December 24* 1914. >

THE colliery guardian.

1327

i* The North, q£ England Instituted#

A ».' S .-•* -xsS’	. ?. >.	“ / . 1 *•	° ?■ '>	:? , . » >'<

The Mining and Mechanical Engineers
Bernician f Ms just .published a detailed report
Coal Seams, upon - the -coal.- resources' of the
;; > . ’ ’\ natboniferoun liipestune formation of
the north of England., This work is the result of the
labours of a special committee during the past four
years. The committee was a particularly strong one,
including names of many of the most prominent
representatives of mining and geological science in
the north of England. The secretary to this corn,
mittee was Mr. Stanley Smith, to whom the editorial
responsibility has been entrusted, and that the
correlation of the mass of available information was
no light task is clear both from a glance through the
pages of this volume, and also from the well-known
difficulties inherent in this particular piece of work.

To many who are not conversant with the details
of the geological structure of the north of England,
the so-called Bernician coalseams have always been
wrapped in a considerable amount of obscurity. In
the more southern parts of England we have been so
accustomed to regard the millstone grit as the true
farewell rock so far as coal mining is concerned, that
the existence of workable coal seams low down in the
carboniferous limestone of Northumberland has not
been always appreciated at its full value. The
reason is largely attributable to the shortcomings of
geological nomenclature, which so frequently fails to
represent the difference between deposits correlated
in geological age, but differing in their conditions of
deposition. Thus, in this instance, while massive
limestones were being laid down in one part of the
United Kingdom, conditions characteristic of the
coal measure period were already being established
elsewhere. This was the case in Northumberland
and much of the northern portion of Great Britain,
where the carboniferous limestone loses much of its
familiar character and becomes broken up into a
series of sandstone, shales and coal seams, with only
occasional seams of limestone. t

The correlation of these deposits with those
occurring further south has been a difficult task, and
even now, when much of this obscurity has been
cleared up, the subject is still confused by a want of
agreement as to the names of the several groups into
which the different strata are subdivided. It was
formerly the custom to recognise a lower or Tuedian
group, consisting mainly of sandstones, and an upper
group lying beneath the millstone grit and coal
measures of this area. This upper group was sub-
divided by Tate into two portions, the lower of
which he called carbonaceous, because workable coal
seams occurred in it, and an upper or calcareous
group which passed into the millstone pit. Prof.
Lebour, in 1875, showed that this nomenclature was
misleading, because valuable coal seams occur also
in the calcareous group, and he proposed, therefore,
to call the carbonaceous and calcareous groups of
Tate the lower and upper Bernician respectively.
Although the Geological Survey have not adopted
this nomenclature in their hitherto published
memoirs, it has been very extensively used, and the
committee have boldly adhered to it in the present
report. We regard it as highly desirable that the
Survey should fall into line when a new memoir
on this area is prepared, for any other course would
only tend to add wholly unnecessary confusion to
a subject which is gradually emerging from a state
bordering on chaos.

So far as workable coal seams are concerned, the
Tuedian beds are of no importance in this area beyond
showing the limit below which further search is not
likely to be profitable. The Lower Bernician beds
of Prof. Lebour, that is the carbonaceous group of
Tate, rest upon the barren fell sandstone, forming
the top of the Tuedian series. It is important,
therefore, to recognise the position of this horizon?
and for this purpose the great Cheviot igneous
complex becomes an important tectonic feature.
From this hilly igneous inlier of old red sandstone
age the lower carboniferous strata dip away in all
directions, thus giving the keynote to the general
arrangement of the strata, and although the lattei* is
locally complicated by folding and faulting, even
these are closely related to the Cheviot volcanic core. ;
Thus we have a series of outcrops of Tuedian, Lower

and Upper Bernician' feeds 'ranged' more or less
poncentrically round the igneous mass of the Cheviots,
and the workable coal' Seams afe: similarly disposed,
dipping in regular sequence from the same central
dome, but separated from the latter by. the breadth
of the Tuedian outcrop. Thus the Bernician rocks
dip gradually east, .south-east or south, disappearing
beneath, the North Sea, and covered in part by the
coal measures of the Northumberland coalfield.

