August 30, 1918.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

447

agons for Sale or Hire, about 300.

12 tonners. Side and end doors, first-class make and in excellent
condition. Terms and full particulars on app’ication.—Box 7142,
Colliery Guardian Office, 30 & 31, Fumival-street, Holborn, London, E.C. 4.

/galloway Boilers, two, 24 ft. by 7 ft.,
801b. working pressure; thoroughly well kept and in good condi-
tion. Brickwork and fire seatings if desired.—Apply, Box 7143, Colliery
Guardian Office, 30 & 31, Furnival-street, Holbom, London, E.C. 4.

Second-hand Timber, 10,000 cubic ft.,
for SALE, in all kinds of sizes; also, our stock consists of 5,000
DOORS, WINDOWS, STAIRS, MOULDINGS, SKIRTINGS; also New
Timber of all kinds (Permit required for new timber over £5 weekly). Call
and inspect all we have to offer. Send stamp for sheets, or Is. for fully
illustrated list.—JENNINGS LTD., Bristol. Also small quantity stocked
at Leicester and Porthcawl.

PUBLIC NOTICE.

Mr.	Joseph Oxley, of 131, Norfolk-

STREET, SHEFFIELD, IRON, STEEL AND MACHINERY
MERCHANT, begs to inform his numerous friends and patrons that he has
entirely severed his connection with Messrs. Thos. Oxley Ltd., of Shiloh
Works, Sheffield, with which firm he was a partner for so many years.

He trusts, however, that the pleasant business relations existing between
his patrons and himself will be long continued, at his new address, viz.:—

131, NORFOLK STREET, SHEFFIELD.

J. W. BAIRD AND COMPANY,

PITWOOD IMPORTERS,

WEST HARTLEPOOL.

YEARLY CONTRACTS ENTERED INTO WITH COLLIERIES.

OSBECK & COMPANY LIMITED,

PIT-TIMBER MERCHANTS,

NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE.

SUPPLY ALL KINDS OF COLLIERY TIMBER.

Telegrams—“ Osbecks, Newcastle-on-Tyne.”

*** For other Miscellaneous Advertisements see Last
White Page.

TO OUR READERS.

The Government, by Order in Council, is issuing in-
structions prohibiting the return of all unsold papers and
periodicals. The effect of this will be that newsagents
will only stock the “ Colliery Guardian ” if actually
ordered by their customers, and to prevent disappoint-
ment our readers should either subscribe for the regular
supply of the journal direct, or place a definite order with
their newsagent.

Me Mlliety

AND
Journal of the Coal and Iron Trades.

Joint Editors—

3. V. ELSDEN, D.Sc. (Lond.), F.G.S.
HUBERT GREENWELL, F.S.S., Assoc.M.I.M.E.

(At present on Active Service).

LONDON. FRIDAY. AUGUST 30, 1918.

The London coal trade continues much in the same
position. Supplies are in urgent demand and exceed-
ingly short.

Recent accumulations led to some free offerings
for prompt tonnage in the Newcastle market. All
forward quotations on the Tyne and Wear are firm.
House coal prospects in Lancashire are doubtful,
and great scarcity in Yorkshire is evident in the
drastic rationing of customers by merchants. Mid-
land collieries are pressed to increase their output.
Production in South Wales is better, but no margin
is available for neutrals. Steams are quoted at 37s.
to 40s. Supplies in the Scottish markets are still
unsatisfactory.

Anthracite is in good request in Swansea, and
prices are firm. Rubbly culm and duff are plentiful
and dull.

Rates are firmly maintained in the freight market,
but fixtures are few owing to tonnage scarcity.
Cardiff outward business is confined practically to
Allied ports on scheduled terms.

The 29th annual meeting of the Institution of
Mining Engineers will be held in the University
College, Nottingham, on September 13, commencing
at 11 a.m. The following papers will be read, or
taken as read:—A Method of Determining the
Magnetic Meridian as a Basis for Mining Surveys,”
by Mr. T. Lindsay Gordon; “Digest of the First
Report of the Mine Rescue Apparatus Research
Committee,” by Mr. D. Penman; “The Chance
Acetylene Safety Lamp,” by Mr. W. Maurice; and
“ Recent Developments in the Coal Fields South of
Sydney, New South Wales,” by Mr. I). J. R. M.
Robertson. Several papers will be open for
discussion.

Some difficulty has arisen in connection with the.
establishment of pit committees in South Wales.
The Coal Controller has suggested to the Owners’
Association and the South Wales Miners’ Federation
that a conference should be held between the two
parties to consider the preliminary steps.

