worked by the Clifton
and Kersley Coal Company Limited. It is over 100 years
old, and works every day (except at holiday times), and the
daily output is over 1,000 tubs. The seams which have been
worked lately have been the Doe, Plodder, and Worsley
Four-feet. Several generations of men have worked at this
wonderful colliery.

Notts and Derbyshire.

A miner at the No. 2 Tibshelf Colliery narrowly escaped
being killed during the course of some shot-firing operations
owing to the action of a deputy named John Askew, who was

subsequently fined 30s. at the Alfreton Police Court, when
charged with a breach of the special electrical rules of the
colliery, which belongs to the Babbington Company. It was
explained that during the blasting operations Askew, instead
of attaching the electric cable himself, allowed another man
to do so. The result of some misunderstanding was that a
second shot was fired while the cable was being attached, and
a man was struck over the head and face, and, if the shot
had been lower, might have been killed. Defendant said he
was misled by the look-out man. who left his place without
permission.

Mr. Frank Hall (general secretary of the Derbyshire
Miners’ Association), speaking at a meeting arranged by the
National Association of Colliery Deputies at Shirebrook on
Saturday, observed that he hoped to see the time when
colliery deputies would take the same practical part as the
miners with regard to wages and other conditions, and they
could only do this by affiliating with the other great bodies
in connection with the Conciliation Board. The miners’
unions were the bodies that settled the rates of wages.
Deputies were responsible more than anybody else for the
safety of the mine. The Miners’ Federation exercised greater
influence with the Government to-day than ever, and if the
deputies could meet them, he had no doubt they could bring
about the desired reform.

The half-yearly report of the Derbyshire, Notts and Mid-
land Counties Colliery Enginemen, Motormen, and Firemen’s
Union shows a membership of 2,000, and an income of over
£975. The total funds on January 1 this year was more
than £6,000. The report refers to the work of the motor
ambulances at the front, to which the members are sub-
scribing, and contains an appreciative reference to the late
Sir Arthur Markham.

The Midlands.

At Nuneaton, Joseph Sheldon and Joseph Trevis, miners,
pleaded guilty to using a naked light (a candle) in a pro-
hibited area of Griff Colliery, on July 29. Mr. W. B. Cocks,
for the prosecution, said the district was a difficult one to
work, and defendants had, by their conduct, endangered the
lives of the men in the pit.—Edward "Walker, a deputy, said
he found two men at work by the light of a candle, which
was extinguished when he appeared upon the scene. The
men were each fined £1, and Ils. costs.

Kent.

During the last fortnight 111 ft. of the deep sinking in
No. 2 pit at Snowdown Colliery have been bricked, the pit
now being lined to a distance of 2,485} ft. Sinking has
been resumed, and on the 12th inst. was down to 2,492 ft.

At Tilmanstone Colliery last week, the output of coal was
2,053 tons, and at Snowdown Colliery it was about 2,500
tons. The building of the large coffer dams at Tilmanstone
Colliery to deal with the water has now been completed, with
the result that it has been possible to put additional men on
to the work of coal getting, and thus improve the output.

Scotland.

Eliminating ” Joy Days ”—Soldiers in Mines—Organisation
in Ayrshire—New Mine at (rlenclough.

As the annual general meetings of the Institution of
Mining Engineers are to be held this year in Glasgow in
September, the council of the Alining Institute of Scotland
arranged that the August meeting of the institute should be
postponed. At the forthcoming meeting’s of the institution in
Glasgow Air. W. Thorneycroft, coal master, Bannockburn,
w’ill be elected president.

Colliery managers in Lanarkshire are reporting each week
all absentees from the pits to the military authorities. The
idea is to eliminate unjustifiable abstention from work on
the part of the men, and to ensure that ” joy days ” will be
things of the past. The managers are endeavouring to
repress absenteeism, and if holidays are sought by miners,
even although the latter are well over the military age, there
is a firm and insistent demand for the production of a medical
certificate.

Messrs. Wm. Baird and Company Limited, coal masters.
Scotland, have contributed a donation of £1,000 to the Lord
Kitchener National Memorial Fund.

