IDecember 10, 1915.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

1201

Worsley and adjoining districts. New machinery for work-
ing the same has been installed at the Bridgewater
(Sandhole) collieries.

Owing to the scarcity of houses, a correspondent states,
numbers of workmen employed at the Partington Steel and
Iron Company’s extensive new works at Islam, near
Manchester, in which Messrs. Pearson and Knowles Coal and
Iron Company Limited have a large interest, are returning
to their homes in Scunthorpe, Middlesboro, Stockton, Jarrow,
Newcastle, and other places in the North. Other work-
men are being engaged. The local District Council had
embarked upon a big housing scheme just before the war
broke out, but it has not been fully completed in conse-
quence of the embargo placed upon public development
schemes by the Local Government Board.

It is stated that a few colliery workers in Lancashire
have lately migrated to the Kentish coal fields, and quickly
obtained remunerative employment. Colliery officials, too,
from Lancashire and Cheshire have also found good billets
in the former “ Garden of England.”

Notts and Derbyshire.

The Development of the Kimberley Coal Field.

Important developments are taking place in the Kimberley
coal field. For some time a large number of workmen has
been busily engaged re-modelling the pit bottom of the New
Watnall Colliery, belonging to Messrs. Barber, Walker and
Company, and making other extensive alterations, preparatory
to the winning of coal from the High Hazel and High Main
seams. The New Watnall pit was established 40 years ago,
and was an enterprise that was abundantly rewarded. The
old seams, once so rich, were gradually exhausted, and shortly
after the great coal strike of 1912, fear was entertained in the
locality that the pit would be closed. Happily, this did not
take place, and about 18 months ago deeper sinkings and
fresh workings were begun. The discovery of the High Hazel
and High Main seams (which are said to be about 3 ft. in
thickness, and which it is thought will increase in
thickness in the dip of the workings) no doubt hastened the
developments under notice. The High Main seam is situated
about 594 ft. down the old shaft, and the High Hazel some
60 ft. further below. A new pit bottom has already been
arranged, and it is understood that the new equipment will
be of the most modern type. The tubs, loaded and empty,
will be run by gravitation to and from the cages to the
endless haulage ropes. The main haulage roads are now in
the course of construction, and a “ head ” is being driven
up to the High Main seam. The stalls in both seams are
about to be set cut, and the coal, it is expected, will be cut
by machines driven by electricity. The area to be worked is
very considerable, and it is roughly computed that it will
provide employment for at least another 40 years. It may
be recalled with interest that the Top Hard coal was never
really worked out, for a good portion of the seam had to be
” sealed down ” years ago, owing to a fire which occurred in
the workings. On the northern side of the Kimberley coal
field is the Digby Colliery, whose managing director, Mr. H.
Dennis Bayley, it is stated, bought some years ago, on behalf
of his company, the minerals lying there. To the south, at
the end of the Pinxton viaduct, stands the Lodge Colliery.
This old pit shaft stood dismantled for years, until the enter-
prising Manvers Colliery Company, of Ilkeston, took it in
hand in the spring of last year, and subsequently re-opened
it. New Watnall pit lies sharply to the north, and one can
by drawing an imaginary cordon around the Cossall,
Kimberley, Broxtowe, New London, and Manvers collieries,
get a good idea of what this district means to the coal mining
industry.

Mr. J. A. Richards, lately managing director and secre-
tary of the Summerford Iron Company, has taken over the
business of the Clan Foundry Company Limited, Belper.

The Midlands.

Date of Drainage Appeals.

The date fixed by the arbitrators to the South Staffordshire
Mines Drainage Commission for hearing -appeals against
the award for the Old Hill district is the 28th inst. When
the award was signed it was reported that the engineers
gave the district a seven years’ lease of life, after which
it would be practically worked out, and with a view to
repaying bondholders the maximum rate permitted by Act
of Parliament was levied, the colliery owners having to pay
9d. per ton instead of l|d. It is anticipated there will be
many appeals.

The coroner’s enquiry concerning the death of Sidney
Brookes, miner, one of the seven men burned by an explosion
at the Mid-Cannock Colliery, Cannock, on Tuesday of last
week, was opened on the 3rd inst., at Walsall, but was
adjourned to January 7, the Coroner (Mr. J. Addison) stating
that a material witness was unable to attend.

