892

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN

October 29, 1915.

included the Mayor of Durham (Mr. P. J. Waite), Mr.
Reginald Guthrie (secretary of the Durham Coal Owners’
Association), and Mr. Hesketh (secretary of the Durham
Joint Committee). The gathering was presided over by
Mr. William House, president of the Miners’ Association.
In addition to providing accommodation for the Miners’
Association, the new hall will accommodate the meetings
of all the sectional unions—the enginemen’s, mechanics’,
cokemen’s, etc.—in the Durham coal field.

Mr. R. C. Simpson, late under-manager at Edmondsley,
has been appointed to a similar position in the main coal
seam at Murton Colliery, in succession to Mr. E. A.
Richardson, who has gone to Blackhall Colliery.

Mr. William Straker, corresponding secretary of the
Northumberland Miners’ Association, has issued a circular
to the members of the union, stating that, since the adverse
vote on the proposal to pay a series of levies towards the cost
of fitting out an ambulance convoy for the front, several of
the branches have agreed to pay levies equal to what was
proposed should be paid by the whole of the branches. Mr.
Straker has been in consultation with Mr. Dennis Bayley,
and it has been arranged that Mr. William Hogg, treasurer
of the Miners’ Association, shall receive the contributions.
The circular concludes with an appeal for voluntary support
for the ambulance fund, and states that it has been suggested
that, as the miners have received a further advance of wages
of 18 per cent., the agents might again appeal to them to
agree to levy themselves. Already the Hartford miners have
agreed to levy themselves to the extent of 3d. per half-
member and 6d. per full member per fortnight for 20 weeks,
and a scheme has been devised by the officials and workmen
at the Cramlington group of collieries whereby the men will
pay 6d. per fortnight for those whose wages are over 3s. per
day, and 3d. per fortnight for those in receipt of less, for 20
fortnights. The sum thus raised will be supplemented by a
contribution from the directors of the Cramlington Coal Com-
pany, who will purchase the ambulances, and hand them over
to the authorities. Mr. John Morison, agent for the com-
pany, has been chiefly instrumental in bringing the scheme
into operation.

Mr. William Weir, compensation agent to the
Northumberland Miners’ Association, has recently issued his
report for the three months ended September. The report
states that there were three cases where men had been idle
through “ beat hand,” and had only put in a doctor’s
certificate, instead of going to a certifying surgeon. In
each case, the men had lost a fortnight’s compensation, as
they had commenced work before they found out that any
mistake had been made, which made it impossible for them
to get another certificate. The owners had disagreed with
the association that these men did not know that they
should have gone to the certifying surgeon, and contended
that the scheduled diseases had been so long in the Act
that all men knew what course should be taken. Mr. Weir
asks secretaries to draw the attention of members to this
in order that a recurrence of the same might be prevented.

The extraordinary nature of some claims for compensation
is shown by two which have recently had consideration
before the Durham Coal Trade Compensation Committee.
In one instance, a driver, on going to the pit, put his bottle
on the cabin fire to get warmed. It exploded, with the
result that he lost an eye, and seriously injured the other.
The owners contended that the .accident did not arise out of
and in the course of his employment, and refused com-
pensation. The case will be tested before the County Court,
probably. The second case was that of an offtakes lad at
Brancepeth No. 2 pit. He got his finger bruised by a
winch, and was off work over a fortnight: He was not
injured at his own work, but alleged that the wagonwayman
told him that, when he had nothing to do, he had to go
in-bye and help another lad. The claim was contested on
the ground that the lad should not have been in the part
of the pit in which he was injured. The employers estab-
lished the fact that he was not sent to where he was injured,
and the claim was disallowed.

Cleveland.

Blastfurnace Returns.

According to the quarterly returns of the Middlesbrough
Chamber of Commerce, the number of blastfurnaces in opera-
tion within the port of Middlesbrough at September 30 was
43, as against 47 a year ago. The number of furnaces
built is 77. The total make of pig iron for the third quarter
was 533,000 tons. For the previous three months the output
was 536,000 tons. Imports of ore to the port of Middles-
brought last quarter reached 486,283 tons, as compared with
452,862 tons for the previous three months, and 484,371 tons
for the corresponding quarter of last year.

Cumberland.

The Solway Works—A New Colliery.

On Saturday the first of a series of meetings to be held
in the Cumberland district in connection with the scheme of
the Miners’ Association to provide a number of motor ambu-
lances for the front, was held at Workington, Mr. J.
Dickinson, president, presiding.

