February 21, 1913.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

395

The campaign in the colliery districts of
Northumberland for the abolition of the three-
shift system, which came into vogue after the
passing of the Eight Hours Act, is drawing to a
dose. There is a greater disposition, however,
to act with discretion, and a meeting of the
council will be held on Tuesday next, when the
future policy will be discussed.

The threatened strike of miners in the North
Wales coalfield has been averted, the firemen
and shot-firers having agreed to accept the
terms offered by the Coalowners’ Association.
The men demanded a uniform rate, of wages, and
the masters offered an advance of 2s. per week.

A prolonged meeting of the Scottish Coal
Trade Conciliation Board was held in Glasgow
on Monday, in connection with the owners
daim for a reduction in the miners’ wages of
12| per cent. on the 1888 basis, equivalent to
6d. per day. The parties failed to agree, and
the meeting was adjourned. The Board will
meet in Edinburgh on Tuesday of next week,
with Lord Balfour of Burleigh as neutral chair-
man, to consider an application by the men for
an advance of 25 per cent.

Lord St. Aldwyn, independent chairman of
the South Wales Conciliation Board, sat at
Cardiff on the 16th inst., with reference to the
demand of the employers for a reduction in the
wage rate and of the workmen for an advance.
His lordship ultimately refused both applica-
tions, and the wage rate remains at 57 per cent.

An important paper by Dr, Walcot Gibson on
the Claverley boring and the westerly
extension of the South Staffordshire coalfield
was read before the South Staffordshire Institute
on Tuesday. An interesting discussion was
opened and adjourned.

The Miners’ Federation of Great Britain have
decided to introduce a Bill to amend the Eight
Hours Act rendering it an offence to connive at
a contravention of the Act. The Bill is the
result of the recent Braysdown action.

The Home Secretary has decided to hold a
formal investigation of the fatal accident
which occurred at the Rufford Pit on February 7,
and of its cause and circumstances, but he
proposes that the enquiry shall not take place
till after the conclusion of the inquest. Mr.
Mottram, H.M. divisional inspector of mines,
will represent the Home Office at the inquest,
and he will be instructed to reserve the Home
Office examination on technical points fora later
.investigation.

The Northumberland miners have decided to
apply for an increase in wages.

The Lancashire and Cheshire Miners’ Federa-
tion are leading an effort to obtain an advance of
5 per cent, in wages for the underground workers
in the English Federated area.

Mr. McKinnon Wood, Secretary for Scotland,
received several public deputations in Glasgow
on Wednesday, who advocated the construction
of a direct ship canal from Grangemouth to
Bowling, to link up the Forth and Clyde. It was
stated that the project was estimated to cost
27 millions sterling. One member of the depu-
tation asked for £1,000 to cover the cost of
additional preliminary borings, and another
suggested that the Government should be
responsible for the whole cost of construction.
Mr. McKinnon Wood expressed surprise at the
demand. He was, he added, receiving other
deputations on the same question, and would
consequently defer his definite opinion.

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
on Wednesday decided to approve leave to
appeal in the action of the King and
Another v. The Adelaide Steamship Com-
pany Limited and Others, This is

the important case known as the “ Coal
Vend” prosecution. The respondents are
a large number of companies engaged in
the coal trade, and the High Court of Australia,
reversing a decision of Mr. Justice Isaacs, after a
hearing lasting 73 days, decided that the inten-
tion of the parties had been to put the coal trade
on a satisfactory basis, and that there was no
intent to restrain trade to the detriment of the
public.

On Wednesday the Railways and Trade
Unions Bills were both read a third time in
the House of Lords. During the progress of
the former through the House, the Government
inserted a new clause to limit the application of
the Act to five years, and after that period to
put it into the Expiring Laws Continuance Act;
but, after considerable discussion, their lordships
decided to omit the new clause.

We give to - day the second
The Coal article, by Sir Ralph Ashton,
Industry of upon the coal industry of India.

India, In the former article* the rapid
growth of the industry was
reviewed—the annual output of coal having
increased, in 27 years, from about 1 million
tons in 1881 to nearly 13 million tons in 1908 ;
and it was shown that the coal trade of India
has developed in direct proportion to the facilities
of transport, but that the latter now show signs
of failing.

In the present article Sir Ralph Ashton deals
with the future of the coal industry of India,
and points out that the value of a retrospect is
mainly measured by the facility or otherwise
which it gives forjudging of the future.

