November 5, 1915.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

933

to the payment of a 6 per cent. (8 per cent.) dividend,
250,000 mk. .to social purposes, 50,000 mk. to school
funds, and 108,510 mk. to the board’s share of profits,
leaving 2,213,334mk. (2,114,509 mk.) to be carried
forward.

Vereinigte Konigs- und Laurahiitte. — Including
239,930 mk. brought forward from old account, the
trading profit amounted to 10-57 million mk. (11-92
million mk.), plus 635,026 mk. (161,544 mk.) income
from shares in other concerns and interest. Manage-
ment expenses totalled 1-13 million mk. (1-07 million
mk.); interest and discount charges, 480,000 mk.
(550,000 mk.); and debenture interest, 640,000 mk.
(650,000 mk.). The net profit, after writing off 6-26
million mk. (6-50 million mk.), is 2-68 million mk.
(3-55 million mk.), which again allows a 4 per cent,
dividend to be paid; 111,228mk. being carried forward.

Rheinische A.G. fur Braunkohlenbergbau und Brikett-
fabrikation, Cologne. — The total coal raised was
6,620,259 tons (7,076,795 tons), of which 906,792 tons
(895,637 tons) were distributed. Of briquettes, 1,817,162
tons (1,980,168 tons) were produced, and 1,830,561 tons
(1,966,992 tons) distributed. From a total surplus of
5,732,572 mk. (6,361,273 mk.), 843,118 mk. (805,949
mk.) had to be deducted for expenses, taxes, etc., and
1,798,946 mk. (1,632,43-5 mk.) written off, leaving a net
profit of 4,473,319 mk. (5,316,907 mk.), which enables
2,880,000 mk. (3,520,000 mk.) to be distributed as a 9
per cent. (11 per cent.) dividend, 223,666 mk. (265,845
mk.) to be placed to reserve B, 50,000 mk. (50,000 mk.)
to coupon tax reserve, 150,000 mk. to war reserve,
50,000 mk. (40,000 mk.) to staff fund, 211,063 mk.
(379,565 mk.) distributed as share of profit and bonuses,
and 908,591 mk. (829,906 mk.) carried forward.

Gewerkschaft Viktoria, Kupferdteh.—The coal ouput
for 1914 amounted to 135,183 tons (122,578 tons), and
the briquette production to 86,299 tons (79,065 tons).
The surplus of 96,624 mk. (deficit 96,300 mk.) has been
credited to shaft construction account. For the 'first
quarter of the present year the. coal output was 34,860
tons (32,917 tons the previous quarter, and 35,473 tons
the first quarter of 1914); the briquette production,
25,508 tons (26,123 tons and 21,382 tons respectively),
and the surplus, after paying loan and bank interest,
9,837 mk.

Bochumer Bergwerks A.G. Bochum.—The coal dis-
tribution decreased from 91*66 per cent, to 63-57 per
cent., and the coke distribution from 77*04 per cent, to
42*24 per cent, of the participation in the Syndicate.
The amount of coal raised was 296,809 tons (399,373
t tons), and 61,718 tons (106,833 tons) of coke were pro-
duced. The average selling price of the coal receded
from 12*07 mk. to 11*36 mk. per ton, the cost of pro-
duction, on the other hand, increasing from 9-08 mk.
to 9*33 mk. per ton. Out of a gross profit of 618,153 mk.
(1,269,529 mk.), 340,961 mk. (369,403 mk.) have been
written off,, and 51,593 mk. (30,636 mk.) placed to
reserve for covering subsidence damages, leaving a net
profit of 225,598 mk. (869,490 mk.), of which 11,280 mk.
(43,474 mk.) are placed to statutory reserve, 180,000mk.
(120,000 mk.) to the dividend fund, and 34,318 mk. (nil)
to the war fund. No dividend (10 per cent.).

Maschinenfabrik Thyssen und Company A.G.,
Bruckhausen.—Out of a total profit of 1,767,494 mk.
(1,815,293 mk.), 558,020 mk. (522,161 mk.) have to be
written off, 250,000 mk. set aside for enemy debts, and
143,742 mk. (210,642 mk.) reserved for contributions to
the trade association contributions, etc., leaving a net
profit of 1,065,731 mk. (1,082,489 mk.), which is to be
distributed as follows :—Statutory ' reserve fund,
106,573 mk. (108,249); special reserve for increasiang
the working capital, 300,000 mk. (300,000 mk.); assist-
ance fund, 21,741 mk. (26,946 mk.); carried forward,
■ @37,417 mk. (647,294 mk.). The special reserve now
amounts to 1,000,000 mk., i.e., is equal to the capital of
the concern.

