October 8, 1915.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

741

Hatfield Main will probably tap the Barnsley bed well before
Christmas. A few miles further away, at Firbeck, another
fine colliery is to be sunk.

The annoyance and loss which some colliery companies
have to put up with as a result of the cruelty and thought-
lessness of pit lads has just been demonstrated at Ponte-
fract, where half-a-dozen pony drivers of South Elmsail and
South Kirkby were summoned for cruelty. The evidence
showed that after leaving work, the defendants stopped out
all night. At 3 a.m. they entered a field belonging to the
Frickley Colliery Company, where half-a-dozen ponies wTere
grazing, and raced these about. One was belaboured with a
heavy stick, and finally had its right eye knocked out; another
was so sweated that it afterwards took cold and died. This
pony was valued at £50. The lads then went and did £20
worth of damage to allotment gardens. One was fined 20s.,
three were ordered to pay costs and were placed under the
probation officer for two years, and the cases against the
other two were adjourned sine die, it being stated they had
enlisted.

The Thorne Rural District Council is not losing sight of
the responsibilities which are being cast upon it by the sinking
of the new Hatfield Main Colliery at St-ainforth, and the
large model village which will, in due course, be erected
there, the plans for which are already out. At its last
meeting it resolved to instruct an engineer to proceed with a
report, estimate, plans, sections, etc., for a sewage scheme
for the district. Reports were also made as to negotiations
w’ith the Great Central Railway Company in regard to
Stainforth station.

An unusual fatality has been associated with the
Rossington Main New Colliery, resulting in the death of a
Wakefield pit sinker named James Burns. At the inquest
at Doncaster it was shown deceased was engaged in the No. 1
shaft in drawing timber. A long bar 19 ft. and 13 by 12 in.,
was resting, one end on a brick wall, and the other on a
prop. Deceased was bending down, when the prop slipped,
and the full weight of the bar caught him. It was sup-
posed that the bar, having been bearing a heavy weight
previously, straightened itself out on this being removed,
shifted the prop, and fell. A witness said he had been
shifting timber in the same way for 20 years, and had never
known anything happen. The jury found that the affair
was “ accidental.”

Lancashire and Cheshire.

Astley Green Model Village Scheme Held Up—Audenshaw
Colliery Changes Hands.

Some matters of interest were dealt with at the 42nd annual
general meeting of the Pearson and Knowles Coal and Iron
Company Limited, held at Warrington on the 29th ult. Sir
J. S. Harmood Banner, M.P. (chairman of the board of
directors), who presided, stated that from the company’s works
over 3,100 men had joined his Majesty’s Forces. One of
their men at Moss Hall, named Kenealv, had won a Victoria
Cross. Trading to December 31 was most unsatisfactory.
Coal -was almost unsaleable, and they were only able to find
three days’ work a week for their miners during the greater
part of the period, and were burdened with heavy contracts at
unremunerative prices, together with an increased cost of pro-
duction. The iron trade was burdened by contracts of a
similar nature on sales made, based on material to be supplied
before the war at low prices. These purchases were mainly
from Germany, and when the war intervened they were both
denuded of their ordinary supplies, and also, when purchasing
elsewhere, obliged to pay prices which left the contracts they
had made for delivery of the finished articles most unprofit-
able. He added : “ We are not yet free either from the state
of confusion which exists amongst those appointed to regulate
our trade matters, and who seem to forget that considerations
of finance and exchange require the encouragement of the
export trade so far as is possible consistent with war require-
ments.” Sir Joseph dealt at some length with the course
of trade. He said in the coal trade production had decreased
over 10 per cent., whilst wages and the cost of material were
largely increased, with the result that profits were less by
one-half of the profits of 1913, and £10,000 less than the
profits of last year. He went on to appeal to the men to
improve the statistics of absenteeism, which came to a pro-
portion of 16 per cent. Some men worked as much as seven
days per week, whilst others were only doing their three or
four days. Their trading this year would be affected by the
Price of Coal (Limitation) Act, and by the pre-war contracts
having run off, and as for the year under review, profits were
barely 6d. per ton on the output; they could do well with an
improvement. Speaking of the tax on profits, he said : ‘‘All
we claim as regards taxation is that it should be fair and
just all round. Some people seem to think that coal and iron
ought to bear the wdiole cost of the war, because they have
the benefit of actual contracts with the Government, but there
can be no sense in this, for, as a matter of fact, during the
past 12 months coal and iron have not done particularly well,
whilst ship owners have done well, and merchants, who have
no depreciation to provide for, have benefited largely by the
increase in prices. I should like, in conclusion, to add that
tne directors appreciate the strain which has fallen upon all
the workers alike. The response, both of the officials and the
workmen, especially when war work was mentioned, has been
splendid; and whilst, of course, there are slackers about, I
do not think we have had so much to complain of in this
district of Warrington and Partington or in Wigan.—Mr.
John J. Bleckly said last year he ventured to express the
opinion that the result of the war must be to cripple, if not to
destroy, Germany’s preponderance in the iron and steel trades,
to be replaced by a large expansion of British works, and he
was more and more convinced of the correctness of this view.
—Mr. W. Peter Rylands also referred to the tax on profits.
He said all reflecting and patriotic men must feel it to be
improper that private individuals should derive undue per-
sonal advantage out of the war. In considering the question
of war profits, however, in its broadest aspect, as affecting
the great concerns who have to fight the commercial battles
of the country in the markets of the world, such as the
Pearson and Knowles Coal and Iron Company, and Rylands
Brothers, it must not be forgotten that in their case, at all
events, financial strength in times of peace was analogous to
guns and ample munitions for our Army in the present
terrible conflict. “ We may rest assured that when peace
returns Germany will seek once more, with the assistance of
all the resources of the State, such as may remain, to recover
her former commanding position in the world’s iron and
steel trade, and to find an outlet for her enormous capacity of
production. When that time comes it will fall to the lot of
the Pearson and Knowles Coal and Iron Company, the
Partington Steel and Iron Company, and Rylands Brothers
to take a strenuous part in fighting our country’s commercial