There wa-s a gathering fully representative of North
Staffordshire at a complimentary dinner on Monday, given
in honour of Commander J. C. Wedgwood, M.P., D.S.O.,
and Lieut. James Cadman, D.S.C., both of the Armoured
Motor Car Section of the R.N.V.R. The occasion was to
signalise the honours recently conferred on the gallant
officers. Commander Wedgwood was awarded the Distin-
guished Service Order for gallantry, and Lieut. Cadman won
the Distinguished Service Cross on the Western front for
coolness and daring in charge of armoured cars under very
severe -shell and shrapnel fire from May 12 to 14, 1915.
Lieut. Cadman, who resides at Walstanton, Staffordshire,
and is associated with the colliery industry, is the second
son of the late Mr. J. C. Cadman, who for a number of
years was manager of North Staffordshire and Shropshire
collieries, and who was a past-president of the Institution of
Mining Engineers. Lieut. Cadman is a brother of Prof.
John Cadman, D.Sc., of the Birmingham University.

It is being urged by the miners’ officials and the coal
owners of South Staffordshire that if further recruits are
taken from the district, the ramifications of the industry
will be considerably curtailed, and that it will be necessary
to close some of the 'smaller pits. The agent for the Old
Hill district has been instructed to lay these views before
the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee.

In the Birmingham Nisi Prius Court, on Tuesday, before
Mr. Justice Bailhache, the trial was concluded of the part-
heard action in which C. F. Jackson and J. Francis
Staley, of the Exhall Colliery, Nuneaton, sought to recover
royalties which they alleged were due in respect of a patent
to prevent overwinding in colliery shafts, the defendants
being Nortons (Tividale) Limited. The main point involved
was whether the defendant company were entitled to succeed
on a counter claim which rested upon a plea of breach of
contract. There was an agreement between plaintiffs and
defendants by which the latter were to become the manu-
facturers of a mechanical device for automatically preventing

overwinding in the shafts of collieries. Plaintiffs were to
receive a royalty on each sale. An order by the Board of
Trade made it important that the device should be rapidly
produced, and as defendants were at first unable entirely to
meet the demand, they agreed to terms under which Messrs.
M. B. Wild and Company Limited were to make some of
the devices. It afterwards came to defendants’ knowledge
that certain of the machines had also been made by the
Nuneaton Engineering Company, who were treated by
plaintiffs as coming under the arrangement as to Wild and
Company. His lordship found that on discovering the
manufacture by the Nuneaton Engineering Company defen-
dants were entitled to treat it as a breach of contract. They
did not do so, however, entering into another arrangement
with the plaintiffs, and his lordship held that it would be
too unsettling to business if, after having made their elec-
tion, they were allowed to hark back to the original position.
He therefore gave judgment for Messrs. Jackson and Staley,
for their claim of .£210 10s. in respect of royalties. There
remained two outstanding matters of income tax on the
counter claim. As to the one, involving a dispute as to
whether £49 or £61 was payable, his lordship said he
should be entirely illogical and unscientific : he should divide
those sums by two and allow £55. The other matter of
income tax he left to abide the issue of a dispute with the
Commissioners, ordering plaintiffs to pay £56 into court.
Plaintiffs would have costs of the action; no separate costs
would be given on the counter claim.

Kent.

Receivership of Tilmanstone Colliery — Overwinding
Accident.

Final arrangements for the settlement of accounts with the
receiver who has been in charge of the Tilmanstone Colliery
for some time past, and for his discharge from office, were
made at a joint meeting of the shareholders’ committee and
the board of directors of the East Kent Colliery Company,
which was held in London last week. It was also resolved
by the meeting that the monies subscribed for the second
debenture stock should be released by Mr. J. J. Clark
(chairman of the shareholders’ committee) and Prof. Galloway
(chairman of the board of directors) for the company’s pur-
poses. It was reported that all the formalities' have been
satisfactorily settled, so that the company will now be in a
position to give their attention to the increased output of coal
and the general development of the colliery. It is understood
that the accounts will be made up to date and audited, and
that a general meeting of the shareholders will be called at
the earliest possible moment to receive these and the report
of the directors. At this meeting the present directors will
retire, and a meeting of the holders of second debenture stock
is to be held as soon as possible, for the purpose of appointing
a majority of the members of the new board, in accordance
with the re-construction arrangements.

Dr. Malcolm Burr, who was well known in connection
with the Kent Coal Concessions and allied companies, having
been chairman of the Deal and Wa-lmer Colliery Company
Limited, has been appointed on the Staff of the Expedi-
tionary Forces 'at Salonika, with the rank of captain. His
services will be in the interpreters’ department, Dr. Burr
having a perfect command of the languages of various
Balkan countries, also of Russian and other European
languages.

Snowdown Colliery deep sinking is down to 2,100 ft., and
the shaft is lined to 2,036 ft.