Niederlausitzer Kohlenwerke, Berlin. — Including
493,973 mk. (486,701 mk.) brought forward, the surplus
amounted to 5,994,201 mk. (5,345,392 mk.). Of the net
profit of 2,494,020 mk. (2,303,372 mk.), 1,440,000 mk.
are bo be distributed as a 12 per cent. (12 per cent.) divi-
dend on 12 million mk. of old share capital, 240,000 mk.
as a 6 per cent, (nil) dividend on the new capital' of
4,000,000 mk., 182,000 mk. (158,400 mk.) as share of
profits, 75,000 mk. (60,000 mk.) as bonuses, 22,000 mk.
(20,000 mk.) set aside as coupon tax reserve, 40,000 mk.
(30,000 mk.) for staff assistance fund, 250,000 mk. (nil)
to establish a war reserve fund, and 245,020 mk. carried
forward.

Tiefbau und Kdlteindustrie A.G. Gebhard und Konig,
Nordhausen.—Of the net profit of 917,671 mk. (1,176,709
mk.), 500,000 mk. have been set aside to cover losses due
to the war, and 237,671 mk. (244,238 mk.) carried for-
ward, after paying a dividend of 4 per cent. (11 per cent.)
to the shareholders.

Bergwerksgesellschaft Trier m.b. H., und Gewerk-
schaften Trier I.-III., Hamm. — A trading profit of
2,370,735 mk. (3,454,726 mk.) was made, and a profit of
267,919 mk. (288,981 mk.) on rents and leases. Business
expenses accounted for 388,312 mk. (641,170 mk.),
interest 821,713 mk. (620,666 mk.), directors’ share of
profits 12,000 mk. (12,000 mk.), loss on exchange
12,400 mk. (80,000 mk.), loss, on securities nil
(11,037 mk.). After writing off 1,359,978 mk.
(1,398,960 mk.), and covering the deficit of 147,429 mk.,
there remain 152,048 mk., which are to be carried for-
ward. The coal output for the year was 708,700 tons
(793,607 tons), and the coke production 226,650 tons
(148,610 tons).

Press und Walzwerk A.G., Reisholz.— After writing
off 802,708 mk. (684,108 mk.), this concern, which is
one of the Thyssen companies, made a net profit of
319,181 mk. (60,414 mk.), of which 15,959 mk.
(3,032 mk.) are to be placed to reserve, and 303,222 mk.
(57,393 mk.) carried forward.

Gewerkschaft Vereinigte Schurbank und Charlotten-
burg, Aplerbeck. — The coal raised during the year
amounted to 207,836 tons (233,143 tons), and the
briquette production to 72,720 tons (82,200 tons). Owing
to the lower price of coal (average 11*73mk., as com-
pared with 12-21 mk. per ton), the receipts fell off by
nearly 100,000 mk. The cost of production was 11-19 mk.
(11-21 mk.) per ton.

Concordia Bergbau A.G., Oberhausen.—The share of
this concern in the profits of the Rombacher Hutten-
werke (under the agreement concluded last year)
amounts to 3,026,540 mk. (trading profit last year,
5,166,198 mk.), of which 1,270,456 mk. (1,473,595 mk.)
have been written off, leaving a net profit of
2,292,500 mk. (3,091,837 mk.), which enables 140,000
mk. (152,921 mk.) to be divided among the directors,
and 2,152,500 mk. distributed as a 21 per cent. (23 per
cent.) dividend. The Rombacher Huttenwerke has also
provided, under the agreement, a sum of 300,000mk.
to form the nucleus of a security fund.

Gewerkschaft des St'einkohlenbergwerks Ewald,
Herten. — The surplus for the year amounted to
4,369,892 mk. (8,416,090 mk.), out of which one million
marks (two million marks) have been distributed as
profit, 3,379,131 mk. (2,649,306 mk.) written off, and
827,940 mk. paid for loan interest, the capital account
(to which 3,142,517 mk. were placed last year) having
to be drawn upon to the extent of 837,178 mk.

Krefelder Stahlwerk A.G., Krefeld.—Of the working
profit of 1,926,448 mk. (1,931,103 mk.), 609,935 mk.
(617,474 mk.) have to be deducted for general expenses,
669,843 mk. (564,580 mk.) being written off. It is pro-
posed to place 32,333 mk. (37,452 mk.) to special
reserve, and 60,000 mk. (nil) to security fund, apply
19,167 mk. (17,159 mk.) to directors’ remuneration, and
540,000 mk. to the payment of a 12 per cent. (12 per
cent.) dividend, 20,846 mk. (25,675 mk.) being carried
forward.	<

Braunkohlen und Brikettwerk Berggeist A.G., Bruhl.
—The profits from briquettes and coal amounted to
1,004,401 mk. (1,399,370mk.), and on the Lucretia
investment to 51,000 mk. (nil). Out of the net profit of
399,247 mk. (547,171 mk.), 262,500 mk. (375,000 mk.)
are to be distributed as a 17| per cent. (25 per-cent.)
dividend, and 101,788 mk. (120,253 mk.) carried forward.