. battles, but without any assistance from the general tax-
payers of the country, and any extra profit that can be made
in this time of war should, it appears to me, properly be
devoted to assisting us in that conflict. The country will
share in our success if we succeed, and will suffer in our
failure should wre fail. If, therefore, this question of war
profits had to be considered only in connection rith such
firms as those whose fortunes we are discussing to-day, it
would seem to be an actual advantage to the State to leave
war profits untouched, provided they were not distributed
among the shareholders. From the point of view of the
Government, however, the question is very compl.x, and there
are undoubtedly vast numbers of instances where war profits,
if untouched, would accrue to the personal advantage of
individuals.”

Numerous co-operative societies in south and south-east
Lancashire are now advising their members to lay in big
stocks of coal during the present month.

The Lord Mayor of Manchester (Aid. M’Cabe) is -arrang-
ing a conference with local colliery proprietors and coal
merchants for the purpose of fixing coal prices during the
coming w-inter.

The Salford Corporation Watch Committee has granted
an application of Messrs. A. Knowles and Sons Limited,
Pendleton Colliery, Whit-lane, Pendleton, for a store licence
to keep mixed explosives at the colliery.

Pte. Albert Edgar Davies, who, prior to enlisting, was
a mine surveyor for Messrs. Fletcher, Burrows and Com-
pany, has been wounded at the Dardanelles, and is now at
the Southern General Hospital at Birmingham.

The laying out of the model colliery village at Astley
Green for the workers at the Clifton and Kersley Coal
Company’s new collieries there is to be held up for a time
owing tn the war, but will be proceeded with as soon as
expedient. Already about 100 houses of the semi-detached
type have been completed and tenanted. Altogether some
400 houses are to be built.

Among the minutes of the Salford Corporation Committees
which were down for confirmation at the meeting of the
Council last week, was one of the Museums, Libraries, and
Parks Committee, agreeing to the postponement of the lease
to Messrs. Andrew Knowles and Sons Limited, of the
Fourfeet and Shuttle Mines under Seedley Park.

A correspondent says a number of mines in the Clifton and
Kersley districts near Manchester are now becoming
exhausted. The Clifton and Kersley Coal Company, who
own the pits there, are preparing for eventualities (these
will not mature for some time to come, however) by pushing
on with the opening out of their extensive new collieries
at Astley, some six or seven miles awTay.

It is understood that the entire share capital of the New
Moss Colliery Limited, of Audenshaw, near Manchester,
representing a normal value of about £170,000, has been
bought by Mr. H. S. Higginbottom. Of the new directorate,
Mr. Higginbottom is chairman and managing director.
Two others have been appointed—Mr. W. L. Jackson,
Liverpool, -and Mr. Harold James, of Stoke-on-Trent. In
normal times the colliery employs over 2,000 workpeople,
pays £3,000 in wages every week, and produces about
400,000 tons of coal a year. It also contributes nearly
£5,000 annually towards the rates and taxes of Ashton-
under-Lyne and district. The principal coal seams at
present being worked by the company are the Great and
Roger, which with other smaller mines form the present
New Moss coal field.

