February 1, 1918. THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN 239 Notes from the Coal Fields. [Local Correspondence.] • South Wales and Monmouthshire. New Pit at Margam—Arrears of Contracts Committee— Swansea Port and Government Recognition—A Fly- wheel Accident. Messrs. Baldwin, it is announced, have now secured an adequate “ taking ” and commenced operations for sinking a new pit at Margam, near Port Talbot, close by the rail- way bridge; and it is understood that they will work the lower seams of steam coal further east. It is also announced that they will sink another pit farther east, the work to be commenced at once. Messrs. Baldwin are the owners of the large steel works at Port Talbot, where also they are con- structing new blast furnaces, and the developments now announced are only part of the general extensions which is manifest so strikingly throughout the whole district. Before the South Wales Institute of Engineers on Friday of last week, the new president (Mr. J. Fox Tallis) delivered his inaugural address, wherein he dwelt upon the value and extent of the iron ore deposits in South Wales, and commented adversely upon the practice of neglecting these. For many years, owing to the higher percentage of the Spanish ores which are so largely imported, and also because of their nature, the Welsh ores have been neglected, and, although in some cases—such as the Ebbw Vale, where the ore is worked conjointly with the coal—it is utilised in the blast furnaces, there are numerous instances where it is simply thrown aside. Mr. Tallis laid great stress upon the importance of developing iron ore mining. From 1892 to 1910 Mr. Tallis was general colliery manager under the Ebbw Vale Company, and he had been previously con- nected with the Ocean Company. He has been one of the examiners for colliery managers’ certificates, and has held the office of president of the Colliery Officials’ Association, as well as that of chairman of the Coal Owners’ Associ- ation. The coal exporters of Cardiff met at the Exchange on Friday of last week, Mr. T. J. Callaghan being in the chair, and they dealt with the question as to powers of the Arrears of Contracts Committee. The difficulty which had arisen had relation to the question of a chairman, there being three coal owners and three exporters on the com- mittee, and they having desired to sit without a chairman, so that there should be no preponderance of power to either side. The Controller suggested that, in the event of failure to agree, Mr. Franklin Saunders, of Swansea, should decide any point at issue; and the resolution passed on Friday last was that, in view of the Controller’s assurance “ that it is not intended shipments shall be interfered with in any case where there is clear legal right to delivery, the exporters accept the recommendation made by the sub-com- mittee which reported on January 4.” Although not in specific terms, this resolution really accepts the Con- troller’s suggestion.. Swansea Chamber of Commerce, at its annual meeting on Friday of last week, discussed the claim of the port for recognition as an official Governmgjit port, with guarantee of dividend or interest; and Mr. W. A. Wynne (the new president) pointed out that all the larger ports in the Channel had, during the war, suffered from decreased revenue, but that all of them except Swansea had received adequate compensation from the Government, Cardiff and Barry obtaining' as much as a quarter of a million sterling each. The Swansea Harbour Trustees have done every- thing in their power to get Swansea the status of a con- trolled port, but so far without success. The capital of the Trust being about 4± million sterling, advanced by 6,000 stockholders, the bulk of whom lived in the district, what earthly reason could there be why those investors should be put in a different position from those who invested in docks owned by railway companies? A sum of £174,000 a year had to be found for interest, and the Trustees had some difficulty in meeting the last instalment of interest in December, and a gentleman came to the rescue of the Trust ready to put his name as guarantor for payment. The difficulty at Swansea arises from the fact that the Government guarantees the net income on railways and on the docks owned by railways, and that at Cardiff, New- port, Barry, and Port Talbot the docks are so owned; whereas at Swansea the docks are under the Harbour Trust. What the Trustees desire is to be put upon a similar foot- ing with the other docks in the channel. The Chamber of Commerce decided to call a joint conference of the Corpor- ation, the Harbour Trustees, and the Metal Exchange, so that a decision may be reached as to the best means of furthering the object in view. The Court of Appeal had before it the case of a collier employed by the Ocean Coal Company at Blaengarw, the matter having come up from the Divisional Court, which reversed the decision of Judge Bryn Roberts at Bridgend. The collier had been injured by an accident in 1898, and up to June 1901 he received 16s. 2d. per week compensation. Afterwards he was paid £1 per week for light work which he did, receiving for compensation half the difference between the £1 a week and his earnings prior to the