Two men were killed and two seriously injured in an
■accident which took place at the Snowdown Colliery, between
Dover and Canterbury, early on Tuesday. Ten men were
working in the deep sinking of No. 2 shaft, 2,100ft. below
ground, when a hoppit containing about 30 cwt. of debris
broke away from the pit head owing to overwinding, and
fell among them. Two men, named Tom Parker and John
Mount were crushed to death. The hoppit in its fall struck
against the sides of the shaft, breaking pipes and destroying
the electric light gear, so that the pit was in darkness, and
it was two hours before the rescue party got down to the
men. There was then 10 ft. of water in the pit, and a man
named Mallet was found, being held on to -an iron ladder
above the water by two of his comrades, who had been so
holding him up for the whole of the two hours. Owing to
the flooding of the pit it was not found possible to recover
at once the bodies of the killed.

Scotland.

Home Office Prosecution at Hamilton — Coal-cutting
Demonstration—Glasgow Retail Coal Prices—Fireman
and Timbering Rules.

In the Hamilton Sheriff Court on Wednesday, the 1st.
inst., before Sheriff Shennan, a prosecution under the Coal
Mines Act, 1911, was called against James Dalgleish, colliery
manager, and Alexander Foster, assistant colliery manager.
The complaint set forth that Dalgleish, being manager, and
Foster, acting manager in his temporary absence, of No. 2
pit, Gatesiide Colliery, Cambuslang, of the Flemington Coal
Company Limited, 5, West Regent-street, Glasgow, they did
on September 9 and 10 (1) in the E. section in the splint
and virgin coal seams, fail to produce an adequate amount
of ventilation to dilute and render harmless the inflammable
gases so that the levels and workings in the section should
be in a state for working and passing therein, and allowed
the air at and near the working face to contain a percentage
of oxygen varying from 18*69 to 18*79, and 1*35 per cent,
of carbon dioxide; (2) in the splint -and virgin coal seams,
which were opened before the commencement of the Coal
Mines Act 1912, failed to provide a main intake airway of
such a size and to maintain it in such a condition as to
afford a ready means of ingress and egress from the workings,
in so far ias it was, at a part 150 yds. or thereby from the
pit bottom, only from 1 ft. 6 in. to 1 ft. 10 in. in height, and
only from 2 ft. 4 in. to 3 ft. in width, and near its junction
with the dook haulage road was, for a hundred feet, covered
with soft mud and water to a height of 1 ft. ; (3) in the
splint and virgin seams in the main return -airway, failed
to have the roof made secure, in so far as part of it had no
supports, and allowed persons to travel in the airway while
it was in this condition; and (4) failed to put up a notice
specifying the manner in which the supports of the roof
and sides were to be set and advanced, and the maximum
intervals to be observed on the roadways between the
supports in the Virgin and Humph seams, and the dook
splinting section in the Dook Splint seam, and the maximum
intervals to be observed between the chocks at the face.
Foster was also further charged with having, on
September 10, in the main dook haulage road, in the Splint
and Virgin seams, failed to have the main dook haulage
road of sufficient dimensions in height to allow of the ponies
employed there passing without rubbing against the roof,
bars, and props supporting the roof. Objections to the

relevancy of the complaints were submitted by Mr. Mitchell,
writer, Glasgow, who appeared for the respondents. He
contended that the separate charges lacked specification,
and he further objected to both respondents being dealt with
in one and the same complaint. Sheriff Shennan -adjourned
the diet so as to consider and prepare a written judgment
on the questions of relevancy raised.

Under the auspices of the West of Scotland branch of the
Association of Mining Electrical Engineers, a successful coal-
cutting demonstration was given at Bredisholm Colliery, near
Uddingston, on Saturday afternoon. Mr. A. B. Muirhead,
president of the branch, introduced the proceedings. He
explained that the branch intended to continue its pioneer
work amongst machinemen and other men engaged in
handling electrical plant underground. A series of demon-
strations would be held in various centres, and it was the
aim of the promoters to arrange, if possible, to have the
features of a different type of machine explained on each
occasion. Mr. Robert Rae, of Messrs. Anderson and Boyes,
Flemington Electrical Works, Motherwell, was the demon-
strator. The arrangements for the gathering were carried
out by Mr. T. Arnott, general manager of the United
Collieries Limited; Mr. J. P. C. Kivlen, chief electrician to
the United Collieries Limited; and Mr. D. Landale Frew,
branch secretary.

