May 2, 1913. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN. 921 The ambulance competitions in connection with the No. 6 district of the St. John Ambulance Brigade were held at Newcastle on Saturday. The silver challenge shield for the championship of Northumberland, Durham and North-East Yorkshire was won by the Dawdon Colliery team, the winners of the Durham bronze shield and the Donald Bain challenge shield, the Carl division of the Ashington corps being second. The Dawdon team consequently go to London to compete for the Dewar shield, at present held by the Murton Colliery team. The Deputy-Commissioner's bowl was won by the Birtley division, who also won the Palmer bowl, restricted to mining teams. The Burdon nursing challenge cup was won by the Hull central division, Pelaw being second. The Deputy - Commissioner (Mr. C. B. Palmer), in announcing the results of the competitions, remarked that at the present time there were 132 divisions in the No. 6 district of the brigade, representing a member- ship of 3,715. Speaking at the annual dinner in connection with the Mansfield Colliery Ambulance Brigade, which was held on Saturday evening, April 26, Mr. J. P. Houfton, J.P., paid a tribute to the members of the brigade who did such splendid work on the occasion of the recent disaster at Rufford Colliery. Mr. A. Davis, one of the chief officers of the brigade, said that on receipt of the news of the calamity he asked for 12 volunteers and obtained 70 responses. The members walked all the way to Ruff ord, faced their gruesome task like men, and reverently discharged their last duties to the dead. Mr. Francis Glover, M E., formerly underlooker at the Wellington Collieries, Ladysmith, has just been appointed superintendent of the Princeton Coal and Lime Company at Princeton, Canada. Mr. Glover is a mining engineer with extensive experience in coalmining in the deep mines of Lancashire and Yorkshire. He is the son of Mr. B. B. Glover, and was for some years assistant manager at Messrs. Ackers, Whitley and Co.'s extensive collieries near Wigan. Mr. John S. Burrows, mining engineer, of Green Hall, Atherton, has been elected to represent that township on the Lancashire County Council. The Tyldesley District Council have passed plans for the erection of storerooms for explosives at Messrs. J. Roscoe and Sons' New Lester Collieries, Mort-lane, Tyldesley. Mr. John R)dney, oversman, Neilsland Colliery, Hamilton, has been appointed manager to Messrs. Wm. Baird and Co. at their Auchencruive Colliery, Ayrshire. The employees and officials at Neilsland Colliery have presented him with a handsome gold watch on the occasion of his departure. At a meeting of the East Lothian local authority held in Haddington on the 25th ult., the question of the outbreak of glanders among the ponies in Prestongrange Colliery, belonging to the Summer lee Iron Company Limited, Coat- bridge, was further dealt with. The board resolved to abide by their condition as to the ponies being brought to the pit-head or pit-bottom, and to inform the company that they did not propose to do anything until they saw how the ponies which had not been tested turned out. They also resolved to communicate the matter to the Board of Agriculture. The Yorkshire branch of the Association of Mining Electrical Engineers held the last meeting of the winter session at the Royal Victoria Station Hotel, Sheffield, on Saturday. A comparatively small attendance was presided over by Mr. H. H. Jenkins. The election of branch officers for the ensuing year was as follows:—President, Mr. H. H. Jenkins (Sheffield); vice-presidents, Prof. F. E. Armstrong (SheffieldUniversity) Prof.D. Bowen (Leeds University), and Mr. W. Maurice (Sheffield) ; hon. secretary, Mr. J. A. McLay (Leeds).—Mr. Mellor complained that nothing had resulted from the decision of the branch (on his suggestion) to ask that the date of the examinations should coincide with the end of the terms of the local technical schools and universities, so that students could avail themselves of these courses in preparing for the examinations.— Mr. Conder said the matter had been brought before the general council of the whole association, but they decided to adhere to the March date for examinations. The question is to be again considered by the council. It was reported that several interesting summer excursions are being arranged. A paper on " Cable Jointing and Junction Boxes," by Mr. C. Jones, A.M.I.E E, was read. Mr. George Knox, who was head of the Mining and Technical Department of the Wigan Mining College from 1904 to 1913, and who has left for South Wales, has been presented with an oak roll top desk by past and present students, and with a framed photograph of the staff, and a study chair, by the staff of the college. Eulogistic references were made, at the presentation ceremonies, to Mr. Knox's services in Wigan, and subsequently a complimentary dinner to Mr. Knox was given. The Killochan Coal Company Limited have appointed Mr. Blake, of the Sidle wood Collieries, Hamilton, as colliery manager at their Bargany and Dalquharran pits, Dailly, near Girvan. Developments are in progress in the coal- mining industry in Carrick. The company are sinking a new shaft at Bargany Pit to a depth of 120 fathoms, and have now nearly attained the required depth. Good progress is being made at the new Maxwell Pit, on the Dalquharran estate. Electric haulage is to be introduced. Mr. Sydney