The Trades Union Congress at Derby, September 2
to 7, will discuss resolutions relating to the nationalisa-
tion of mines and minerals, the State employment
of colliery deputies, the establishment of a court of
appeal to which firemen, examiners and deputies
could appeal, an eight hours day for firemen,
examiners and enginemen, and other matters.

Yesterday (Thursday) another conference took
place between the National Council of Mine Workers
other than Miners, and the Controller of Coal Mines,
in regard to the former’s claim of an advance in
wages, and that overtime should be paid on such
advances. It was stated another conference would
be held after the Derby Trades Union Congress.

One of the questions considered by
Coal Field the Coal Conservation Sub-Com-
Development. mittee was that of the possible
development of new coal fields
in this country, or extensions of coalfields already
being worked—a matter which was very rightly
referred to a geological sub-committee, under the
vice-chairmanship of the Director of the Geological
Survey of Great Britain. The same subject has
been examined in considerable detail on previous
occasions, viz., by the Royal Commissions of 1871
and 1905, and again in 1913 by the International
Geological Congress at Toronto. Upon each of
these occasions important revisions of former
estimates were deemed necessary in view of fresh
information concerning concealed coal fields as
revealed by deep borings and records of under-
ground explorations carried out from existing mines.
The subject, indeed, is one which, by its nature, can
have no finality until a complete scheme of
systematic boring has been carried out—a condition
which can hardly be expected to be fulfilled in the
near future. Gradually, useful additions to our
knowledge have been supplied by this means, but
not to the extent that might have been possible if
borehole records had been treated as matters of
national concern. For various reasons, not always
commendable, these records have *been, in some
cases, treated as profound secrets; and in others,
owing to the want of competent geological super-
vision, they have lost any value they might have
possessed, arising from inaccurate identification of
the strata traversed.

Great credit is due to the North of England
Institute of Engineers, and to the Midland Institute
of Mining, Civil and Mechanical Engineers for their
efforts in collecting and publishing borehole records ;
and our knowledge of the underground structure
of the coal fields of Northumberland, Durham and
Yorkshire has been greatly extended by this means.
But those who have attempted to make scientific
use of these compilations cannot fail to have been
impressed with the fact that they would have been
of infinitely greater value if the borer or sinker had
availed himself of expert assistance in the identifi-
cation of strata and the collection of fossils which
alone furnish trustworthy evidence of geological
horizons. Deep boring has, in fact, been regarded
too much as a commercial speculation, and its
scientific aspect has too often been almost entirely
ignored.

The time has come when mineral prospectors will
do well to realise that the-nation has an interest in
their investigations. There need be no legal
obligation to publish records to the detriment of
individual rights; but ther$ certainly is at least a
moral obligation to permit the nation to share the
benefit of the knowledge thus made available.

The Geological Sub-Committee has come to the
conclusion that the time has arrived for considering
whether the State should assist in the work of coal
field exploration. State aid might be given in various
ways. In some cases assistance might be limited to
the provision of expert advice for the direction of
private enterprise. In other cases financial assistance
might be given, especially in cases where land o wners
have been unable to continue a borehole to the full
depth necessary to enable definite conclusions to be
drawn. But reliance upon private enterprise alone
would, in some cases, be too slow a process. There
are many areas which can only be regarded as too
speculative for private enterprise to undertake; but
these are often precisely the districts where further
knowledge is most desirable. It is here, therefore,
where the State could usefully intervene if some
department were given power to put down boreholes
in the national interest.

Upon the whole question the committee make
three quite reasonable proposals—viz., that provision
should be made for the completion and periodical
revision of the six-inch geological map, that
machinery should be devised for the scientific super-
vision of boreholes, and that power should be taken
for putting down boreholes in critical areas. With
regard to the desirability of these measures there
can scarcely be two opinions. The Royal Commis-
sion of 1905 recognised the inadequacy of existing
sources of information, and proposals were then laid
before the Home Secretary with the object of
expediting and extending the work of the Geological
Survey in the directions indicated. The estimated
increase in the cost of this department, amounting
to no more than £4,000 per annum, was, however,
too much for the Treasury to sanction. It was a
time of ruthless restriction of expenditure of this
particular character—a short-sighted policy for
which the country has since been called upon to pay
very heavily. Not even a modified scheme, involving
an annual increase of half the above sum, at that
time found favour The result is that we are
still lacking in knowledge of our coal resources. In
this respect we are certainly behind some other
great coal-producing countries, especially the United
States and Germany. The Geological Survey has, it
is true, accomplished much, considering the smallness
of its staff. It seems, however, never to have been
regarded as a necessary and permanent institution.
It has been attached now to one Government depart-
ment and now to another. It has been an appanage
in turn of the Board of Ordnance, Commissioners of