During the past week the Workington Iron and Steel
Company, the proprietors of the Solway Iron Works at
Maryport, have been ascertaining what labour is available
for the restarting of a furnace at these works, which have
been standing idle since January of last year. When in
full blast the Solway Iron Works gave employment to about
220 men. Since the works were closed down, the men have
either gone to Workington, or to more distant parts of the
country.

Preparations are being made for the restarting of the
Watergate Colliery, near Maryport, which has been stand-
ing idle for the last four months. It is expected that a
number of men will be able to start work on Monday next.
The Watergate Colliery is the property of the Flimby and
Broughton Moor Colliery Company, and gives employment to
upwards of 200 men.

Yorkshire.

Colliers' Wages—Retail Prices in Sheffield, Leeds, Hull,
and Harrogate — Important Royalty Action — Water
Supply at Adwick—“ Andre ” Gates—Co-operation and
Coal Supply—A Resourceful Miner.

Mr. R. H. Mungall (partner in Messrs. D. M. Stevenson
and Company Limited, coal exporters, Glasgow and Hull)
entertained the East Yorkshire Transport and Supply
Company to dinner on the occasion of his leaving the posi-
tion of commandant of the company to take up a commission
in the East Yorkshire Yeomanry.

Yorkshire miners are enpoying a period of unexampled
prosperity just now. Probably never in the history of the
county coal field have their wages been so good, or the
demand for their services greater. This is, of course, due
to the fact that coal is as important a munition of war as
is cordite. In the Doncaster Police Court last Saturday, a
young pony driver was stated to be earning as much as
45s. 6d. per week. It is said there are many thousands of
Yorkshire miners who are now making between £4 and £C)
weekly, in fact, money was never more plentiful. Trade
is, as a consequence, uncommonly good. Cases could be
cited where men have quitted the colliery offices to go down
the pit and earn bigger wages with the pick than with the
pen.

The Carlton Main Colliery Company last week summoned,
at Barnsley, half-a-dozen datallers, to show cause why they
had not paid damages according to the award of the court
for breach of contract, the amount varying from £12 to £7.
It was explained the company did not wish to send the men
to gaol so long as they paid a reasonable sum per week.
The under-manager stated the miners could earn at least
10s. per day, and the datallers from £2 to £2 5s. weekly.
Each defendant was committed for 40 days’ imprisonment,
the order of convictment to be suspended so long as they
paid 10s. per week off the awTard.

News was last week received at South Elmsail to the
effect that Mr. F. K. Robinson, manager of Frickley Colliery,
and who is now a lieutenant in the Forces, had been
wounded in action. Since then his wife has received a
reassuring letter, stating that Mr. Robinson’s wound is
only of a slight nature, and that he has been in the trenches
since being injured. He was, it appears, struck in the
neck by a fragment of shrapnel.

The. West Yorkshire Colliery Travellers’ Association, at
a special meeting held last Friday, decided to make a second
grant of £50 to the British Red Cross Society and Order of
St. John; also a further grant of £10 to the relief of distress
in Belgium, from the funds of the association.

In the minutes of the Finance Committee of the Sheffield
City Corporation appears the announcement that the
Sheffield and District Coal Merchants’ Association are pre-
pared to limit the prices of domestic coal, by restricting
the price of coal so far as relates to sales to secondary
merchants, to Is. fid. per ton over and above the cost price
at the depot; and for a direct supply to the general public,
a sum of 5s. per ton over and above the cost price, plus
cost of delivery. The cost price is to include all railway
charges.

The suggestion, to which reference was made last week,
that the Harrogate Corporation should turn municipal coal
dealers to safeguard the interests of the poorer people, has
been found to be impracticable, and will, we understand,
not be proceeded with. A deputation from the Harrogate
Coal Merchants’ Association, which interviewed the Finance
Committee of the Corporation, on the proposal by the Board
of Trade to fix a limitation of prices for the distribution
of coal, and the profits after the coal reached the sidings,
let daylight into the Corporation, so to speak. The upshot
is an understanding that the price, so long as it does not
rise at the pit head, will remain as at present, Is. 4d. per
cwt, with an extra jd. per cwt. to cover cartage in outlying
districts, which, after all, is only 2d. more per cwt. than
pre-war rates.