Torgauer Stahlwerk A.G., Torgau.—After extinguish-
ing the old deficit of 210,326mk., a gross profit of
516,090 mk. was obtained, of which 392,628 mk. have
been absorbed by expenses and interest, 99,863 mk.
being written off, and 23,598 mk. placed to reserve.

Braunkohlen - Brikettverkaufsverein G. m.b. H.,
Cologne.—The sales for 1914/15 totalled 4,706,406 tons
(5,208,019 tons), a decrease of 501,613 tons, or 9-63 per
cent. Of this quantity, 3,105,110 tons (3,263,285 tons)
were for domestic, and 1,601,296 tons (1,944,734 tons)
for industrial purposes, the decrease in comparison with
the previous year being 4-85 per cent, in the former case
and 17*66 per cent, in the latt.er. The business of the
company is now being carried on by the Rheinische
Braunkohlen-Syndikat G. m.b. H., and the^ Vereini-
gungsgesellschaft Rheinischer Braunkohlen-Bergwerke.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.

HOUSE OF LORDS.-—November 4.

Before Lord Chancellor Buckmaster, and Lords Atkinson,
Shaw, Parker, and Sumner.

Fillers and the Minimum Wage.

I. Churm v. the Dalton Main Collieries Limited.—This
was an appeal which will eventually determine the relation-
ship between an employer and workman under the Coal
Mines (Minimum Wage) Act, 1912. The appellant, Isaac
Churm, is a trammer or filler, employed in Sil verwood
Colliery, near Rotherham, of which the respondents, the
Dalton Main Collieries Limited, are owners. The original
action was tripd in the King’s Bench Division of the High
Court, before Mr. Justice Bailhache, without a jury, in
October 1914, and the applicant sought to establish his claim
against the respondents for a minimum wage under the above-
named Act. Two questions were raised -. First, what was the
contract between parties? Did it include an undertaking by
respondents to pay applicant wages? And, second, if not,
did that Act create such an undertaking, or otherwise impose
on respondents an obligation to pay applicant wages at the
minimum rate of 5s. 9d. fixed by the South Yorkshire District
Board, constituted under the statute, even although the com-
pany had not contracted to pay applicant any wages at all.
The respondents allege that under the system by which their
collieries are operated, no payments are made to fillers, but
only to the colliers who get the coal at the working face, and
that these pay their assistant fillers for the work which they
do. Churm worked under collier Fuller, and by the rules
the workman who failed to work 80 per cent, of the possible
number of shifts during a week, forfeited a right to be paid
the minimum wage rate. On the week ending July 23, 1913,
Fuller only worked four shifts out of six, while.Churm worked
five, and the latter held that the respondents set him to work
for which he was paid only 4s. for that day. On dividing
the total money received from respondents, Fuller paid
Churm IT 2s. 3d., retaining for himself 4-1 Is.. 9d. Appli-
cant maintained- that on the scale of minimum wage for the
district he was entitled to £1 12s. lid. Mr. Justice Bail-
hache decided, after a two days’ trial, that Churm was
entitled as filler to be paid by the colliery company at not less
than the minimum wage under the 1912 Act, and that the
company were his employers within the meaning of section 1
of that Act. Respondents appealed against this judgment,
and the Lords Justices of the Appeal Court — Buckley,
Pickford, and Bankes — unanimously allowed the appeal,
and ordered Mr. Justice Bailhache’s judgment to be set aside,
holding that the case was governed by the well-known case
of Richards and Wrexham, based on a decision in 1912 of
Sir Edward Clarke, K.C., then chairman of the South York-
shire District Wages Board.

Mr. Gordon Hewart, K.C., in opening for the appellant,
entered in great detail into a discussion of the interpreta-
tion to be put upon the “ Contract signature book,” and the

“ Signing-on book,” which all persons employed in the
company’s collieries were bound to sign; upon the by-laws
of the company and the government of their mines; upon
the rates and rules of pay for the colliery district of South
Yorkshire; and upon the figures in the pay-sheets. Counsel
submitted that the whole of the relations between the com-
pany and chairman exhibited every incident of those between
employers and workmen; that the present case was different
in three important particulars from the Wrexham case; and
that the judgment of the Divisional Court should be restored.

Sir Robert Finlay, K.C., for the respondent company,
contended that the Minimum Wage Act did not make any
one an employer who had not been an employer before the
Act, and that it was the collier and not the company which
was the employer in this case. There might be two or
three colliers with their fillers, and as a sort of partners,
they might make any agreement they liked for a division
of the earnings. No doubt there was a rule that all persons
in the colliery, being paymasters of assistants under them,
should give them the current rate of wages, but that did
not in the least degree tend to show that the colliery com-
pany was liable for the wages of everybody employed in the
mine.