acci- dent. This amounted to 6s. During 1915 he also received the war bonus. In 1915 the miners in South Wales terminated the Conciliation Board agreement and stopped work, and subsequently a new Conciliation Board agreement was entered into. It was contended, on behalf of the collier, that this new agreement in some way varied the contract under which he had worked. He did not come out on strike. The contention on behalf of the employers was that the new agreement did not affect the man, but that his old contract of employment was still in force, it being argued that the mere fact of the agreement having been made on behalf of the men by the Miners’ Federation (of which the collier was a member) was not sufficient of itself to bring him within its scope. Before there could be complete contractual relationship under the agreement, between the individual workman and the indi- vidual employer, the agreement must be adopted. The sum in dispute was about £23, which represented differ- ence in wages paid over a period of 47 weeks and the wage that he claimed to be entitled to under the terms of the new agreement of 1915. The hearing occupied the court for two sittings, and in the end the appeal was allowed, the lords justices restoring the judgment of the county court judge at Bridgend in favour of the employers. At Merthyr on Friday of last week, the manager of the No. 1 Rhymney-Merthyr Colliery was prosecuted at the instance of the Home Office for not securely fencing a fly- wheel. Mr. T. Greenland Davies, H.M. inspector, stated that a man named Williams was severely injured in October, dying the next day. The return haulage wheel situated on the ground about 50 yds. from the bottom of the pit had broken down, and the planks of wood covering it had been removed in order to permit of repairing. The wheel was put into working order, and the machinery set in motion before all the planks were replaced, and Williams steppea on one wneei ana became eiivangiea. itie uexence was uaat tne acciuent occurrea wane cue inacninery was being repdixea. men naa been poscea on eacn siae oi tne wneei to prevent any tiling coming mat way. ±ne stipen- aiary saiu tne i>encn were 01 op.iuuu cue iua.ciiinery ougnt not to nave been re-s varied until tne piauns naa been ie-iaiu; wniie at tile same time giving uie manager cieuit ior Having caKen precaution, zk uiic ui was imposeu. ±ne 2koertmery council naa beioie tnem tne question oi suosiaence due to colliery warning, a very targe amount oi uamage to nouse property naviiig become inannest, ana a committee nas been appointed, tne ciern being mstructeu aiso to convene a public meeting. Several meetings oi miners toon place during the week- end to discuss tne new combing-out question, ana there was a general mamiestation oi hostility to the scheme, a conierence oi delegates on the same subject took place on Monday, m Uarditt, there being nearly 300 delegates present, representing ibU,u00 members. The agenaa paper notihed that the Miners' federation oi Great uritain had received irom tne Government an intimation that the supply oi man-power ior the war rendered it necessary ior oo,0U0 men to be withdrawn from the mines ior military service, with a further 50,000 in reserve ior iuture contingencies; and that it was iurther proposed to withdraw the exemption certificates irom'all colliery work- men ; also that in iuture the only appeal to colliery recruiting courts would be upon the ground of indis- pensability. In each J ederation district the number required would be allotted upon a numerical basis of persons employed, and the selection of men to be with- drawn would be made by ‘ the workmen’s committee by ballot or other equitable procedure. The executive Council oi the South Wales federation recommended the delegates to support the proposal for taking a ballot, the question to be submitted on the ballot paper being :— Shall the Miners Federation of Great Britain agree to -withdrawal of 50,000 from the mines for military service with a further 50,000 in reserve for future contingencies; and, if so, shall the Federation machinery be used for the purpose of finding the required number? ” hollowing upon resolutions of the meeting which had preceded the conference, the proceedings showed hostility to these proposals, and after full discussion a card vote showed 2’094 in favour of the executive’s recommendation and 982 against, a majority of 1,112. Each card vote 50 • members> that the result was—for : aSainst- 49,100; leaving a majority—for : ODj bv(J. The conference discussed also the question of a five-day week, which has been winning approval in different parts of the coal field, and a letter was read from the Controller stating that he was unable to agree to five days a week work for general application, but that he purposed calling a conierence of trade representatives, in order to see what remedies could be applied to the difficulty of short time working, lhe conference based a resolution upon a recom- mendation from the executive authorising the council to continue negotiations with the Controller on the matter of short time and irregularity of work at the coilieries but the conference is still strongly of opinion that the limiting of work days to five per