734

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

October 2, 1914.

trol of the Prince of Wales’s and other relief funds, and
make payments weekly through the post office or labour
exchange; and that, in the case of men killed in the war or
permanently disabled, compensation shall be made upon the
basis of the Compensation Act, calculated on the man’s
average earnings prior to enlistment.

This matter was brought to the attention of the Chancellor
of the Exchequer during his visit to Cardiff on Tuesday.
Mr. W. Brace, M.P. (president of the South Wales
Federation), with Mr. T. Richards, M.P. (secretary), and
others, putting the points before him, and urging that
allowances should be larger, that direct payment should
come from the Government instead of through relief com-
mittees, and that compensation should be upon industrial
lines. Mr. Lloyd George promised to bring the proposals
before the authorities.

It has been decided by the Rhondda colliers to make repre-
sentation to the Soldiers and Sailors Families’ Association
to the effect that the allowances are totally inadequate. One
complaint was submitted that where colliery companies make
grants the dependants of the men received nothing from the
association; and the miners’ monthly meeting has passed a
resolution that, failing satisfactory arrangement, 20 per cent,
of the levies contributed to the Prince of Wales’s Fund be
retained locally and used in making up the allowances to a
reasonable amount.

The same matter has come before the East Glamorgan
miners’ meeting, and a resolution which was passed protests
against the low rates of relief distributed by the association.
Request is made that the Federation will summon a special
conference to consider the state of affairs, “ as women and
children are practically in a starving condition.”

Because of unemployment in the South Crop area, near
Bridgend, application for relief has been made to the local
committee under the Prince of Wales’s Fund; but the reply
was that relief of unemployment did not come within the
scope of its operations.

At Ammanford on the 28th ult., the colliery agent, Mr.
W. S. Wardle, and Mr. Powell, manager of the Cawdor
Colliery, Garnant, were summoned for, first, failing to keep
a proper airway, and, secondly, for not having a proper
apparatus for lowering and raising the men. There was
another charge against the manager of neglecting to keep
a correct report relating to the colliery weekly. Mr. J.
Dyer Lewis, H.M. inspector of mines, stated that on June 15
last there was a fall at the Cawdor Colliery, and 156 men
were imprisoned, it being impossible for them to get out in
consequence of a fall that had taken place previously block-
ing up the exit. The old fall which prevented the men
getting out was 20 yds. long. At the time witness visited
the colliery he found that they were preparing a new outlet.
With regard to the apparatus, he found through his assis-
tant, Mr. Owen, that the timber was not in proper condi-
tion, and that the report was not accurate, because it stated
that the fireman had examined the whole of the mine and
the bottom of the pit, and that could not have been done on
account of the fall which had taken place in May. No
mention was made of that fall having taken place. For the
defence, Mr. Wardle said that the colliery had been working
till June 15. The work of making a new airway was com-
menced in October 1913, and they had been working double
shift night and day on it. The length of the airway was
230 yds., and they had 40 or 50 yds. to go. The fall was
not reported to the Home Office. Notice had been given to
the men, expiring on the 20th, and that being the case ho
did not think it necessary to report the fall at the bottom
of the pit. The magistrates imposed a fine on both defen-
dants of £% and costs for not keeping the outlet, and ordered
them to pay the costs for having no apparatus. The
manager was fined £1 and costs for neglecting to report.

Mr. Walter Roscorla has been taken into partnership by
Mr. D. A. Thomas in the firm of Messrs. Thomas and Davey,
as the successor of the late Mr. A. P. Noel. Mr. Roscorla
has been associated with the Cardiff Docks office of the Cam-
brian Collieries Limited for over a quarter of a century. He
joined the firm of Messrs. Thomas, Riches and Company
in 1888, and in 1896 was appointed to a responsible position
on the staff of the Cambrian Collieries Limited. Last year
he joined the staff of Messrs. Thomas and Davey, which firm
hold the sales agency of the Britannic and Cynon Collieries,
as well as the Cambrian Colliery.

Northumberland and Durham.

An Edward Medallist — The Case of the Little Man-
Trading with the Enemy : Interesting Case at New-
castle—Developments at Jarrow—Colliery and Railway
Competition : Arbitrator’s Decision.

Mr. T. Y. Greener, chief agent for the Hedley group of
pits, has informed an interviewer that it is impossible for
him to say anything with respect to the future working of
the collieries. The difficulty is that they are unable to get
ships, and orders are being hung up on that account. Most
of the collieries in the area depend largely upon export trade
with, gas coal, and, as there is practically a complete sus-
pension' of foreign trade, it is impossible to say how long
the present condition of things will last. He gives the
assurance, however, that his particular group will do its
best to keep working, and adds that, as soon as the trade
routes are thrown open, there will be an abundance of work.