But while the general structure of the country is
thus simply explained, the probability of finding
workable coal seams is complicated by rapid changes
in the character of, the. deposits in different areas. It
is here that the chief utility of a work such as the
North of England Committee have undertaken lies.
The character of the various types of deposit is here
described in minute detail, and the rapid changes in
the character of the coal seams of the different
districts is clearly described. In general these types
fall into three main groups lying respectively in the
northern, central, and southern areas, and by means
of the correlation of the limestones now established
on palaeontological and stratigraphical evidence, we
have a valuable aid in fixing the identity of the
various seams of coal to which, these limestones serve
as guiding beds. Although much remains still to
be done in this direction, we are now in possession
of data by means of which a great deal can be done
in correlating the chief coal seams, and tracing their
continuity in different areas.

Some parts of the area are greatly disturbed.
Especially is this the case in the basin of the Biver
Line, where the Netherhill seam, a first-class house-
hold coal, is sometimes tilted to so high an angle
as to resemble a vertical dyke.

One of the most striking features of this report is
the punctilious care with which every indication of
coal has been measured, thin seams only an inch or
even less in thickness being recorded ; and the
number of seams of quite an unworkable nature
which are thus mentioned must serve as a warning
to prospectors against building too many hopes on
coal indications found in borings.

We should like to follow out the topographical
variation of an important seam, such, for example,
as the Plashetts Coal, from the data here given, if
only to illustrate the value and interest of . this
compilation, but space is not available, and we must
leave such congenial tasks to the fortunate possessors
of the volume, which is thoroughly well printed and
usefully illustrated with coloured and other maps.

TRADE AND THE WAR.

The Board of Trade announce that the following reduc-
tions have been made in the rates of premium charged for
the insurance of hulls under the Government War Risks
Insurance Scheme—viz., the rate for a single voyage is
reduced from 20s. to 15s., and the rate for a round voyage
or for a time policy for three months is reduced from 40s.
to 30s. These alterations take effect from December 17.
The following summary of losses between August and
November is appended:—Ships: Number entered in war
risks associations at September 30, 1914, 4,421; values
entered in war risks associations at September 30,
<£153,469,068. Vessels lost: August, seven, value £335,135?
percentage on total values entered 0’22; September, 17,
value <£628,400, percentage on total values entered, 0*41 ;
October, 23, value <£1,084,651, percentage on total values
entered, 0’71; November, seven, value £234,413, percentage
on total values entered, 0T5 ; total, four months, 54, value
£2,282,599, percentage on total values entered, 1’49;
average per month 13’50, value £570,649, percentage on
total values entered, 0’372. Cargoes: August, estimated
value of cargoes £88,000,000, estimated value of cargoes
lost £1,012,000, percentage of loss 1’15 ; September, esti-
mated value of cargoes £95,000,000, estimated value of
cargoes lost £801,880, percentage of loss 0’84. October,
estimated value of cargoes £108,000,000, estimated value of
cargoes lost £1,662,975, percentage of loss 1’54; November,
estimated value of cargoes £108,000,000, estimated value of
cargoes lost £290,550, percentage of loss 0’27: total, four
months, estimated value of cargoes £399,000,000, estimated
value of cargoes lost £3.767,405, percentage of loss 0’94.
average per month, estimated value of cargo £99,750,000
estimated value of cargoes lost £941,851, percentage of
loss 0’94.	■	.

The Board of Trade des ire to call the attention of hny
person-who may hold shares or other property in trust for
enemies to the provisions of section 3 of the Trading with
Bneiny Act, 1914/under which such persons art' required to
give notice. writing to., the custodian by December 27,

and to furnish the c.ustpdian with particulars. The
custodian for England'ahd "Wales is the Public Trustee,

3	and 4, Clements Inn, Strand, London, W.C.’