week will secure a more equal distribution of the trade available without any detrimental effect upon the supply of coal for all purposes. triid snubJect which came before the conference was tbat °f food supply, a report from the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain on this question being submitted. A resolution was passed urging that the local Control Com- mittees would not delay in taking necessary steps to secure equitable distribution; also that a strict rationing system be applied at once to all classes of the community with fixed minimum prices for all classes of food. The resolu- tion also demanded that “ all local Food Control Com- mittees should be composed of at least 50 per cent of direct Labour representatives.” A protest was registered against allowing certain classes to hold game and fishing preserves, and calling upon the Government to immediately commandeer such stores of food. Local Control Com- mittees, it was contended, should be given authority to take all supplies. coming into their district and make allocation to distributors, and the resolution expressed an opinion that profiteering in foodstuffs, still permitted, is a great contributor to the present difficulties. Representatives of all the lodges of the Miners’ Federa- tion in the new Parliamentary Division of East Rhondda invited nominations of a Parliamentary candidate. The greater number of lodges proposed Major Watts Morgan, D.S.O., for many years their agent, and five other candi- dates received one nomination each. It was decided to carry through a ballot on the subject. Tin-platers in the Neath area are nominating Mr. Ivor G Wynne. An extraordinary accident occurred, on Saturday, at the Phoenix Patent Fuel Works, King’s Dock, Swansea. A night watchman observed something coming through the machinery of an unusual character, and discovered it to be a human foot. Further investigation showed that a lad of 17, who had been engaged as coal boy, shovelling small coal, had, by some means, fallen into the mechanism and been killed. Northumberland and Durham. Cage Accident—Colliery Changes Ownership—Durham Miners' Association—Compensation Cases. On Thursday of last week, an accident to the brake of the winding engine at Bebside Colliery resulted in a two- decked cage, containing six men on the upper and four on the lower deck, being precipitated a distance of 15 ft. to the shaft bottom. The 10 men all suffered from shock and bruises, but in only three cases were the injuries at all serious. According to a locql Press report, the Mickley Coal Company has secured possession of Thirlwall Colliery, with its extensive royalties. In his monthly circular to the members of the Durham Miners’ Association, Mr. T. H. Cann, general secretary, states that the usual review of the work and financial standing of the association for the year now ended is not ready, the Association being to a large extent dependent upon female and junior male labour at present, an impro- vised staff which, although working well, cannot cope with the duties in the efficient manner that comes from experi- ence. He devotes his circular to a commentary on the industrial unrest and the tendency of trades unionists to kick over the traces so far as their leaders are concerned. He remarks :—“ Even the ranks of our own organisation have not been free from this revolutionary spirit and, if ever a society ought to be amenable to the guidance and advice of those whom they, from time to time, select to control their destiny and welfare, it ought to be ours. Other trades, to a large extent, may possess a uniformity of conditions that would make local autonomy less of an evil than would be the case so far as we are concerned, but in the mining industry, at any rate, in our county, the conditions are so varied that what would be one man’s meat must be another’s poison, and when ieelings ot revolt have been implanted by, probably, some local circumstance, before proceeding to suggest extreme measures, it ought to be remembered that your managing committee have not only to consider each question that comes before them from a local standpoint, but alscP in its relationship to the members as a whole, and it is sometimes a necessary evil to subordinate the few for the sake of the many.” Mr. Cann’s circular contains an appeal from Sir Arthur Pearson that the executive of the Durham Miners’ Asso- ciation would recommend a levy of 6d. per member as a tribute to those blinded men who had made such sacrifice for tjieir country. The report oi Mr. Jas. Robson, compensation agent for the Durham Miners’ Association, for the month of December, shows that claims were made in respect of 19 fatalities. Four of the claims are still unsettled; in respect of the others £3,725 compensation has been awarded. Twenty-seven non-fatal cases were dealt with. Of these, three claims were disallowed and four were adjourned ; 20 were settled in favour of claimants. The report of Mr. Wm. Weir, compensation agent to Northumberland Miners’ Association, covers the last quarter of the year and deals with 15 fatalities, five cases of medical reference and 13 disputed claims in non-fatal cases. The amount recovered in respect of the fatalities was £2,722 12s., owners’ liability being