At the Manchester Consistory Court held at the Manchester
Cathedral last Friday, a faculty was granted for the sub-
stitution of a stained glass window at St. Ann’s Church,
Clifton, Manchester, for a window of plain glass ; the stained
glass window to bear the following inscription : ‘‘To the
glory of God, and in loving memory of Hugh Brocklehurst
Pilkington, Captain, 6th Batt. Manchester Regiment,
who was killed in action at the Dardanelles, July 4, 1915;
presented by the officials and staff of the Clifton and Kersley
Coal Company Limited.”

North Wales.

The men employed at the Hafod Colliery, Ruabon, have
decided to allow a levy of Id. per head per wTeek towards the
funds of the Wrexham and Ruabon hospitals. Of this sum,
3s. 4d. per head per year is to be paid to the Wrexham
Hospital, and Is. per man to the Ruabon Hospital. As
there are a large number of men employed at the colliery
this contribution will materially assist the funds of the insti-
tutions mentioned.

Notts and Derbyshire.

Miners Red Cross Ambulance Inspection—The Progress of
the New Clips tone Pit.

Acting upon the suggestion of Mr. H. Dennis Bayley,
assistant director of transports (Red Cross), the coal owners of
Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire and the miners’ associations
of the two counties have each undertaken to present to the
joint war committee of the British Red Gross Society and the
Order of St. John of Jerusalem a complete motor ambulance
convoy, comprising 50 motor ambulances, four touring cars,
three lorries, seven motor-cycles, and one field repairing lorry.
A number of these cars have already been completed, and an
official inspection took place yesterday (Thursday) in the
Nottingham Market-place.

Great interest is being taken in the new Clipstone pit of
the Bolsover Colliery Company, where sinking operations have
already commenced. Like the new pits in the Doncaster coal
field, the Clipstone Colliery is to be arranged on the most
modern lines, and is to be designed with a view to an output
of 4,000 tons daily. The shaft will not be a particularly deep
one, it being anticipated that coal will be reached at a depth
of a little under 600 yds. As at Mansfield and Rufford coal
is found at between 540 and 550 yds., the coal measures pre-
sumably dip from Mansfield to Clipstone. A railway siding
to the projected pit has been put in, and the preliminary
work associated with pit sinking is proceeding apace. With
a smooth run, there are those who incline to the belief coal
will be drawn from the colliery in two and a-half years’ time.
When the Clipstone pit gets under way the Bolsover Company
expect that their five collieries all working the Top Hard seam
—Rufford, Mansfield. Creswell, Bolsover, and Clipstone—will
yield them 15,000 tons of coal per day.

At a meeting of the Wirksworth Urban District Council,
a letter was read from the Butterley Company, suggesting
that certain requirements of the Council with regard to the
sanitary arrangements of a number of their cottages should
be deferred until after the conclusion of the war. They were

cutting down expenses in connection with their property.
Mr. Storey said the company were paying dividends of
40 or 50 per cent. It was unanimously decided to insist upon
the Council’s requirements being met.

The death of Edward John Lyons, aged 30, a Normanton
miner, which took place as the result of burns sustained in
Blackwell pit on September 6, was the subject of an enquiry
by the Nottinghom city coroner last week. Thomas Boot,
a loader at the pit, said he wrnrked with the deceased. Lyons
entered the stall in front of witness carrying an unprotected
candle. He (Boot) was pushing a tub. Suddenly he heard
a rush of gas, and then he saw the deceased ‘‘ all alight.”
The stall was usually worked with an open light, though
occasionally the deceased first examined it with his lamp.
He left the lamp at the box on this occasion. There was
a cloth in front of the stall which Lyons had to move to
get in. The daymen who had been at work in the stall
left about two o’clock, so that there had been a lengthy
interval between the shifts. The afternoon deputy examined
the stall between the daymen leaving and the deceased going
into the stall, and he reported it safe. The deceased was
taken up to the pit bank as soon as possible. The deceased
took off his coat and waistcoat fin the gate, and lit the candle
with a match. Lyons had neither pick nor lamp, and could
not therefore have intended to make an examination. In
the rules it was plainly laid down that an examination should
be made before work was commenced. In his opinion the
rush of gas caused the deceased’s shirt to get on fire, and
not the candle. Mr. John Vardy, South Normanton, the
afternoon deputy, said he examined the stall a little after
8 p.m. It was then quite safe. There was no evidence of
gas when he examined the stall. There was a ‘‘ lip sheet ”
near the entrance to the stall. The mine was very free from
gas. The jury returned a verdict to the effect that death
was due to toxaemia following burns caused by an explosion
of gas in the stall in which deceased worked.