In the course of the expansion of the output
of coal from 1881 to 1908, referred to above,
there were four checks—in 1884, 1892,1896 and
1902. These checks possess a peculiar signifi-
cance, for they were invariably preceded by
temporary low prices, and consequent pause in
development, followed in a short time by a
scarcity of coal and very high prices, which were
successively relieved by the extension of railways
along a new line of easily worked outcrop. At
the commencement of the period under review
the railway facilities were poor, and the increased
annual output, from about 1 million tons in 1881
to nearly 2^ million tons in 1891, was insufficient
to meet requirements, and scarcity was felt.

In 1893 the Jherriah coalfield was opened up
by the East Indian Railway Company, and
during the three years 1890 to 1893 considerable
railway expansion took place, affording addi-
tional facilities to both the Jherriah and Ranee-
gunge coalfields. In consequence of this the
market became flooded with coal, and the best
Jherriah coal was sold with difficulty at
Rs. 1 annas 12 per ton.

During the second decade of the period (1891
to 1901) demand and production increased
rapidly, although the latter failed to keep pace
with the former. Towards 1903, however, the
increased Jherriah output enabled the supply to
catch up and get ahead of the demand. From
this point the increase became very rapid,
reaching nearly 13 million tons in 1908. This
was largely the effect of natural industrial
expansion, but a considerable factor was the
widespread desire to profit by the “ boom ” by
disposing of as much coal as possible at the
prevailing high prices.

It is not surprising, therefore, that production
was overdone, and when the general trade
depression reached India in 1908, that there was

* The previous article appeared in the Colliery
Guardian, February 14,1913.

a reaction and the output dropped nearly
one million tons. The remarkable feature was,
however, that the check to production was not
followed on this occasion by a fall in prices to
the previous low level.

The check to production lasted only a year,
and the million tons drop was recovered in 1911.
Sir Ralph Ashton points out, however, that the
conditions are different from those of former
years, and that there are not now those prospects
of relief that quickly reduced prices through
increased raisings. Every promising outcrop in
both the Raneegunge and Jherriah fields has now
been opened up and connected by rail, and relief
from other existing areas, or recourse to new
ones hold out but little comfort.

The hope of the future continues to be placed
in the old fields, which probably still contain
enormous supplies of coal at lower depths, but
this hope is tempered with the fear that the
burning up of the coal, through the agency of
trap dykes—only too familiar in the Jherriah
field—may have still more seriously affected the
lower seams.

In Sir Ralph Ashton’s opinion, relief from
the present position, and provision for the
future increased demands of trade, can only be
attained by the expenditure of large capital
sums in deep shafts, or larger sums in the
extension of railways. Turning from the
problem of supply to that of the probable future
demand, it would appear to be a fair estimate
that the normal expansion of railways will, by
1932, involve a total consumption of 10,000,000
tons of coal per annum. Taking the railway
consumption as amounting to 25 per cent, of the
total consumption, India will probably require,
by 1932, about 40,000,000 tons of coal per annum.
This industrial demand will be the consequence
of the expansion of iron and steel undertakings,
and the brick and tile, jute, and cotton trades,
electric power stations and domestic fuel supply.

Sir Ralph Ashton winds up his interesting
articles by saying that it may, in fact, be
expected that from the present time the expan-
sion of India’s trade will largely depend on the
facility there may be for getting the coal. In
view of the fact that getting coal implies its
rapid transportation from the mine to the
industry, and that the present transport facilities
are very far from satisfactory, it may reasonably
be asked if the enormous sum of money required
for the removal of the capital of India from the
industrial centre of Calcutta to the more romantic
Delhi would not be better expended upon
improvement in the railway accommodation.

In The Times Engineering Supple-
W hat is an ment this week an account is given
Amateur ? of a lecture on “ Chemistry Applied
to Coalmining,” delivered recently
before the Liverpool Section of the Society, of
Chemical Industry, by Dr. John Harger. Con-
sidering the composition of firedamps in mines,
the lecturer said that " the method of analysis
adopted by the Home Office assumed that the
inflammable part of firedamp consisted of
nothing but methane. If any other combustible
gas was present the analyses were incorrect.”
The lecturer then proceeded to show that not
only was the firedamp in many mines not pure
methane, but that gas coming from old wastes
very often contained very large quantities of
hydrocarbons, heavier than methane, and said
that in some experiments with gases sucked off
from coal by a vacuum, hydrocarbons four times
as heavy as methane had been found. The
lecturer then remarked that, considering the lack
of experience of the Home Office staff in such
matters, it would have been a prudent course to