In the King’s Bench Division on the 16th inst. the case
of Thompson r. Morgan, Wakley and Co. Limited came
before Mr. Justice Bailhache. The plaintiff, who was the
managing owner of the steamship “Borrowdale/’ entered
into a time charter, dated May 28, 1914, by which the
Stahlwerks Verband A.-G., of Dusseldorf, as time charterers,
agreed to hire the steamship for six months at £375 a
month, payable in advance. The charter-party provided
that the plaintiff, as owner, should have a lien Upon all
cargoes, and all sub-freights for hire and general average
contribution, and for all expenses and damages due under
or for breach of the charter-party. The steamer was
delivered to the charterers and came on hire on June 3,
1914. On July 4, 1914, the time charterers sub-chartered
the steamer to the defendants for a voyage from the Tyne
to Calais to load a cargo of coal not exceeding 1,450 tons,
and to deliver it at Calais at the rate of freight of;3s. 7od’
per ton, to be paid in cash on production of certificates of
delivery to the defendants. The receivers were to discharge
the cargo, the steamer paying 1 fr. per ton. Thedoal was
delivered at Calais according to certificate of delivery,
dated August 18, 1914, and £183 Is. 7d. became due by the
defendants under^the charter-party of July 4. A sum of
£375 became due on August 3, 1914, from the time
charterers to the plaintiff under the charter-party of
May 28. As that sum was not paid, the plaintiff gave
notice to the defendants on August 12 that, he proposed to
exercise his lien on the sub-freight. Afterwards the
plaintiff offered to give the defendants an indemnity if
they paid the sub-freight to him, but the defendants
declined to accept that offer. The plaintiff then brought
this action, claiming a declaration that he was entitled to a
lien on the sum of £183 Is. 7d. The defendants, by their
defence, said that the time charterers were alien enemies,
they claimed no interest in the £183, and were willing to
pay that amount into Court to abide any order: that the
judge might make. Mr. Justice Bailhache, giving judgment,
said the defendants ought to have taken the indemnity
offered to them. In these hard times business ‘-men must
be prepared to take risks which at other -times they would
not take. The plaintiff must have the 'money that he
claimed, and as the defendants had not takeh the indemnity
they must pay the costs.	. [{*	‘	' '

It has been decided to proceed with the Government
scheme for making the British dyeware Industry entirely
independent of German supplies of < synthetic dyes. The
scheme, drafted under the authority of the Lord Chancellor
and the President of the Board of Trade, originally
provided for the formation of 1 a limited company, with a
share capital of £2,000,000, and for the issue of £1,000,000

4	per cent, first mortgage debentures, the interest to be
guaranteed by the Government. Within the last few days
it has been arranged that the State’s assistance will take
the form of a loan of £1,500,000 at 4 per cent, interest.

In the Patents Court, on December 17, before the
Comptroller-General of Patents, the firm of Edwin Lewis
and Sons, wrought iron tube manufacturers, of Monmore
Green, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, applied for a licence
to manufacture an iron tubular pit prop during the term of
the war under a German patent in the iianie of Wilhelm
Reinhard. Mr. Rowland Watkin Lewis stated that, he
traded as Edwin Lewis and Sons, and employed at two
works 300 workpeople, and could employ more if labour
was forthcoming. He could begin making these props at
once, avoiding all cast iron manufacture. Three collieries
in the Staffordshire coalfield had already applied for a
thousand props, and many "moreordetS -Wdffld' foll’c^. - ‘Mr.
Edwin Mills, Harper-street, Willenhall, who had informally
received a licence to manufacture under the patent, opposed
the new application, urging that he should have the
exclusive right of manufacture. A brother of the patentee
(Mr. Heinrich Reinhard) had conducted at Erdington-road,
Birmingham, the Pit Prop Outfit Company, and this
business he (Mr. Mills) had acquired from him since the
war, as far as was possible with Mr. Reinhard confined in a
concentration camp. He had undertaken to make a pay-
ment to Mr. Reinhard after the war, and Mrs. Reinhard
had given him certain papers. He had acquired the
goodwill.—The Controller said he should say Mr. Reinhard’s
firm was dissolved at the outbreak of the war. The good-
will of the business was gone, though the Government had
not confiscated the property.—Mr. Stephen Watkins, of the
firm of Watkins and Groves, patent agents, Wolverhampton
and London, submitted for Messrs. Lewis and Sons that
any transfer of the business to Mr.. Mills in the circumstance
was illegal.—The Controller said that as Mr. Mills was not
free of Mr. Reinhard he was not sufficiently sympathetic to
him to take the exceptional course of giving him an
exclusive licence. He would report to the Board of Trade
recommending for Messrs. Lewis and Sons a 5 pot cent,
royalty, being the same as in Mr. Mills’ case. A third
application was yet to be heard.

In the Chancery Division on Saturday Air. Justice
Warrington appointed Sir W. B. Peat supervisor of Hugo
Stinnes Limited, coal exporters, of London, Cardiff and
Swansea, German-owned. Counsel for the Board of Trade
said the application was made under the Trading with the
Enemy Acts, there being reason to think that an offence
might be committed. For the defence, counsel stated that
when the war broke out the firm owed £72,000 for coal to
English creditors, who formed a Committee and got in
£25,000. The question was how this was to be distributed*
The judge said that if it was desired to associate the
committee with the supervisor in dealing’ with the amount
.. collected another, application could be juade,.. •,