652 THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN. March 28, 1913. unchanged on the week. There is a well-sustained demand for all qualities at firm prices. Coking fuel continues very scarce and dear. Prices at pit. Current Last week’s Best house coals prices. 14/6 prices. 14/6 Secondary do 12/6 12/6 Cobbles 12/ 12/ Nuts 11/ 11/ Slack 9/ W IRON. The fact that the holidays have been of much shorter duration than they have been for several years past speaks well for the satisfactory condition of the iron trade of the district. Work at all the local establishments is abundant, and enquiries for forward delivery, both for pig iron and manufactured bars, are numerous. Prospects have never been more encouraging. Nottingham, COAL There is not much to report concerning the coal trade of Nottinghamshire in the past week. It has been characterised by the holiday spirit, and at the time of writing business has not got into full swing again. The holiday has been a welcome break to all those connected with the management of collieries. Most of the pits in this district did not resume work until Wednesday. In the domestic fuel section there is no rush of orders, as mer- chants and also the public are purchasing only for imme- diate requirements in the hope that prices will decline next month. The position of steam coals is improving, and following on the brisk demand just before the holiday some collieries have a fair amount of orders in hand, whilst it is expected the demand for export will materially increase in a week or two. Slacks of nearly all qualities continue in good request. The sale of gas coal is satisfactory. Prices at pithead. Hand-picked brights ...... Good house coals.......... Secondary do.............. Best hard coals .......... Secondary do................ Slacks (best hards)....... Do. (seconds).......... Do. (soft)............. Current prices. 12/ to 13/ 11/6 to 12/6 10/6 to 11/6 11/6 to 12/3 10/6 to 11/ 8/ to 9/ 7/6 to 8/ 7/6 to 8/3 Last week's prices. 11/6 to 13/ 11/ to 12/6 10/6 to 11/6 11/6 to 12/ 10/6 to 11/ 8/3 to 8/9 7/6 to 8/ 7/6 to 8/3 Leicestershire. COAL. Business was generally resumed on Wednesday, and the balance of this week will be a busy time. There is a very good amount of business on hand, and buyers are moving considerably this week. The outlook continues to be of a very favourable character. Local merchants this week are busier, rather a usual thing after some days' cessation of business. The demand is practically for all descriptions of coals, household coals of all sorts, and steam coals as well are being inquired for. Merchants are also taking fully their season orders. The collieries as a rule are holding light stocks, and their small dimensions will be much reduced by the present demand. The quotations show no particular alteration. There is, if anything, rather more firmness. The usual spring buying is commencing, and season orders are accepted only at an advance on last season's quotations. Colliery owners apparently are quite firm in holding out for the full lately current quotations, and any downward movement appears quite unlikely. South Staffordshire, North Worcestershire and Warwickshire. Hednesford. COAL. In consequence of the Easter holidays this has been a slack week, for most of the collieries were lying idle on Friday, Monday and Tuesday, and it will probably take another day or two to get into full swing again. There is not very much coal in stock and orders are coming in fairly well, so the collieries will probably be kept busy for some time. The cold weather is helping to keep up the demand for house coal, so there is no change of consequence to report in the house coal trade. The enquiry for coal for manufac- turing purposes continues satisfactory, and slack is in good request. A fairly brisk business is being done at the land- sale depots. Birmingham. COAL. A few days must elapse before the new prices can be ascertained, as a good many of the collieries have not yet issued their lists. It is anticipated that the house fuel contracts will be placed at slightly lower figures. Business in this department has been wonderfully brisk, having been stimulated by the cold weather. For manufacturing fuel and slack a good deal of pressure exists. Quotations:— Prices at pit. Staffordshire (including Cannock Chase):— House coal, best deep..... Do. seconds deep Do. best shallow Do. seconds do. Best hard............... Forge coal.............. Slack .................. Warwickshire:— House coal, best Ryder ... Do. hand - pickeo cobs ................. Best hard spires ....... Forge (steam)........... D.S. nuts (steam) ...... Small (do.) ...... Current prices. Last week's prices. 