May 5, 1916.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN

853

especially for export, although prices have gone up
further; and fine plate cannot be had for some time
ahead, at any price. The restricted production of tin-
plate has stimulated the demand for black, and many
domestic utensils previously made of copper, etc., are
now made of iron plate. Business has also been very
active in wrought iron pipes, and large consignments
have been sent to northern countries at repeatedly
increased prices. In spite of the good demand, the
deliveries of borehole casings have declined, owing to
the impossibility of filling'the orders. Scrap iron has
again advanced, core scrap costing 63 mk., ordinary
61 mk., workshop scrap 50’50 mk., lathe turnings 48’25
mk., and melting iron 42 mk. per ton delivered. Shell
makers’ scrap is available in large quantities, but is
neglected, though the heavier kinds are well sought after.

MINING INDUSTRY AND MILITARY

SERVICE.

At the mining tribunal for the Dunfermline district the
position of men who had entered mines to evade military
service was raised. Capt. A. J. Ross, recruiting officer, said
he did not think the court should sanction any attempt to
evade service. The military authorities were not trying to
take any miner who had been in the pits all his working
life. He knew three cases in one district where men left
public houses and went into the pits. Those men were
sheltering in the pits, and that sort of thing should be
stopped. The chairman pointed out that if men went into
the pit before the appointed day, and appeared on the lists
before the court, the tribunal was bound to exempt. The
question was one, he added, between the Home Office and
the War Office. Bailie Mackie, Deven, the military repre-
sentative, said that it was quite a common thing for a man
to get his calling-up list and to go into the mines. At a
later stage of the proceedings the chairman remarked that
the collieries had done very well, and Bailie Mackie observed
that the miners had been more loyal than any class he knew.

The Hamstead Colliery Company Limited applied to the
Perry Barr tribunal for exemption for nine surface men.
The military representative, who was unable to be present,
had written suggesting that the company ought to be able to
release a carter, but Mr. Holland, the manager, said the
men had been thinned out to such an extent that they were
absolutely on the rock bottom. The principal work of the
man in question was the conveying of the allowance coal to
the colliers’ homes. Asked if he could not make some other
arrangements so that the carter might be liberated, Mr.
Holland replied that if the allowance coal was a day or two
late in delivery there would be trouble with the men. The
application was adjourned indefinitely, the clerk pointing out
that the men came under the head of reserved occupations.

One colliery firm, addressing the Swansea tribunal on
behalf of a man who had been passed for home service only,
argued that unless the man was exempted, the nation would
lose in civil life'a useful worker and would gain a useless
soldier. But the tribunal was not impressed, and the appeal
on his behalf was rejected.

The difficulty in which coal exporters are placed by the
calling up of members of the office staffs was exemplified in
a case which came before the same tribunal. An exporting
firm appealed for the exemption of a manager, stating that
they had contracts with Allied countries as well as at home,
and that the man in question had entire charge of the export
department. Half of their staff had already been called
away, and they considered that it was in the national
interest that the business should be carried on. Here again,
however, the tribunal was unsympathetic, and would not
grant exemption, but permitted delay of only a month

The Maesteg tribunal, which deals almost entirely with
colliery employees, had intimation from _ the military
authorities that men who have- received certificates of con-
ditional exemption or are subject to the new Act, are to
be informed that their cerificates are now cancelled. Calling-
up notices will be sent to them. Upon this intimation, the
clerk to the tribunal said that the effect.appeared to be that
all certificates granted to applicants in certified occupations
on condition that they remained in those trades, and also
certificates of all kinds granted to applicants who came under
the Military Service Act, were cancelled; and that the men
were apparently to be called up forthwith. That was his
reading of the communication, and it was very drastic.

Where an attested man has had an .application refused by
the colliery tribunal, he has to make immediate application
to the local tribunal on personal grounds. This appears to
be the course outlined by a letter from the Local Govern-
ment Board to the Abersychan tribunal. If the man’s group
has not been called up, application should be made within
10 days after it is called. .