At the end of last January Jos. Cook, deputy overman, and
a number of his mates were entombed at the Blackhouse
Colliery, Birtley, through the rubbish in an old disused
shaft breaking away. They were imprisoned in the mine
for 24 hours, but were eventually rescued. Cook made heroic
and successful efforts to save the lives of his comrades, and
has now been awarded the Edward Medal of the Second Class.
Mr. R. F. Reynard, Registrar of the Edward Medal,
expresses the hope that the King may be able to find an
opportunity later in the year of personally decorating Mr.
Cook.

A North Biddick miner has written a very pointed letter,
of which the following is an extract, to one of the Durham
newspapers :—“ About us little chaps. Have we to sit at
home in disgust, just because we have not grown to the regu-
lation size, and read the results of our Army’s and Navy’s
fights day by day without having a chance to do our share?
Have we to stay at home till the war is over, and then, when
our men come home, if victorious, they will tell us to get
out of their way, that we are neither use nor ornament because
they had to fight for us? Now, then, take it this way? We
have to do the same work as these big fellows in the mine;
and, as some of us little fellows can do more in coal getting,
why can’t we be tried in the fighting line?”

Although a considerable number of the collieries in North-
umberland and Durham are still working short time, emplov-

ment is very much improved, and some of the pits have a
real demand for men to replace those who have joined the
Colours. At Chester-le-Street, Birtley, Ouston, and Fence-
houses this demand is especially keen, and it is stated that
not only skilled miners, but unskilled men also may find
work at most places.

Much interest is being taken on Newcastle Quayside and
amongst local coal owners in the charge against Thos.
Hartley Seed, a well-known local coal exporter, of having
attempted to sell coals to a German firm at Hamburg in the
early part of September. The charge, which was partially
investigated at Newcastle on Tuesday of this week, is based
chiefly on the following passage in a letter admittedly sent
by Mr. Seed, on behalf of his firm, Harper, Seed and Com-
pany Limited, to Mr. Carl Wohlenburg, of Hamburg, on
September 7 :—“ If you have any further tonnage coming
here for bunkers, we shall be glad to hear from you. We
are quite prepared to supply you on usual terms, and at
cheapest possible prices. The market is easier at the present
time. It is really difficult to say at what cheapest price we
can buy the coal just now, as the collieries are all in their
patriotic mood, doing their best to give the men some work,
and, although they are selling at a very heavy loss under the
high costs caused by short time, we are still able to squeeze
some of them. We can to-day buy Burnhope at about
11s. 4Jd. at Tyne Dock, Ushaw Moor at about 11s. 9d.,
Morrison’s Marley Hill about 12s., probably a little less,
with second-class coals correspondingly cheaper. South
Hartley at Commissioners we can buy at Ils.” The defence
put forward on Tuesday was that the coal was offered really
for shipment to America, on behalf of an American firm for
which Mr. Wohlenburg is agent. Mr. Seed has been
remanded in custody for a week.

At the 49th annual general meeting of Palmers Ship-
building and Iron Company Limited, held last Saturday at
Newcastle, Mr. G. Mure Ritchie, chairman, referred to the
scheme proposed for providing for the installation of gas
cleaning plant, modern gas engines for blowing the furnaces,
new gas producers, a new lay-out of the company’s large
rolling mill, including new soaking pits, dummy soakers, and
wash heating furnaces, a complete electrification scheme
which would include the provision of gas-driven alternators
capable of supplying the needs of the company’s shipyard,
engine works, blastfurnaces, and steel works, thus utilising
large volumes of gas which at present went to waste.

Col. W. C. Blackett, agent for the Charlaw and Sacriston.
Collieries Company Limited, and late president of the North
of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers,
has, despite the burden of his 57 years—which, truth to tell,
he bears uncommonly well—volunteered for active service.
All who know Col. Blackett will readily realise his acute
disappointment when he was informed by a medical specialist
that he must not leave England. When Col. Blackett
informed the 8th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry
the other day that he was not to have the honour of com-
manding them on active service, the emotion which he
showed was shared by all who heard the announcement, for
there are few better beloved officers and colliery officials in
the two counties.

An interesting presentation, to commemorate the 50th
year of the connection of Sir Thomas Wrightson, Bart., with
Messrs. Head, Wrightson and Company Limited, Thornaby-
on-Tees, took place on Saturday. The testimonial took the
form of a gold loving cup, and was handed to Sir Thomas
Wrightson by Mr. William Clark, who has been with the
firm for 47 years.