The Corporation of Glasgow and the coal companies being
unable to agree as to how the various civic coal contracts are
affected by the Price of Coal (Limitation) Act, 1915, the
Board of Trade will be asked to appoint an arbiter to settle
the point at issue. It is estimated that- if the Corporation
interpretation of the Act is accepted, a saving of approximately
£70,000 will be effected on the contracts for 1915-16, whereas
if the sellers prove their contention, only a few thousand
pounds will be saved to the citizens.

Messrs. D. Brown and Company, a prominent firm of coal
exporters in Glasgow, have announced suspension. They
state that they are unable to execute contracts for the supply
of coal to France owing to excessive shipping freights.

An enquiry was recently held in Dunfermline Sheriff
Court respecting the death of John Allan, miner, Foulford
pit, belonging to the Fife Coal Company Limited, who was
crushed by a fall of material which took place while he
wa-s employed at the coal face. The manager, in his
evidence, said that Allan was taking out coal along the
side of a level road, with a view to enlarging the road for a
pony, when the roof collapsed. The roof was supported by
bars across the road, needled at one end and resting on a
prop -at the other, at the side deceased was taking the coal
out. No other system of propping could have saved Allan,
because the fall, which took place from a couple of fissures,
weighed about 26 tons, and covered a distance of about-
22 ft. by 9 ft. There was no wooden pillars at the place, as
tiie rules in regard to this did not apply there. At the
conclusion of the evidence the Procurator Fiscal said the
question of what was best to protect the place had never
been seriously considered, either by the management or
subordinate officials. Some of the' witnesses had said that
it was a road where the road rules applied, but others said
it was a place to which the face rules applied. The other
point was whether there was not opportunity and space
within which protecting pillars might have been erected.
The Sheriff, in his address to the jury, said the most
startling thing to his mind was the character of the inspec-
tion by the fireman. The fireman did not even know what
prop rules should have been applied to the place. He had
not read the rules for a very long time, and had apparently
forgotten all about them. The jury added a rider to their
verdict that the propping at the place was not adequate to
the circumstances of the case.

LABOUR AND WAGES.

South Wales and Monmouthshire.

The miners’ representatives on the Conciliation Board
sprang a surprise last Friday when they refused to agree
upon fixing a selling price equivalent to the minimum wage-
rate. A meeting had been called specially to consider the
matter, with Lord St. Aldwyn in the chair, in order to
discuss this question; though it should be noted that his
lordship was not present as independent chairman, but only
to assist as far as posible in overcoming a difficulty. The
new agreement of 1915 was entered into, as will be remem-
bered, in consequence of Government intervention; and no
equivalent was fixed as had been the case with other agree-
ments, not only under the Conciliation Board, but also
under the sliding scale which preceded it, for although the
sliding scale had no minimum rate, there was always a
relative equivalent selling price to the different rates of
wages. Rightly to appreciate the difficulty which has
arisen, it should be repeated that the new agreement of
this year includes -a new standard 50 per cent, above the
old one of 1879; and that upon this new standard a new
minimum wage-rate of 10 per cent, above has been fixed.
Consequently the minimum wage rate under the new agree-
ment is equal to 65 per cent, above the standard of 1879; that
is, it is 5 per cent, higher than the maximum rate under the
old agreement, when the maximum was 60 per cent. What
had to be settled on Friday was : What should be the
equivalent selling price of coal in relation to this new
minimum rate of wages? Twelve years ago, when the
minimum wage-rate was 30 per cent, above the standard of
1879, the equivalent selling price of coal was taken as
Ils. lOd. per ton; this being fixed by the late Sir David
Dale. The equivalent ranged upward until, at 15s. per
ton selling price, the wage-rate was 58*39 per cent, above
the standard; but a change took place under the 1910 agree-
ment, the minimum wage-rate being then raised from
30 per cent, to 35 per cent, above the standard, and the
equivalent selling price of the 35 per cent, being taken as
12s. 5d. per ton. When the selling price ranged from 14s. to
14s. 9d., the wage rate was at 50 per cent, above the
standard. In the agreement of this year, however, no
equivalent was fixed. Yet it is desirable that there should
be some such fixture in order that collieries may be worked
at remunerative terms. Lord St. Aldwyn desired to have
an equivalent so as to help him in deciding between the
parties; for without an equivalent he had practically no
data to go upon.

Submitting the arguments of the coal owners, Mr. F. L.
Davis agreed with Lord St. Aldwyn as to the necessity of
a guiding factor in order to avoid the uncertainty which
otherwise might exist. Mr. Davis suggested that tne ques-
tion might be referred to arbitration; and s-aid that the coal
owners were willing that his lordship or any other arbitrator
should decide the point. He directed attention to the fact
that the coal owners were in a time of peculiar stress owing
to the increase in cost of production.