Richards, late overman at Kemberton Colliery, Madeley, Shropshire, has been appointed under-manager of the Arscott Collieries, near Shrewsbury. The sinking of the new winding shaft at the Oughterside Colliery, near Maryport, from the Ten-quarter seam to the Yard band seam, has been successfully carried out. The coal is reported to be of excellent quality. Reports from New York state that a powerful German combination, at the head of which is the Deutsches Kohlen Depot Gesellschaft of Hamburg, and representing 15 associated German steamship lines, has taken the advan- tage of the policy announced by the United States Govern- ment to lease and construct the necessary coal docks at Panama. The British Royal Mail Steamship Company, who own a pier at Colon and an island on the Pacific side of the Panama, are stated to be about to make a similar , application. The Lowmoor Company, Lowmoor, near Bradford, are just making the change from beehive to by-product ovens. The installation is to consist, in the first instance, of a battery of 25 Koppers regenerative ovens. ____ the ovens, the plant is to include a by-product plant for extracting tar and for producing sulphate of ammonia by Koppers' direct recovery process. A benzol plant is also to be erected for the production of crude benzol, and the whole is arranged for subsequent extension, the by-product plant, in the first instance, being made capable of dealing with the gases from 50 ovens. The installation is to include a coal, compressing and charging plant, comprising a fixed stamping station and a combined coal charging and coke-pushing engine. For quenching the coke, a Darby patent quencher is provided, supplied with water, by means of a duplex pump, at a pressure of 80 lb. per square inch. The Tinsley Park Colliery Company Limited, of Sheffield, are now installing a battery of 40 Koppers regenerative ovens* complete with by-product plant (for dealing with the gases from 50 ovens) for extracting tar and for producing sulphate of ammonia by the direct process, and also a plant for the recovery of crude benzol. The plant is further complete with subsidiary machinery, comprising a service butiker of 600 tons capacity, with elevator and distributing c: nveyor, an electrically-operated combined coal-compressing and coke*discharging machine, cooling and quenching water pumps, a water-cooling frame, and two Lancashire boilers. The latter are to have all necessary gas-firing arrangements. The chimney is to be 150 ft. high, 6ft. 6in. internal diameter at the top, and is to be provided with a firebrick lining 35 ft. high. I_____________________________ Doncaster and the Coal Trade.—Responding to the toast of “ The Industries of Doncaster and Neighbourhood," at the municipal banquet, held at the Mansion House last week, Mr. J. Greensmith, agent of the Brodsworth Main Colliery Company, remarked there seemed to be some little grievance a short time ago, when Doncaster became a colliery centre, and it was said farming and collieries did not go well together. This had not been his experience at Brodsworth, where they got on very well together, and there was no reason why they should not. The Great Northern Railway treated them very well in Doncaster, and they went well together—no coal, no traffic, without wagons the collieries could not work. He knew the Doncaster Corporation was looked upon as being a little bit asleep, and there must be some excuse for them, because collieries in other parts of the country had sprung up at nothing like the speed at which they had come in the Doncaster district, and this was a very strong point for the Doncaster Corporation. (Applause.) At Brodsworth they now had • a fairly large output, and quite a town had sprung up. Mr. Greensmith urged the Corporation to proceed with the scheme of trams for Woodlands. He remarked that the model village was quite successful. They all realised they could not bring people from other towns where there were colliery villages, house them close together and make them model citizens in five minutes. He looked upon the model village as not so much for this generation as for the next, and it was already having its effect. So far as the question of housing was concerned, he believed if the trams could be brought to Brodsworth they would soon have a very large estate develop. A good out- put meant wages to the colliers, and money to the colliers meant money coming into Doncaster. The speaker pointed out that the hospital accommodation in Doncaster was not sufficient in view of the colliery development. With regard to the future of the coalfield to the east, he felt there were very many mining difficulties to be faced, and it was a pity in many ways they had had to send over for the Germans to help them out of some of these. He hoped they would be successful in getting down in the two main collieries to the east, and that when the promoters got there they would find a seam of the value they expected. He hoped the Corporation would assist the colliery trade all they could, and, as far as the trade was concerned, it would do the same.