Mr. R. W. Cooper, surveyor and valuer, of Newcastle, has
given his award in the arbitration of Sidney v. North-Eastern
Railway Company, which he heard as Arbitrator so far back
as February 22, 1912. It was a claim for compensation for
the compulsory acquisition, under the Land Clauses Act, of
land at Woodburn, near Bly th, for railway purposes. The
line was constructed without statutory powers in 1851, and
was formerly known as Davidson’s Railway, being the pro-
perty of the Bedlington Colliery Company under terms of a
wayleave lease dated January 7, 1851. The railway was
acquired by the North-Eastern Railway Company in 1874,
and the land in question formed part of the‘existing system.
Notice to treat was served in 1893, but owing to the infancy
of the claimant, Mr. Henry Sidney, of Cowpen Hall, North-
umberland, the matter remained in abeyance. For the
claimant, it was contended that the actual wayleave rental
of £51 fixed in 1871 was no criterion of its present value,
and compensation at 1*9,000 or .£10,000 was asked. In
arriving at these figures the experts had taken into con-
sideration—what was held to be a proper element of value—
the special adaptability of the land to the railway company
and the colliery proprietors for railway purposes. The chief
valuation was by Mr. J. Hunt Hedley, of Sunderland,
amounting to £10,010, based on an estimated toll of £455,
assuming that at least 1,250,000 tons of coal would be
carried over the line annually at a rental of |d. per ton per
mile. The railway company combatted the idea of special
adaptability, and expert witnesses estimated the compensa-
tion at £1,122 and £1,020. In his award, the Arbitrator
found that he had to disregard any special value which the
land might have to the railway company, but had to take
into consideration the probability of an enhanced rental on
the renewal of the lease to the colliery company. He made
an award of £2,200, and stated a special case for the Higher
Courts to determine whether in his assessment of the com-
pensation he had acted on correct principles of law. The
judgment of the Divisional Court was delivered in May last,
and the case was sent back to Mr. Cooper for his final award.
Their .lordships, in the course of their judgment, said,
assuming the amount of the purchase-money and compensa-
tion is calculated on the basis of a rental under a new lease
—as it legitimately might be—thev thought that, although
it was right to disregard the special value which the land
had to the railway company by reason of it forming part of
their public railway, the Arbitrator ought to take into con-
sideration, if he had not already done so, the enhanced rent
■ which, in his judgment, the landowner might reasonably
have expected to obtain in competition between the colliery
proprietors and the railway company if the latter had not
obtained and exercised statutory powers of taking the land.
Having on July 28 heard further legal arguments, the Arbi-
trator has issued his final award, which is in favour of the
railwav company, awarding that nothing more should be
allowed for the competition between the colliery company
and the railway company.

Cleveland.

At a meeting of the shareholders of Bolckow, Vaughan and
Company at Manchester on Wednesday, Sir J. E.
Johnson-Ferguson, chairman of the directors, said that the

board recommended that only half the final dividend be paid
on October 1, and that payment of the other be deferred
until such time as, in the opinion of the directors, was desir-
able. Considering the position at home and abroad, it was
not desirable that they should part with so large a sum as
that represented by their dividend until the state of trade
and finance had returned to a more normal condition. Since
they came to that decision the prospect, he thought, was
distinctly brighter, and there was little doubt that they
would feel justified in paying the balance before the end
of December. The year that had past had not been by any
means a good one, as there had been a very serious diminu-
tion in the price obtained for many of their products. Nego-
tiations had been opened with a view to their obtaining an
interest in the mineral reserves of coal and ironstone in the
neighbourhood of Dover. At present that interest was com-
paratively small, but if that work wras developed and their
anticipations realised, it might become very large, and be a
matter of great importance to the company.

Cumberland.

The Risehow Colliery.

Satisfactory progress continues to be made with the sink-
ing of the new pit at Risehow, near Maryport, for the
Flimby and Broughton Moor Colliery Company. Both
engine houses have been erected, and sinking is now being
carried out with the aid of the winding engines. A line has
also been laid connecting the pit up with the main railway
line and the company’s by-product works. Last week the
first seam was struck in one of the shafts, at a depth of 18
fathoms. The coal is about 2 ft. in thickness, and is said
to be of good quality, but whether it is the Yard or Little
Main seam is not yet known. It was not expected to reach
coal so soon, but the reason this seam is so near the surface
is owing to the fact that in the adjoining colliery at Water-
gate there is a 95-fathom fault, and this has thrown some
of the lower seams nearer to the top.