Woods and Works, the Science and Art Department
of the Board of Trade and the Board of ^Education.
The powers conferred upon the First Commissioner
of Works by the Geological Survey Act of 1845 do
not seem to have been transferred to the subsequent
departments, and there appears to be some doubt
whether officers of the Geological Survey any longer
possess even the right to enter upon private land for
the purpose of making a survey—at least, that is
what seems to be the purport of the note appended
by Mr. J. Kemp to the Geological Sub-Committee’s
report. The occasion is, therefore, opportune for the
reconstitution d the Geological Survey upon an
adequate basis ; and if a Ministry of Mines and
Minerals should hereafter be set up, surely the
Geological Survey should be transferred from the
Board of Education to the new authority.

It is highly instructive to study
German the manner in which Germany is
Trade After applying herself to the problem of
the War. trade reconstruction after the war.

In that country questions very simi-
lar to those existing in Great Britain have, of
course, arisen, and are already receiving attention.
Germany, for example, has her labour troubles like
every other nation, and the importance of recognising
this factor is fully realised. The German trade
unions have not been slow to foresee the possibilities
which the economic situation will afford of reaping
some advantage from the conditions that will arise
during the period of reconstruction. As in this
country, however, the problem is obscured by the
uncertainty of the result of the war, and the
measures proposed to be taken are tempered accord-
ingly. In the first place, a scheme has been
submitted to the Reichstag to ensure that the trade
unions shall have a voice in reconstruction questions,
and a Bill has been submitted to the Bundesrat for
the establishment of chambers of labour, with
conciliation committees and arbitration courts, com-
posed both of employers and employed, somewhat
on the lines of the Whitley scheme. In this scheme
the question of production occupies a prominent
position; but the German trade unions appear to be
much more enthusiastic upon its vital necessity than
is the case with the representatives of British labour.
From the remarks of Herr Winnig, a well-known
trade union leader, it is gathered that both in trade,
union and Socialist circles it is recognised that Labour
must be considered not only as a wage-earning body,
but as an indispensable part of the machinery of
production.

The Board of'Trade Journal has been giving of late
a considerable amount of attention to the details of
German reconstruction plans, and these deserve close
attention in this country, where there appears to be
a too prevalent feeling that measures of this kind
can be left until peace is attained. The danger of
apathy or a lukewarm attitude towards these ques-
tions, however, is obvious; for it would be regrettable
if we allowed Germany to forestal us in peace prepa-
rations in the same way as we were forestalled in
preparing for war. The Bill referred to above
provides in effect not only for the establishment of an
equivalent to our proposed joint industrial councils,
but also to the formation of workmen’s committees in
all businesses where twenty or more workmen are
employed. The chambers of labour will be specially
charged with the duty of dealing with all questions
affecting labour, including wages, co-operation with
employers for increasing output, improving the
standard of work, and generally raising the standard
of living of the working classes, in the joint interests
of both capital and labour.

The text of the Chambers of Labour Bill, which is
now in the committee stage in the Reichstag, is not,
as might be supposed, a mere copy of the Whitley
scheme, with such adjustments and modifications as
the Germans are so adept in clothing borrowed ideas.
Very similar demands were made by Herr Bebel in
1877, in a Bill submitted to the Reichstag. Since
then the chambers of labour scheme has been a
prominent feature of the programme of the Social
Democratic Party, but all efforts to pass a Bill
through the Reichstag have hitherto been defeated.
Works committees, too, have already been in exist-
ence in Germany for many years in the shape of
welfare committees. An Act passed in 1911
empowered such committees in certain branches of
industry to report to the State and local authorities
upon schemes for industrial and economic improve-
ments, and the National Civilian Service Law of
1916 made the establishment of works committees
compulsory in all concerns engaged in works of
national importance where at least 50 workmen were
employed. The essential function of these com-
mittees was to promote harmony, both amongst the
workers, and between them and the employers. The
committees had to sit under the chairmanship of
the employer or his representative.

In the criticisms in the Reichstag with regard to
the new Chambers of Labour Bill, one of the main
points of difference between the Government and the
Labour representatives was as to whether these
chambers should be set up on a vocational or a terri-
torial basis. The discussion which has taken place,
both in the Reichstag and in the Press, reveals
many interesting aspects of the labour question in
Germany—more particularly with reference to the