SUPREME COURT OF JUDICATURE.
COURT OF APPEAL.—November 3.

Before the Master of the Rolls, and Lords Justices
Bankes and Warrington.

Workmen’s Compensation : Indirect Injury.

Hart v. Cory Brothers Limited.—This was an appeal by
Henry Hart, a collier, of Neath, from a decision of Judge
Lloyd Morgan, at the Neath County Court, given in favour
of the employers, Cory Brothers Limited, of the Resolven
Colliery.

The Master of the Rolls, in giving judgment, said the
workman met with an accident in the colliery which resulted
in serious injury to the left eye. He obtained compensation
of .£1 a week, but after about five months he resumed his
work with his old employers, not in the mine, but on the
surface. At a later period the county court judge made what
was called a suspensory award of Id. a week. That award
was made apparently by reason of the admission of the
employers that they did not object to a suspensory award of
that kind. He thought the learned judge was right in
accepting the offer of the employers, for the obvious reason
that when a man’s eye was injured, although he might for
the moment so far recover as to be able to resume work,
serious consequences might ensue subsequently, and by reason
of sympathy affect the other eye. Hart went to work again
after he had recovered from his injury, and two years or so
after the accident the other eye became affected. The applicant
then Sought to obtain a review of the penny a week award,
on the ground of the trouble in the right eye. The learned
county court judge found that although there was inflamma-
tion of the optic nerve of the right or the good eye, there
was no connection between that inflammation and the
accident to the left eye in January of 1912. That was a
finding of fact which could not be questioned. It was
therefore found that the applicant was not suffering
incapacity as the result of the accident in January 1912.
Now what struck him about the able argument in support
of the review of the award, was that in the case of a
man who, by an accident arising out of the employment, had
lost one eye, he must always be in this position-, that any
injury to the other eye, although perfectly good at the
time, must really incapacitate him from his full efficiency,
•and that although the accident was not the direct cause of
it, the mere fact of having lost one eye was more seriously
affected by the injury to the bther eye, ought to be regarded
although the second injury was not attributable to the
accident which caused the first. There was a great deal to
be said for that view, but his difficulty was in this case
that it seemed to him it would be deciding in the teeth of
the views expressed by the House of Lords in the case of
Hargreave v. the Houghhead Coal Company Limited to
listen to such an argument. Lord Atkinson had in that
case pointed out that compensation was given in respect of
■an injury arising out of the employment, and it was in
respect of that injury -alone. Were it otherwise, there would
be no finality. ■ The reasons for that decision seemed to
him to be applicable to the present case, and the learned
judge was right in leaving the penny a week award still
standing.

Lords Justices Bankes and Warrington concurred, and the
appeal was dismissed.

Manchester Geological and Mining Society.—The next
ordinary meeting of the members of this society will be held
in the Geological Lecture Theatre, Beyer Building, at the
Manchester University, on Tuesday, November 9, 1915, at
5 p.m. The following papers will be read : (1) ” The Coal
Measures of the Croxteth Park Inlier,” (2) ” Problems of
the South Lancashire Coal Field,” by George Hickling, D.Sc.

The North Staffordshire Institute of Mining and Mechanical
Engineers. — A lecture by Prof. W. A. Bone, F.R.S., on
“ The National Importance of Fuel Economy,” will be
given at the Central School of Science and Technology,
Stoke-on-Trent, on Saturday, November 13, under the
auspices of the English Ceramic Society and this institute.
The president will take the chair at 5.30 p.m.

Coke Oven Managers’ Association.—An association of coke
oven managers as apart from gas manufacturers has at
last been formed, and will, without doubt, prove of valuable
assistance to those engaged in the production of coke and
its by-products. The new association, which will have its
headquarters at Sheffield, will be called the Coke Oven
Managers' Association, and will have for its object the pro-
motion of coke oven and by-product industry in all or any
of its branches. The rules provide that the .members shall
be divided into three classes, viz., members, associate
members, and honorary members. The status of member-
ship shall be as follows :—(1) Members : Managers of coke
oven and by-product plants, or a by-product plant directly
connected with coke ovens. (2) Associate Members :
Assistant managers or chemists of such plants, who shall
not be under 21 years of -age. (3) Honorary Members :
Gentlemen directly connected with the by-product coking
industry. The first president of the association will be
Mr. George Chrisp, of the Silverwood Colliery. Mr. J. T.
Price (Manvers Main), “ W’ynfield,” Wath-on-Dearne, has
been appointed hon. secretary. The first meeting will be
held at Mappin Hall, Sheffield, on the 13th inst. at 7 p.m.,
when Mr. Chrisp will deliver his presidential address,
entitled “ Notes on the Development of the By-Product
Industry of Great Britain.”