Announcement is made this week that the Alilitary Medal
has been won by two Lanarkshire miners, viz., Corpl. Tom
Penman, Royal Engineers, and Corpl. Wm. Anderson, High-
land Light Infantry. The former was employed in Ncils-
land Colliery, Hamilton., while the latter wrought in Broom-
side Colliery, Dalserf.

Air. Kelso Park, who has left the service of the Banknock
Coal Company to take up a more important position at Coal-
burn, has been presented with a gold watch, together with a
gold -wristlet watch for Airs. Park. The gifts were sub-
scribed to by the workmen and officials employed at the
Cannerton and Livingstone pits.

On the occasion of his leaving Greenfield Colliery,
Hamilton, to become manager of Bothwell Castle Colliery.
Mr. Henry Calder has been presented with a wallet well
filled with Treasury notes. Airs. Calder was also made the
recipient of a gold wristlet watch.

A contingent of soldiers, formerly following the occupation
of miners, has been sent home from various military centres
to undertake work in several mines in the Lothians. These
men are not permanently discharged, but are simply trans-
ferred, the stipulation being that they must return to work in
the same mine as they were employed in previous to enlist-
ment.

Organisation amongst the miners of Ayrshire is now
stronger than it has been for many years. One advantage is
that if a working arrangement is entered into between the
owners and the men of the union, it means that the whole of
the pits in Ayrshire homologate the decision. Formerly this
was not quite the case, and it was always difficult to define
what the policy of the Ayrshire miners would be on any
given subject.

Arrangements are being made to ballot the members of the
National Union of Scottish Mine Workers upon the question
of working six days per week. ’The National executive has
strongly recommended the men to vote in favour of the
extended working week. The result of the ballot is to be in
the hands of the general secretary by Friday, 25th inst.

Up to the end of June of the present year, when the returns
were compiled, no fewer than 168 members of the Ayrshire
Miners’ Union had given up their lives on behalf of king
and country.

The Callander Coal Company during the past two months
have 'been busy in their endeavour to open a mine at Glen-
clough. They have erected buildings for the machinery and
the electric power is taken from their other pits. The mine

which they are now opening up was worked about the middle
of last century. There is reported to be a large field of
Splint coal, 3 ft. to 3 ft. 6 in. thick, and of good quality.
This mine is in close proximity to the company’s colliery
line. At Lauriston, while little development is made in
the colliery, there are still a few workers employed in the
mine.

The summer holiday question in Fife was looking at one
time to prove a troublesome one, for while the majority of
the men agreed to dispense with holidays, some of the large
districts resolved to observe the usual idle time. The miners’
board felt bound to discourage the laying idle of the pits
anywhere, and posters were sent out urging all men to con-
tinue at work. As a consequence, every colliery was work-
ing, only a few7 of the usual complement of men being idle.

The quietness which has marked the export and coasting
trade of Fife lately was more evident last week than it has
been for some time. Between Alethil and Burntisland the
combined coal shipments only amounted to 40,948 tons, as
compared with 51,911 tons for the previous week, and 63,236
tons for the corresponding week last year. There was an
aggregate for the whole of the ports of 42.084 tons. The
total shipments for the year are now7 fully 300,000 tons below
the total for the corresponding period of last year.

Three fatal accidents are reported for the w7eek, due to
falls of roof at Old Orbiston Colliery, Woodyet Pit, and one
at Lady Veronica Pit.

On Alonday a brusher named Andrew7 Ritchie was acci-
dentally killed in AIoss Side Pit, Cowdenbeath. He had
been engaged firing a shot, when it w’ent off prematurely,
killing him instantly.