Tredegar Company employees came before the local
tribunal this week, among them one of the colliery time-
keepers. His special duty related to the surface men, nearly
300 in number, and he is also compensation clerk, and. dealt
with the health insurance at Oakdale Colliery, where 1,970
men are employed. It was stated that since war broke out
all the other members of the clerical staff had left, and this
timekeeper was regarded as indispensable. Close upon 700
of the men had enlisted. Four months’ exemption was
granted.—The tribunal rejected appeal on behalf of a chaff
cutter for the 600 horses of the company.

In order to see whether any more single men can be spared
from the mines and works in East Cleveland, the recruiting
officer (Maj. E. Hamilton) and one of the military represen-
tatives this week had interviews with the various managers
to discuss the whole question. The policy of the Cleveland
advisory committee has been to give postponement for a month
for miners appealed for by employers, and they are continuing
to carry this out. Exemptions for such a period were allowed
in a large number of cases before the Skelton and Brotton
tribunal. In the case of a check weighman, who appealed on
personal grounds, being the sole support of an invalid father
and mother, and who was also appealed for by his committee
on the ground that he was indispensable owing to having to
watch the interests of the miners, exemption for three months
was allowed. In another case, two months was granted to a
baker, although the opinion was expressed by some- members
of the tribunal that women should do their own baking.

The South Yorkshire appeal tribunal on Monday heard
appeals from a number of local tribunals. An application
from Rotherham concerned the exemption of two married
clerks', who were claimed as indispensable because of their

long experience and expert knowledge of, more particularly,
the South Yorkshire mining industry. The local tribunal
had regarded the claim as not sufficiently strong to warrant
exemptions, and laid stress on the point that lady clerks had
not been introduced. The manager said their business had
imposed very heavily increased work on them because of the
position of mining in. the war industries. They had also
taken on the work of the Coal Supplies Committee in connec-
tion with the Ministry of Munitions. Although they had 11
or 12 clerks left, all their unmarried men had gone—five to
the front. The men for whom they now appealed were
attested men who had been with the firm since boyhood, and
were expert in a special class of work, which was quite dis-
tinct from ordinary clerking. They had advertised for female
clerks, with a view of getting assistance in the lesser skilled
branches of their work, but only two very indifferent applica-
tions had been received. The tribunal decided to give the
senior man a month’s exemption, and the other appeal was
disallowed.

At the West of Fife mining tribunal, sitting at Dunferm-
line, there was raised the question of the position of men who
had entered the collieries with a view of evading military
service. Capt. Ross said it was an obnoxious practice. Mr.
H. Walker, who presided, expressed his agreement, but
pointed out that it was the duty of the tribunal to consider
not the position of the miner, but the needs of the mines.
Figures submitted showed that the percentage of enlistment
was from 20 to 40.

Army recruiting occupied the attention of the council of
the Nottinghamshire Miners’ Association at the monthly
meeting on Saturday. The agent (Mr. J. G .Hancock,
M.P.) reported that the Premier had met the executive of
the Miners’ Federation, and had made a statement, the
result of which was that -a conference was to be held during
the coming month. The council appointed four lodge repre-
sentatives, together with the president and two other
officials, to attend the conference. The call of the Govern-
ment for 200,000 more men for the Army, and the military
situation in general, so far as it presented itself to miners,
was considered, the result being that the council felt the
time had arrived when members should be asked to say
definitely whether they were in favour of universal compul-
sion during the period of the war if the Government
considered it necessary. Accordingly it was unanimously
decided to take an immediate ballot in the county. Col.
Lancelot Rolleston attended the meeting, and explained a
scheme for home defence against aircraft and possible
invasion, and invited the co-operation of miners.

In the case of a shipping agent, representing several
collieries, application was made to the South Shields
tribunal on Tuesday last, on business and domestic grounds.
The military representative stated that applicant had been
medically examined and returned for garrison duty, which
meant that he would not be called up for service for at least
two months. So far as the personal application was con-
cerned, he thought the work could be done by an elderly man.
Three months’ exemption was given.

