May 2, 1913.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

919

MOTES FROM SOUTH WALES.

[from our own correspondent.]

Demand for 2$ per cent. Increase of Wages—Notices
Against Non-unionists Terminate: No Risk of
General Stoppage — Trimmers’ Action Against
Non-unionism in the Docks — Progress in the
Amman Valley—More Trouble over the Doctor
Question—Plucky Rescue in a Shaft Accident—
Cardiff Company’s Bill for Raising Coal Rates —
Singularly Interesting Disclosure of Financial
Facts: Cost of Tips, Actual Doss on Coal Ship-
ment Alleged.

At its meeting next week the Conciliation Board
will have to deal with an application by the workmen
for per cent, (on the standard) increase of wages, this
bringing the figure to the maximum (60 per cent.).
Higher prices, heavy shipments, and good trade
prospects are the reasons to be urged in support of the
application.

The workmen’s notices against the non-unionists
terminated on Wednesday evening; and Thursday was a
time of general demonstration, meetings being held in
every part of the district. It had been resolved that
work should not be resumed in collieries where non-
unionists failed to join the Federation ; but the returns
from the different districts show that no general
stoppage will occur. Several areas are practically clear
of non-unionists, and no further trouble is anticipated
in them. Mr. Watts Morgan stated on Monday that
the conditions were very favourable in the Rhondda,
large numbers of men having come in, and that one
lodge had received within the past fortnight six to seven
hundred men. Mr. T. Richards, M.P., speaking at
Bed was, urged the men to join the Federation voluntarily
otherwise they would have to come in compulsorily.
The 2% per cent, increase in wages now sought would
put £126,000 into their pockets during the next three
months. Mr. W. Brace, M.P., president, said in the
course of a speech at Merthyr that after May 1 every
man and boy at the collieries must be a member of the
Federation, which was a power both industrially and
politically.

At a meeting of the coal trimmers in Cardiff on
Sunday it was reported that the campaign against non-
unionism was still progressing satisfactorily, but that
there still remained 100 outside, most of whom had,
however, made promise to pay up.

The development of the Amman Valley, Carmar-
thenshire, is one of the most satisfactory features in the
coal trade of the western district, the population having
doubled in about 10 years. Progress is continuous, and
hundreds of additional houses are being put up. Lord
Dynevor and other local landlords insist upon a superior
type of semi-detached cottages, with good gardens, so
that the district in many parts contrasts strikingly with
the ordinary mining town. The local authorities have
now decided to put a secondary school in the Valley,
and in every direction great development is anticipated.
The new railway from Cwmgorse to Swansea will
undoubtedly further this development materially,
inasmuch as it gives a more direct and cheaper route
for shippers.

The Great Western Colliery Company have struck
what is believed to be the Ff orest Fach seam at Llantwit
Vardre, near Pontypridd, this being the first seam to be
reached, and proving to be about 13 in. in thickness*
Very soon, now, it is expected one of the chief seams
will be struck. It is expected that this new colliery at
Cwm will be one of the largest in South Wales, with
thousands of tons of output per day.

On Saturday a conference took place in Pontypool
between representatives of the colliery owners of the
district, the Eastern Valleys Medical Association, the
Workmen’s Medical Aid Society, and #lso of the miners’
district executive. From the doctors, information was
received that they could not accept the men’s proposals
for constituting committees of control at the collieries,
and they declined to accept the principle of control
embodied in the men’s scheme. These and other diffi-
culties were discussed, and the employers’ representa-
tives promised to give consideration to the question of
stopping poundage. In the adjoining valley the work-
men and the medical men are in negotiation on the
same subject, and at a meeting on Saturday a deputation
was selected to meet representatives ot the Medical Aid
Committee and also the Cdunty Insurance Committee.

A serious accident at the Llewellyn pit at Gilfach
Goch occurred at mid-day on Sunday in a new colliery
shaft which is being sunk by the Cambrian Combine.