The Corporation of Leeds, through the General Purposes
Committee, have completed arrangements with the repre-
sentatives of the city coal merchants for the limitation of
prices for household coal. The arrangements, which have
been approved by the Board of Trade, are as follow “ That
so long as the selling price of household coal at the pit
does not exceed the price fixed by the Price of Coal
(Limitation) Act, 1915, the retail price shall not be more
than 5s. per ton advance on the 1913-14 rates at the depot
or station. This price covers all extra charges for transit,
wagon hire, yard labour, and screening. Charges for
cartage to be regulated according to the increased expenses
in wages and horsekeeping, but not to exceed the following :
6d. per load on present rates up to and including 2s. per
load; 9d. above 2s. and up to 3s.; Is. above 3s. and up to
4s. 6d.; Is. 6d. above 4s. 6d. per load.” It is hoped that
every coal merchant in the city will accept and abide by the
scheme. The Corporation propose to publish the names of
all who give the undertaking.

A special committee appointed by the Hull City Council
to take steps under the Price of Coal (Limitation) Act to
prevent the retail prices of coal from being fixed at such
a point as to be a serious burden on the poorer classes met
last week, and decided to invite the Hull Coal Merchants’
Association to send a deputation to meet the committee with
a view to an arrangement being made for regulating the
prices of domestic coal during the coming winter. Labour
members urged that application should be made to the
Board of Trade for power to enable the Corporation to store
and retail coal to poor people, as was done at Middlesbrough
during the great coal strike. The Lord Mayor said he
doubted whether the Board of Trade would assent to the
proposal with prices as easy as they were at Hull. Hull,
he said, was far more favourably situated than most cities,
with coal fields at their very doors. The motion to approach
the Board of Trade was deferred.

The Court of Appeal, consisting of the Master of the Rolls
and Lord Justices Bankes and Warrington, on Friday last,
heard an -appeal by the Dowager Countess of Rosse, the
Earl of Rosse, the Alliance Insurance Company, and George
Bryan Coke Yarborough, of Campsmount, near Doncaster,
and others who are interested in the Rosse and Yarborough
lands in Campsail, Norton, and Askern. The respondents
were the Master and Fellows of St. Catharine’s College,
Cambridge, whom Mr. Justice Eve held to be entitled to the
mines and minerals in and under certain land at Norton
Common. Mr. Upjohn, K.C., for the appellants, said the
question for decision depended on the construction of an
Act of 1814 for enclosing lands in the manors of Campsail,
Norton, and Askern, and of the award made by the Com-
missioners thereby appointed. He submitted that the
college were only entitled to surface rights in the land in
question. Without calling on counsel for the respondents,
the Court dismissed the appeal, the Master of the Rolls
remarking that the question in this case was whether the
lord of the manor’s rights in the waste of the manor of
Norton allotted under the Act of 1814 had been extinguished.
In his view, everything under the land was by the Act vested
in the college, and the appeal would be dismissed.

Almost fiendish conduct was alleged recently, in
the Barnsley Police Court, against a pony driver named
Ernest Webb, employed in the Round Green pit. The
lad, who is only 15| years of age, struck a pit pony so
violently with a pick that it bled to death, the company

thereby sustaining a loss of £16. His juvenility saved him
from condign punishment, for, dealing with the case in the
Children’s Court, the Bench ordered him to pay 40s.

The urgent necessity for a permanent supply of water to
Old Adwick, now the centre of a large colliery district in
the Doncaster coal field, led .to a deputation from the
Adwick-le-Street Urban District Council having an inter-
view with Mr. Brightmore, inspector of the Local Govern-
ment Board. An official enquiry was held a few years
ago into an application to borrow £7,000 for water supply,
but the scheme has been laid aside, a temporary supply being
used, and also water from the wells. But as the infantile
mortality at Adwick is the highest in the district, an
adequate and permanent supply is now felt to be a
desideratum. An alternative and less costly scheme than
the original one is, it is understood, under contemplation.

An interesting case occupied the attention of his Honour
Judge Greenhow, K.C., at the Leeds County Court recently.