established in all cases except one; of the cases of medical reference, two resulted in the stoppage of compensation, and of the disputed cases, four were decided in favour of the owners. Mr. Weir reports upon an interview between the Home Secretary and the executive of the Miners’ Federation with reference to the Workmen’s Compensation (War Addition) Act, and states that the former agreed that, unless insurance societies were prepared to allow the Act to apply to all men who were in receipt of full compen- sation, he would endeavour to have it further amended. The Northumberland coalowners considered the matter on December 8, and agreed that the Act should apply to all cases under the Act of 1897 in which the men are now in receipt of full compensation, arrears as from September 1 last to be paid. Mr. John Harrison has been re-elected secretary of the Tanfield Moor branch of the Northumberland and Durham Miners’ Permanent Relief Fund for the 42nd successive year, and has a colleague, Mr. James Nicholson, the trea- surer, with 30 years’ service to his credit. On Wednesday, a notice was posted on Newcastle Com- mercial Exchange intimating that all steamers and sailing ships, British and foreign, carrying coals, coke or patent fuel to France must apply for ships’ licences to the local Coal Export Committee. Applications for licences for vessels carrying other cargoes than those aforementioned must be made direct to the Shipping Licensing Committee. Ministry of Shipping, London. Yorkshire. A meeting of the Coal Merchants’ section of the Bradford Chamber of Trade, last week, considered the situation arising out of the national award of 20s. per week advance on pre-war wages to carters, and came to the conclusion that an advance in cartage charges to coal consumers will be necessary. The matter will be sub- mitted to the local coal control committee. The ballot at the Yorkshire Main Colliery at Edlington, Doncaster, on the question of abolishing the butty system, has resulted in a majority of 371 against the system. In all, 1,151 votes were recorded. A stoppage of work over the dispute at the Malton Colliery, near Wakefield, has been avoided. Some 700 men and boys had given in their notices to cease work, owing to the refusal of a few surfacemen to join the Yorkshire Miners’ Association. These men having now joined, the trouble is over, and the notices have been withdrawn. Notts and Derbyshire. Judge Macpherson, at Ilkeston County Court, held that colliery proprietors are not liable to pay compensation for accidents arising out of horseplay in the pits. A lad named Hamilton, aged 15, a knocker off at the Shipley Collieries, sought to recover £7 10s., 15 weeks’ compensa- tion at 10s. per week, during which period he was incapa- citated from work owing to an injury to his right eye, which deprived him of the sight of it. The eye was lost through the lad being struck by a piece of lime thrown by another boy in the pit. The Derbyshire Miners’ Asso- ciation supported the claim. Giving judgment for the respondent colliery company, with costs, the judge said the applicant could only recover damages on satisfying the court that the accident arose out of his occupation. This he had failed to do Lancashire and Cheshire. At Aspull, on Monday evening, a large and representa- tive gathering of officials and workmen employed in the Haigh and Aspull Collieries, belonging to the Wigan Coal and Iron Company Limited, gave Mr. A. Stone a very hearty send-off, in celebration of his transfer from assis- tant colliery manager in the Haigh and Aspull district to a similar appointment at Hindley and Westhoughton. The Midlands. The 139th quarterly meeting. of the board of manage- ment of the Midland District Miners’ Fatal Accident Relief Society was held, at Derby, on Tuesday. The quarterly report showed that the membership now stood at 52,536, an increase of 2,428 when compared with the total a year ago. Seventeen members had died, being the same number as in the corresponding three months of the previous year, and 14 widows and 38 children, increases of three and 28, respectively, thus became entitled to benefit. There were now 373 widows and 475 children in receipt of benefit, increases of 38 and 54, respectively. The income amounted to £3,611, including £3,186 in members’ contributions, and increase of £488, and the expenditure to £2,669, of which £2,467, an increase of £679, was in annuities. Kent. The Tilmanstone Colliery output last week was 2,682 tons, and Snowdown Colliery raised about 2,600 tons. Work is going on steadily at both collieries, and the best is being got out of the amount of labour available. With regard to the 4 ft. 9 in. seam of coal (announced at the Canter- bury Town Council meeting last week), which was struck in a borehole 300 ft. from the present bottom of the Chislet Colliery pit, there is a general impression that this seam is identical with the one entered in the No. 2 shaft at Snowdown Colliery last week. The quality of the coal, much harder than any at present being worked in the Kent coal field, and the thickness of the seam, agree. The borings in the Canterbury district in the past appeared to prove that the coal seams there are at a higher level than in the Dover district.