—Mr. Shaw, of Sheffield, also responded, and remarked that a miner was not the sordid individual some people thought he was, and was quite capable of all the good qualities that existed among better educated men The miners wanted some consideration. Was it simply to be working and slaving with none of those little enjoyments and luxuries which other men expected who engaged in enterprise ? He urged the miner should not be treated simply as a money-making machine. (Applause.) MINERAL OWNERS’ ASSOCIATION OF GREAT BRITAIN. Annual Report. In the second general annual report by the committee to the members of this association it is stated that the congestion of business in tfie Law Courts is mainly respon- sible for the committee being unable to make any definite statement as to the decisions arrived at in the different test actions in which mineral owners are interested. The cross appeals from the decision of Mr. Justice Hamilton relating to the case of the Duke of Beaufort, a member of the association, and the Inland Revenue, came before the Court of Appeal on July 26, 1912, and the Court, having pointed out to the Solicitor-General that the special case put forward dealt with the deduction of income tax with reference to the arrears of rent only, decided to post- pone giving a decision in the matter until another case ( j should be brought before them which raised the right to • make the deduction of income tax from current rents. By , — u. J In addition to arrangemen^ with the Revenue, Lord Anglesey, another , member of the association, brought forward a case in accordance with the desire of the Court of Appeal. This duly came before the referee, and subsequently (on December 6 last) before Mr. Justice Horridge, when the Solicitor-General admitted that the facts in Lord Anglesey's case were covered by Mr. Justice Hamilton’s decision in the Duke of Beaufort's case, and submitted to an order with costs against the Crown. Leave was given to appeal. The position, therefore, is that both these important cases have now been waiting for some months for the consideration of the Court of Appeal. Mineral owners may be congratulated on the fact that there is now less doubt as to surface rents being liable for mineral rights duty. The Revenue’s action in not appealing against the decision of the referee relating to the estates of the trustees of Sir Robert Peel, given 12 months ago, was important, and the position of mineral owners is further strengthened by the fact that the Revenue elected not to proceed with Lord Craven's appeal and paid the expenses that had been incurred. The committee have thought well to contest the Revenue's right to serve supplemental valuations appor- tioning an original valuation of unleased minerals which had become binding. The case is of great importance to all those who own virgin coalfields or mines which were not being worked, or in lease, in April 1909. The particular i test case chosen is that of Mrs. Micklethwait, who owns I minerals in Yorkshire. In returning Form IV. the unleased I minerals were valued at approximately .£6,000. The valua- tion was served. In September 1911 the superintending valuer desired to divide the figures into two sums—one representing a value for the two seams which had been leased since the passing of the Act, and the other the remainder of the minerals underlying the estate. Following the advice given by this association, the valuer declined to accept such valution, and the appeal is now,progressing. The case should have come before the Official Referee on February 19 last, but owing to his illness the matter stands postponed. There are numerous members of the association awaiting an authoritative decision on the points raised. The decision known as the Howley Park Tunnel case, under which the House of Lords has now decided that a railway company is entitled to lateral support outside the limits prescribed by the Railways Clauses Act, calls for the serious consideration of the committee and of all mineral owners, and it is contended that the law urgently requires amendment both in the interest of royalty owners, colliery i lessees, railway companies, and the public. The committee propose to take steps to more prominently bring before the Chancellor of the Exchequer and members of Parliament representing mining districts the inequity of the Finance Act in not permitting proper and reasonable deductions in respect of salaries paid to mining agents and others for surveys, &c., before arriving at the amount upon which an owner has to pay mineral rights duty; and the com- mittee urge each member to take an opportunity of bringing this matter personally before his Parliamentary representative. ____________________________ announce- Mr. W. S. He stated Coal Struck near Newark.—An interesting ment was made at Newark on Wednesday by Bailey during the course of a sale of property, that Mr. Ford, engineer of the boring operations for coal at Kelham, had informed him that a 6 ft. seam had been struck just recently, and that the whole of the oil business had been taken up by a syndicate. Safety Lamp Glasses.—As a result of a long series of caretui experiments and tests, Messrs. Butterworth Bros. Limited, of the Newton Heath Flint Glass Works, Manchester, have succeeded in making miners' lamp glasses which they claim to be superior in strength and toughness to any other make upon the market. The glasses have now been successfully tested at the Home Office Lamp Testing Station, Eskmeals, and placed on the “Approved List." The glasses, each of which is marked with the brand of the firm—a capital B enclosed by a circle—are made in 10 sizes, ranging from 52 to 67 millimetres in height and from 56| to 63 millimetres in diameter, the uniform thickness being 5| mm.