18/ 18/ 16/6 16/6 14/6 14/6 13/ 13/ 14/ 14 11/ H/ 8/6 8/6 17/6 17/6 13/9 13/9 14/6 14/6 10/ 10/ 9/3 9/3 8/3 8/3 IRON. There were still many absentees owing to holiday interruptions. Wednesday and Thursday saw a resumption at the bulk of the works in the district, but at others, where repairs are being carried out, operations will not be commenced till Monday. The market, therefore, produced very little business, and afforded practically no test of prices. The number of enquiries, however, is considerable. Consumers must come on the market soon with new contracts, and provided they can obtain reasonable quota- tions buying will be on a fairly large scale. Meantime there is no change to record in any department. Standard bars are £10 a ton; merchant qualities £8 5s. to .£8 7s. 6d.; and common iron £7 15s. to £8 delivered Darlaston and district. The official minimum for Lancashire and North Staffordshire crown bars remains at £8 15s., and of Yorkshire bars at £9. Trade in high class hoops is languid, and current prices are £8 10s. to £8 12s. 6d. per ton at works, and strong gauges and iron hoops are quite 5s. per ton less. Galvanised sheets, black sheets, and gas-strip are unaltered. Makers of railway carriages and wagons have secured a good deal of new business, in addition to contracts under- taken last year, and the principal makers of cables and anchors find no falling off in the demand for the great shipbuilding centres in England and Scotland. In the steel trade generally work is more plentiful than in the iron branches. The quotation for Continental joists is £6 17s. 6d. compared with £7 5s. for British products. Forest of Doon. Lydney. COAL. The steam coals of this district continue in heavy request, and it is found impossible to meet the demand, the Easter holidays having still further aggravated the situation. Contract supplies are taking up a large portion of the output, so that current business is much neglected. The house coal pits, too, are doing better than for some time; stocks are practically cleared, and the daily output is con- signed straight away to the buyer. Substantial shipments are made, and the collieries are well supplied with empties. Orders for the railborne districts are satisfactory. Prices at pithead. Current Last week's House coals:— prices. prices. Block 16/6 16/6 Forest ....'. 15/6 15/6 Rubble 15/9 15/9 Nuts 14/ 14/ Rough slack 10/ 10/ Steam coal:— Large 13/ to 14/ 13/ to 14/ Small 10/ toll/ 10/6 toll/ Prices Is. 9d. extra f.o.b. Lydney or Sharpness. THE TIN-PLATE TRADE. Liverpool. Business has been very slow the last week or so owing to the holidays. The general position is unchanged. There has been a fair amount of buying for quick delivery, but the forward trade is almost at a standstill, and prices of all descriptions show no improvement. Current rates are about as follow: — Coke tins: I C 14 x 20 (112 sh. 1081b.), 13s. 10|d. to 14s. per box; I C 28 x 20 (112 sh. 2161b.), 28s. to 28s. 3d. per box; I C 28 x 20 (56 sh. 108 lb.), 14s. 3d- to 14s. 6d. per box; I C 14 x 18f (124 sh. 110 lb.), 14s. 3d. to 14s. 6d. per box; I C 14 x 19| (120 sh. 110 lb.), 14s. 3d. to 14s. 6d. per box ; I C 20 x 10 (225 sh. 156 lb.), 21s. per box; I C squares and odd sizes, 14s. 3d. to 14s. 6d. basis. Ternes are easy at 25s. for I C 28 x 20, and charcoal tins run 16s. basis and upwards according to tinning. Coke wasters are quoted:—C W 14 x 20, 13s. per box; C W 28 x 20, 25s. 9d. to 26s. per box; C W 14 x 18f, 13s. per box; C W 14 x 19|, 13s. 6d. per box; C W 20 x 10, 18s. 6d. per box—all f.o.b. Wales, less 4 per cent. Keirby (John E.) and Sons Limited.