The Midlands.

Mines Drainage Commission Annual Report: Decreased
Output.

The Newcastle-under-Lyme Corporation have come to an
arrangement with certain coal merchants as to the limitation
of prices of household coal during the winter. Thirteen firms
were represented out of a total of 29 in the borough, and those
present agreed unanimously not to increase the price of coal
for domestic purposes beyond the increased amount charged
to them by the colliery proprietors. The acting town clerk
has been instructed to endeavour to obtain a similar under-
taking from the firms who were not represented at the
conference.

The annual reports of the engineers to the South Stafford-
shire Mines Drainage Commission were issued on Saturday.
While disclosing increased expenditure, the reports record a
decreased production of mineral from which the Commis-
sioners’ revenue is derived. The general manager (Mr.
Edmund Howl) states that the mineral assessed for general
drainage rates for the year ended December 31 last was
1,929,067 tons, which represented a revenue of £8,037 15s. 7d.
That was a decrease in output of 238,882 tons, equal to
£995 6s. lOd. in value. The following figures give the total
tonnage for each district for 1914:—Tipton, 402,282; Old-
bury, 109,242; Kingswinford, 769,723; Old Hill, 647,820;
total, 1,929,067. The outlay on maintenance of works and
steam and electrical pumping had been £1,782 15s. 7d., as
against £1,692 17s. 4d. In addition to this, £125 17s. 2d.
had been spent upon new surface drainage works, and placed
to debit of capital account. During the year £500 had been
paid in respect of loans, leaving the total general drainage
loan debt at £60,550. In regard to the Tipton district, the
general manager states that the output of mineral during the
year ended June 30 was 378,169 tons. The deficiency to meet
working expenses was £5,559. This deficiency was caused
by the heavy rainfall, the increase in the cost of wages, slack,
and stores, and the continued falling off in the output of
mineral. The falling off in the output had arisen largely
from the difficulty in obtaining labour at the collieries since
the commencement of the war. Under the terms of an
agreement dated October 1. 1913, and confirmed by the Act of
1914, £12,532 had been advanced during the year as a loan
by the Public Works Loan Commissioners, to enable the
Drainage Commissioners to repay to the Birmingham Canal
Navigations advances made by them between May 1, 1912,
and August 1, 1914, for the purpose of continuing pumping
operations, and a further sum of £5,000 to meet the deficiency
in revenue to June 30, 1915. In the Old Hill district the
assessments amount to £5,443, as against £6,189 last year.
The expenditure on working account had been £4.650. as
compared with £5,465.—The surface drainage engineer (Mr.
S. B. Priest) reports that the cost in this department was
£2,034. The rainfall at the most central part of the district
was 33-28 in. This was about 5 in., or 18 per cent., above
the average for the last 20 years. The surface drainage
works and the various surface pumps had been maintained in
an efficient condition. The cost of repair of damages from
mining had increased compared with last year, and the whole
cost of surface pumping had increased £250. This was due
to increased rainfall. On the question of the pumping in the
Tipton district, the engineer reports that the volume of water
dealt with by the Commissioners during the year had been
17;} million tons, which was practically the same as last
year. The heavy rainfall of November and December 1914.
did not reach the pumps until the following February, and
from that time the pumping became excessive'. The Moat old
engine and the Gospel Oak engine were kept fully at work to
assist the Moat new engine, and the o'd Deepfields engine
worked from February 3 to June 9. From February to June
the pumping averaged three million gallons per day in excess
of the pumping in the corresponding months of 1914. The
Millfields pumping engine ceased on November 16, 1914. All
assistance from private pumping engines had ceased. The
only help the Commissioners now received from colliery pro-
prietors in draining the mines was the working by them of
steam pumps and raising water by tanks. Since the Millfields
engine had stopped the water had risen 82 ft. at Millfields and
22 ft. in the Oldbury district. The total figures for pump-
ing. including private steam pumps, etc., showed that 51 tons
of water had been raised for every ton of mineral.—The
mining engineer's report for the Old Hill district showed
that the water raised by the Windmill End and Buffery
engines was 4,678 locks.

Mr. E. A. Ashmall (deputy coroner) held an inquest at
Hanley, last Friday, on the bodies of John Shenton and
John Moore, both of whom were killed by a fall in a cinder-
tip at the works of the Shelton Iron, Steel and Coal
Company. The men wrere working for a contractor named
Malkin, and were following their employment when a large