Yorkshire.

More Recruits for the Army — German coal in Sweden—
Retirement of a Popular Manager.

An excellent start has been made with the much-needed
extension of the Doncaster municipal tramways system to
the model mining village of the Woodlands. The miners of
Brods worth and the neighbouring places around are delighted
with the prospect of soon being able to make the journey into
Doncaster by means of electric traction. Simultaneously,
there is the extension of the Doncaster tram service to
Warmsworth, on the Sheffield-road, to serve the miners
employed at the rapidly developing Yorkshire Main Colliery.
When both these systems are completed a great desideratum
will have been supplied.

The splendid way in which the colliers are responding to
the call of men for the Army is one of the bright features
of the war. The Houghton Main Colliery at Darfield has
sent 125 recruits for the Mayor of Barnsley’s battalion. The
directors are dealing generously with the dependants of these
men. They have arranged a scale of allowances, which,
inclusive of the Army grants, work out as follows :—Wife
with six children, 32s. lOd. per week; five children, 31s. 8d.;
four children, 29s. 6d.; three children, 28s.; two, 25s. 7d.;
one, 23s. Wives without children will receive 19s. 7d. per
week, and the dependants of single men are not to be for-
gotten. The situations will be kept open in every case.

A well-known Swedish merchant, writing to a South York-
shire gentleman, urges that this country should take steps to
supply accurate news of the war, and so counteract the Ger-
man lies circulated in Stockholm and elsewhere by agents of
Germany. He writes :—“ We do a large trade with Eng-
land, and import very large quantities of coat from there.
This trade the Germans have for a long time tried to get,
and they have, during the war, sent special commissions to
persuade us to exchange the coal and coke business from
England to Germany, quoting specially low prices, and
reducing the railway rates. The Germans, in the midst of
a very heavy wrar, still give attention to commercial matters,
while England to a great extent breaks off ordinary business
relations. It is impossible now to buy coals in England on
the usual terms.”

At a recruiting meeting at Askern, near Doncaster, last
week, much amusement was caused by Major Anne, of
Burghwallis Hall, under whose estate the coal seams of
Bullcroft Colliery lie, inviting the miners to come forward
and take a holiday in Germany. The rich people, he pointed
out, went to Carlsbad to drink the -waters, and why not the
miners? He invited them to take a long holiday in Ger-
many at the expense of the nation, and not to return until
they had been to see Berlin. A message from Lord Roberts
was received at this meeting. His lordship wrote : ‘‘ Tell the
men of Askern that the proudest day of their lives will be
that on which they are told that they are trained soldiers
ready to support our Army already in the field fighting so
gallantly in the defence of country and Empire.”

Edlington Colliery has contributed 510 men to the Army.
Some of these are now actually in the fighting line.

Mr. Robert Routledge, who has for 33 years been agent
and manager at the Garforth Collieries, retired at the end
of last month. He was born on August 4. 1844, at Shin-
cliffe Colliery, near Durham, where his father had charge
of the sinking of the pits, and was afterwards under-viewer
for 26 years. There were six sons all brought up in the
mining profession. In 1865 William, who was then viewer
(now called manager) of the Shincliffe and Houghall Col-
lieries, was sent to Nova Scotia by a London company to
take charge of extensive mines there; Robert, who at the
time was oversman at Houghall Colliery, went with his
brother to assist in the management. After leaving his
brother, Mr. Routledge had charge of extensive mines in the
State of Illinois, U.S.A, for seven years, the last position he
held being head mining boss under the Northern Illinois
Coal and Iron Company. Early in 1874 he returned to Eng-
land and was offered the position of under-viewer at Houghall
Colliery. This position he retained until he competed and
gained his manager’s certificate, when he was appointed
manager of the Shildon Lodge Colliery, owned by Messrs.
Bolckow, Vaughan and Company Limited, remaining there
for two years, until he went into Yorkshire to manage the
Birlev Collieries, near Sheffield: thence he went to the Dod-
worth Collieries, near Barnsley, but this company went into
Chancery and came to a stop. In August 1881 Mr. Rout-
ledge was appointed agent and manager of Garforth Colliery.
Owing to one of the pits beiim flooded very little was being
done at that time, but by energy and perseverance Garforth
pits have gradually developed. One of Mr. Routledge’s
brothers is still living in retirement, after holding the posi-
tion of inspector of mines in the State of Illinois, U.S.A.,