Part of the shaft fell into a stage where seven men were
at work, precipitating the men into the sump, where
four of them were drowned. In order to ascertain their
fate, it was necessary that someone should be lowered
by a rope about 70 yards, and this risky venture was
undertaken by Mr. Thomas Thomas, the chief mechanical
engineer, who found three of the men alive, but immersed
in the water up to their armpits. Mr. Thomas attached
a rope to the injured men, and they were drawn up one
by one. A glowing tribute to his plucky work was paid
Mr. Thomas by Mr. Leonard Llewellyn, the general
manager. Mr. Llewellyn stated that the saving of the
three men was undoubtedly due to Mr. Thomas going
down the rope, as half-an-hour later the men would have
been drowned by the rising water in the shaft.

At Tredegar, on Saturday, Henry Saunders and
Alexander Griffiths were publicly presented each with a
gold watch from the trustees of the Carnegie Hero
Fund, and the directors of Graham Navigation Collieries,
Sirhowy, added gold chains. These were awarded ’for
conspicuous bravery in rescuing a fellow-workman
buried beneath a fall in September last. The presenta-
tion was made by Mr. H. J. Thomas, Cardiff, one of the
directors. Both recipients had previously been decorated
by the King with the King Edward Medal.

Recognising Mr. Henry Davies’ work in organising
and carrying through the examination of over 8,000
firemen, the Glamorgan Committee have voted him a
sum of £100, the duties having been exceptionally
onerous, and he having manifested extraordinary energy
in carrying them out.

The mining students of Glamorgan have had tours
arranged for them not only in the North of England
and Cornwall, but also in Germany ; and the latter party
will be personally conducted by Mr. Henry Davies. The
British consul has obtained permission from the Mining
Association of Saxony and the Government for visits to
be paid to the best mines in that area.

A party of mining students under the Monmouth
County lecturer (Mr. Thomas) have visited the new shaft
being sunk at Victoria by the Ebbw Vale Company.
An old shaft is being deepened and made circular, so
as more conveniently to reach the several seams which
are being worked.

Cardiff Railway Company’s Bill, which has for some
days been under investigation by a Committee of the
House of Lords, is of surpassing concern to the coal
trade in this district, both for what it directly embodies,
and what it may indirectly entail. Its most conspicuous
provision is the doubling of the rate for shipping coal;
and if Cardiff Company secure such powers as to raise
their maximum from 2d. to 4d., it is a practical certainty
that the other local docks will follow Cardiff in raising
the charge. It is not suggested that the full maximum
rate would be levied, although at the present time Cardiff
is exercising its full powers.

The evidence throughout has been singularly
interesting by its disclosure of the financial side of
dock working in relation to the coal trade, and some
extracts, covering the chief points, are worth repro-
duction here.

A case was made out against shipowners rather
than coal traders. It was shown that, owing to the
increase in size and height of vessels, which necessitated
deepening of the docks, lengthening of locks, &c.,
considerable addition had been made to the cost of
operation. Larger tips had to be provided. When the
present rates were fixed in 1865, the trucks to be handled
were from 4 to 6 tons, but they are at present from 10 to
12 tons, with the prospect of being made still larger.
Wagons had increased in size, requiring, of course,
larger tips and other mechanism for their handling.

Alteration in the mode of ship measurement had
proved most deleterious to the dock companies, for they
are permitted to charge only upon “ registered ” ton-
nage, and a vessel of 1,000 tons register would carry
ordinarily 2,400 tons of coal, and there were many cases
in which these carried more than 3,000 tons of coal per
1,000 tons net register. At Liverpool, the charge at the
present time was considerably higher than Cardiff were
now asking as a maximum. As regards the actual
loading of coal, whereas in 1885 Cardiff Company were
making a profit of 0’28d. per ton, they were in 1912
sustaining a loss of 0 08d. per ton.

The collector of dues said that, whereas a tip in
1865 cost £1,200, at the present time it cost from £7,000

to £13,000, and in the earlier year there were only
15 steamers using Cardiff of 2,000 tons and over, whereas
last year there were 1,927 such vessels.