Arising out of the explosion w7hich occurred at Earnock
Colliery, Hamilton, some weeks ago, whereby a miner, John
Madden, Forrest-street, Hamilton, was fatally injured, a
public enquiry was held before Hon. Sheriff Stodart in
Hamilton Sheriff Court. This explosion was the cause of
the refusal of the workers to resume work until the manage-
ment had installed a new7 class of safety lamp, as reported
last week. In the course of the enquiry the type of safety
lamp in use at the colliery entered largely into the evidence,
and testimony w7as borne to the alleged defective nature of its
construction. Mr. R. Smillie, who represented the miners,
urged the jury to add a rider to the usual formal verdict. and
they agreed to the following : ” That the explosion w7as due
to the safety lamp in use at this mine not being properly
put together, and the jury recommend that the management
should exercise greater supervision over those in charge of
Lie safety lamps.”

LABOUR AMD WAGES.

South Wales and Monmouthshire.

The Conciliation Board last week considered the question
of increasing the w7age-rate, the owmers desiring a reduction
of 15 per cent., but the men seeking an increase of 12} per
cent. For the workmen, Air. A. Onions said that the audit
had shown an advance of Is. ll-}d. in the selling price of
<-oal, and he contended that upon that alone the men were
•mt filed to an increase of 11-42 per cent, upon the standard,
a,-id that, taking other factors into account, they were
entitled to 12} per cent., even after consideration were given
to higher costs of production—that, indeed, 12} per cent,
would leave a margin for meeting further increases in
working costs. The Alarcli audit w7as stated to have shown
tiie average selling price as 23s. 8*60d. per ton, whilst the
June audit showed 25s. 8d. Further, that under the new
agreement the men should have an increase of 6-2 per cent,
for each shilling advance in price; and that other factors
justified increases—such as volume of trade and the good
prospects in sight. Also, that the higher cost of living
should be taken into account.

On the other side, Air. F. L. Davis, for the employers,
dealt fully with the question of greater costs of production.
There w7as now no equivalent to the selling price; and,
whereas under the old agreement 13s. lOd. per ton was
equivalent to the minimum wage then existing, 22s. 5d.
should be equivalent to the higher minimum of the new7
agreement—the 10 per cent, minimum of the new7 agreement
being 65 per cent, of the old one.

The men, however, once more made manifest their
unwillingness to have an equivalent named, although the
requirement of the late independent chairman and the diffi-
culty under yvhich he worked in this respect is clearly in
recollection. As it proved quite impracticable to reach agree-
ment, the matter is referred to the new7 independent chair-
man, Lord Justice Pickford, who will be invited to attend
an adjourned meeting on the 24th inst., in order to hear
arguments and give his casting vote. The wage-rate at
present is 40-83 per cent, above the standard of 1915. which
means that the lowest-paid men are taking 7s. per day.

At the meeting of the Conciliation Board the workmen's
representatives desired the owners to make arrangements
whereby the men would have a certain number of days as
holiday, seeing that they had given up their regular holidays.
This request will be considered by the owners' representa-
tives. and a reply given at a subsequent meeting.

The demand of tippers for 25 per cent, increase of W’ages
will, it is expected, be dealt with by the railway executive.

At the monthly meeting of the Blaina district of miners it
was stated in a report presented that the house coal
hauliers' question had been settled, and the improved
standard rate, with arrears, had been paid. Also that an
improved price-list had been completed for the Three-quarter
seam in Stone's Slope. It was resolved to take a ballot as
to changing the working hours from 8 to 4 instead of from
7 till 3.

North of England.

A meeting of the Central Committee of the Northumber-
land Coal Owners' and Miners' representatives appointed
recently7 to deal with the question of avoidable absenteeism
on the'part of miners in the county w7as held on Saturday
last, at which the group committees’ reports were con-
sidered. Some of the reports showed a low percentage of
absenteeism, but others were less favourable. The following
resolution was come to : “ That, when the group com-
mittee has entirely finished with any one man or number of
men, the workmen's side of 1 he group will inform the man
or men that they can do nothing more with the case, and it
will be left to the colliery management to deal with.”

The Brandon and Harraton lodges of the Durham Miners’
Association have passed the following resolution : “ That the
executive committee seek a meeting with the owners with a
view to having the local hewers' wages minimum rate
advanced to 8s. fid. per shift, and all other grades of labour
in proportion. Failing this, a special council meeting be