. The plaintiffs were John Hunt, Leonard Raith, Charles
Clapton, and Leonard Hinds, four miners, who claimed
sums of 13s., £2 Is., £1 8s., and £1 respectively
from their employees, the Micklefield Coal and Lime
Company Limited, these sums representing Is. per yd.
extra for work done under certain conditions.—Mr. H. T.
Waddy, on behalf of the Yorkshire Miners’ Association,
appeared for the plaintiffs, and pointed out that the
term “ andre ” (or “ andrew,” as used in some
collieries) was employed to define a crossgate. Some
said that it was a pure Anglo-Saxon word, meaning “ other,”
but alternatively it was claimed as a corruption of the word
“Andrew,” and was chosen because the diagonal form of the
St. Andrew cross indicated pretty clearly what was meant by
an andre gate. Miners received payment upon a varying
price list graded according to the difficulties to be surmounted
in winning the coal. In certain instances an extra shilling
was allowed for each yard worked, but there often arose differ-
ences of opinion as to what precise category a piece of work
came under. This question had been a subject for discus-
sion for years, but the men could not get a definition of the
term “ andre gate ” from the company, and the consequence
was that disputes arose.—Mr. Samuel Jacks, of the Miners’
Association, said he had inspected the gate in question, and
in his opinion it was “ andre.” The work went contrary to the
grain of the coal.—Prof. William Galloway, who gave evi-
dence, admitted never having come across the word “ andre ”
before Mr. Shepherd, for defendants, objected to his definition
of it. He took it that the men claimed in respect of work
which differed from the normal, the normal being at right
angles to the face, whether the face were “ on end ” or
“ bord.” “ Andre ” seemed to mean any kind of angle
“ Bord ” was generally the easiest for working, and “ on
end ” the hardest. It was more difficult to drive an oblique
gate than a direct one.—In adjourning the case, his Honour
remarked that if any arbitrator could be found satisfactory to
both sides it would be’absurd to ask for a definition of a
technical point in court.

In connection with the campaign in favour of the
co-operative control of raw materials, Mr. T. Myers, a
member of the Dewsbury Corporation, lately delivered at
Batley a lecture entitled, “ Co-operation and the Coal
Supply.” Referring to the inflation of prices since the
outbreak of war, he said that the advance demanded by
about a dozen West Riding colliery companies from the
Dewsbury Corporation was exactly 6s. per ton in each case,
and the co-operative societies were being mulcted to the
extent of 5s. per ton. From all the available evidence it
was apparent that the present charges to consumers bore
little relation to any increased cost which the colliery owners
had been called upon to meet. The lecturer estimated that
the co-operative population of the United Kingdom used
about 7,000,000 tons of coal per annum for domestic con-
sumption, and he contended that customers of that magni-
tude should be a factor to count. In Yorkshire and
Lancashire alone, he said, there were nearly 1,000,000
co-operative society members, and if on the average they
each used two tons of coal a year every advance of Is.
per ton drew £100,000 from those members. He contended
that if co-operative capital was to be invested in coal mines
it must go into co-operative mines, and not into private
enterprises. Not’ only for the benefit of householders, but
for the security of co-operative manufacturing concerns it
was desirable that supplies from co-operative sources should
be obtained. As to the practicability of the purchase of a
real “ live ” mine, the speaker said it had been hinted that
there were certain properties which probably might be
acquired, and he maintained that the co-operative movement
would be able to finance any concern of reasonable magni-
tude. To purchase mines which were already being worked
would perhaps be better than opening up new coal fields,
because in the former case there were possibilities of a return
upon the outlay from the first day of possession. In con-
clusion, the lecturer said it was fully recognised that the most
effective solution of the coal supply problem would be for
the State to take complete control of the mines, but mean-
while it was “up to ” the co-operative movement, with
its great markets and resources, to attend to its own
requirements.

Mt. P. P. Maitland, the West Riding coroner, conducted
an equiry last week into the death of a Normantdn miner,
named William Henry Skelton, who was found lying in his
working place at Newland Colliery, Norman ton," under cir-
cumstances pointing to gas poisoning. Although possessing
no knowledge pf ambulance methods, a pony driver named
Palethorpe, who found him, had picked up sufficient know-
ledge from books to be able to instruct a miner how to proceed
with artificial respiration until more expert assistance could
be procured. He then got together other men, and for 2|
hours 20 of them continued with the artificial respiration,
unfortunately without result. A quantity of gas was found
to have been released by a fall from a fault near where
Skelton worked, but medical evidence was that this had had
nothing to do with the man’s death. A post-mortem exami-
nation showed that the aortic valve of the heart was much
diseased, and that death was due to heart failure, caused by
over-exertion. It would take very little exertion or shock to
kill a man in his condition. The jury returned a verdict of
“ Death from natural causes.”

Lancashire and Cheshire.

Retail Coal Prices: More Schemes—Manchester Association
of Engineers.

A conference took place a few days ago at Hyde between
local coal merchants and representatives of the Corporation
on the question of prices for household coal, and the coal
merchants present decided that the prices for the winter should
not exceed from Is. 3d. to Is. 6d. per cwt., according to