It was, however, stated in evidence that if the
increased charges now being levied for the mixing of
coal were made all round, this alone would produce an
increased revenue of £7,000 per annum.

Answering questions, one witness said that if the
full powers sought in this Bill were exercised it would
yield the company (upon the trade of last year) an
increased revenue of £186,000, which would enable them
to pay 7 per cent, on the whole of the capital—pro-
ductive and otherwise. It was admitted in cross-
examination that one of the companies among the coal
and iron freighters of Newport would have to pay an
extra £3,000 a year by the imposition of the maximum
charges proposed in this Bill; and that 10 per cent, of
the whole of the traffic at Cardiff came from the
members of the Monmouthshire Coal and Iron
Freighters’ Association. It was alleged that the opera-
tion of mixing coal at Cardiff resulted at present in a
loss to the company; for not only was the payment for
mixing a smaller amount than the cost of the opera-
tion, but it also hindered rapid loading, which hindrance
entailed further loss.

The staith master of the Cardiff Company said
that the tips at the East Dock had all had to be rebuilt
—most of them twice, and some of them three times—
owing to increase in size of vessels. This witness said
he knew it had been suggested that the Queen Dock
was not yet fully equipped; but four more new appliances
were now being supplied, and it was indeed within four
of being fully equipped. He did not agree that when
the dock had been fully equipped the pecuniary position
of the company would be improved by the extra trade.
The coal-shipping was being carried on at a loss;
the more they shipped at the present rate, as
regarded the actual shipping, the greater the loss
would be. The old appliances—the work being
less costly—made profit. The essence of the new
appliances was to enable the coal to be put into the
hold of the ship with the least breakage, and that went
purely to the advantage of the shippers. Having no
control over the railways which fed the dock, the
company could not ensure continuity of supply. Twenty-
five per cent, of their coal had to be dealt with in mixed
cargoes. Sometimes they got an order to mix as many
as 12 (or even more) sorts in one vessel; and one-fourth
of the time was lost in mixing, as well as the incurring
of a considerable extra cost to the company in the
operation. If a vessel took one sort of coal only, they
could load her in one-third of the time.

The Bill seeks to raise from 2d. to4d. the maximum
charge for tipping coal. When the rate of 2d. was
fixed in 1865 the price of coal was under 9s. per ton,
whereas now it is nearly double that sum.

The returns submitted to the Committee showed
extraordinary variation in the earnings of the dock after
the opening of the freighters’ competing dock at Barry
in 1889. The dividends of the Cardiff undertaking fell
from 5 to 3| per cent., and since then it has never
exceeded that amount, except when 3| per cent, was
paid in 1897. The dividends have been 3 per cent, from
1899 to 1910, and in 1911 they were 2 per cent., and in
1912 only J per cent.—and even that (according to the
statement presented) was not earned, the actual earning
being only 0’42. It was stated that of the total capital
of six-and-a-third millions, Lord Bute held nearly three-
and-three-quarter millions, and had made advances to
the extent of more than three-quarters of a million in
addition; and it was shown that in addition to the
dividends the sums due in respect of royalties, rents,
percentages, and mortgages amounted to over £38,000
in the year. But of this, £15,209 had been remitted by
Lord Bute in the first half-year—the period of the
strike.

Very much cross-examination was made as to why
the Cardiff Railway had not effected a junction of its
own railway with the Taff Vale undertaking; and it is a
remarkable fact that though the line is used, through
practically its whole length, for passenger traffic, the
junction with the Taff at its northern end has not been
made. The evidence given was that there was some
difficulty outstanding with the Taff Vale as to crossing
a small strip of land ; and further, that there was a lack
of capital, inasmuch as the actual making of the junction
and equipping the line would cost £100.000.

Most interesting in its bearing upon the coal trade
was the evidence of Mr. Geddes, deputy general