—This private company has been registered, with a capital of £5,000 in £1 shares, to take over the business of mechanical engineer, &c., carried on by John E. Keirby at Worsley-road, Swinton, Lancs. First directors, J. E. Keirby, Mrs. C. Keirby, and E. Keirby. LABOUR AND WAGES. North of England. At a meeting of the executive committee of the Durham Miners’ Association, held on Saturday, in the Miners’ Hall, at Durham, a proposal that the cavilling system be abolished, was defeated. As a result of the action of the Siddick winding enginemen in leaving the Cumberland Colliery Engine- men’s and Firemen’s Association, the members of that body have decided, by an almost unanimous vote, to hand in 14 days’ notice to their respective employers to leave their employment, and by these means compel them to rejoin the association. An advance in wages has been secured by the Cumberland Iron Ore Miners and Kindred Trades’ Association. Hitherto, the make-up on the minimum wage of the miners was 6s. 3d., and the bargain price 7s. These have now been increased to 6s. 9d. per shift and 7s. lid. respectively. The labourers are to receive 5s. 6d. per shift, the advances to date back to March 17. This is the highest rate of wages ever paid to the iron ore miners in the history of the association. Federated Area. At the last monthly meeting of the council of the Leicestershire Miners’ Association, the agent (Mr. L. Lovett) reported that it had been agreed by the representatives of the coalowners’ and men’s associa- tions to submit the dispute over the application of the 5 per cent, advance on the minimum wage to the Conciliation Board asking for their view as to the proper method of applying the same. Correspondence between the agent and Mr. Bridgman, of Leicester, secretary for the coalowners’ side of the Joint Wages Board, was read, and the agent stated that his case was ready last week, and he was waiting for an answer from Mr. Bridgman to his last suggestions on the matter. The agent was instructed to ask the owners to submit their case as soon as possible, as the council thought it was time the matter was settled. The agent reported the receipt of a letter from Mr. T. Y. Hay (secretary to the Leicestershire Coalowners’ Association) on the subject of banksmen’s wages, and the agent was instructed to ask for a joint meeting of representatives of the two associations at an early date to further consider the matter. The executive of the Pendlebury branch of the Lancs and Cheshire Miners’ Federation met on the 20th inst. to deal with the situation which has arisen at the collieries of Messrs. Knowles and Sons as a result of 50 miners resigning from the Federation. In the after- noon a deputation, headed by Mr. J. Butler, miners’ agent, waited on Mr. Bramall, the general manager, to obtain the assistance of the management in getting the men to resume their membership. The meeting decided that unless the seceding members paid their contribu- tions by Tuesday, steps should be taken to withdraw the unionist workmen. A meeting under the auspices of the Pelsall District Miners’ Association was held on the 20th inst., at Bloxwich, Mr. F. J. Dean (agent to the association) said that on April 7 every union man in the district would be asked when he went to work to wear his badge and to refuse to descend the pit with a non-unionist.— Mr. R. Smillie (president of the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain and of the Scottish Miners’ Federation), who supported the resolution, said it was prophesied that the strike of last year would kill the Miners’ Federation, but that organisation was as strong to-day in numbers as it had ever been in its history, and he was looking forward to the end of the present year adding at least 100,000 members. As regarded the British Federation, he regretted that in Staffordshire the miners were not so well organised as they ought to be. Staffordshire was not so well organised as 80 per cent, of the districts in the Federation. He had always been opposed to forcing men into the union, but there came a time when the parting of the ways was reached and when other methods must be adopted for dealing with men who were not amenable to reason. Conse- quently the Federation had decided that a special effort should be made this year to ensure that every mine worker should be connected with the Federation. At a meeting on the following day at Brownhills, Mr. Albert Stanley, M.P., stated that in spite of all the gloomy forebodings of the employers as to the increased cost of production that was going to ensue through the Eight Hours Act and other measures passed for the benefit of the workers, the men were putting out more coal per man to-day under shorter hours and better conditions than had ever been the case since coal was got in this country. They now had access to sources of information which had been closed to them before, and from the head of the Inland Revenue Department they had secured figures of every colliery in the Federated area. This return showed that in the three years from 1909 to 1911, inclusive, the profits of the