An application, by Mr. E. Harrison, of the Northumber-
land and Durham Miners’ Permanent Relief Fund, for the
exemption of five supervising clerks .in the society’s State
insurance section, was heard by Newcastle tribunal. It was
stated that, prior to the war, tlie staff consisted of 30 clerks,
of whom 21 were single. Of the single men, 20 had enlisted
and one was medically unfit. Of the married men, four
had attested. The society dealt with 84,000 members, and
the supervising clerks mentioned had to supervise a large
number of girls. To the dependants of enlisted clerks the
society was allowing rent and coal, equivalent to about 13s.
per week. The tribunal decided to exempt three men for
three months, the choice of men to be left to the society.

To the Durham County appeal tribunal, Mr. W. H. Bell
applied, on behalf of the South Hetton Coal Company, for
the exemption of the managing director, who, he stated, was
one of six directors, most of whom were elderly gentlemen.
The company had an output of over 1,000,000 tons per year,
and 1,100 of their men had joined the Army. The company
was paying ^£10,000 per annum towards the maintenance of
these men’s dependants. The chairman (Judge Greenwell)
thought that this was a case which should go before the
Home Office. The appeal was, therefore, dismissed, but
permission was granted to the applicant to appeal to the
higher tribunal.

A joint conference of the committee of the Mining Associa-
tion and of the executive of the Miners’ Federation of Great
Britain, with General Mackinnon and other representatives
of the War Office, was held at the Hotel Cecil, London, with
reference to the supplying of the military requirements for
skilled miners for tunnelling work. Both the coal owners
and the miners’ representatives promised the military
authorities to do all in their power to secure the necessary
number of skilled men, but the miners’ representatives
pressed that the men enlisted for this work should receive
pay at the rate of 6s. per day for their services, instead of
the usual military pay. The military representatives had
no power to pledge the War Office on the question of pay,
but undertook to convey the decision of the Government to
the joint secretaries.

Mr. Joseph Grant, of Percy Main, retired colliery agent,
left estate valued at hl ,275.

“ Black Bellite ” .and “ du Pont Permissible No. 1 ” have
been added to the list of permitted explosives in coal mines.

In describing the microscopic nature of coal at a recent
meeting of the Society of Dyers and Colourists, Dr.
Hickling stated that, after extensive examination, the
general impression left was that coal consists mainly of
unfilled vegetable tissue. The transparent, visibly homo-
geneous material that constitutes almost the whole of
bituminous coal must originally have been in a liquid con-
dition, -and so forced its way through the membranous walls
of the cells, completely filling them. The process would be
one of ordinary diffusion through a semi-permeable mem-
brane ; the original liquid content of the cell having diffused
out had been replaced by the coal substance. The cell wall
itself doubtless remained saturated with the substance, and,
indeed, its own material seems in. most cases to have been
gradually dissolved in the general mass. It is considered
that what actually did happen during the formation of coal
was that by far the greater portion of the ’carboniferous
vegetation -which now remains as coal was reduced by
decomposition—probably bacterial—to a liquid state, the
liquid being then soaked up by the still undecomposed
residues of. the vegetation.

SOME RECENT DECISIONS UNDER THE
WORKMEN’S COMPENSATION ACT.

[Specially Contributed.]

Notice of Evidence.

In an appeal by the Fife Coal Company the Court of
Session has affirmed the right of employers to receive notice
of an intention to call evidence that would require rebutting
evidence. An application by the company to have a weekly
payment reviewed on the ground that the workman had
ceased to be totally incapacitated was dismissed in the
Sheriff Court as the result of medical evidence to the effect
that a man’s heart had been affected by his accident. The
employers appealed on the ground that they had received
no notice that such evidence would be brought, and they
contended that the hearing should have been adjourned to
enable them to call evidence on the point. The Court of
Session remitted the case to the Sheriff Court, the Lord
Justice Clerk expressing the opinion that the procedure
adopted was unfortunate.

Earning Capacity.

At Stockton County Court a firm of employers have resisted
a claim on the ground that since the accident they had been
paying the applicant the same wages as before. For the
workman, it was .contended that though the rate of wages
was the same, his total earnings were less, as he had not
worked so much overtime. The judge decided that so long as
the rate of wages’ was the same, the diminution of earning
capacity would be fully met by an award of 5s. a week. The
employers had contended that in the circumstances the man
was not entitled to an award at all.

Blood Poisoning by Coal : Failure to Give Notice.

Details of some interest were disclosed in a claim which
has been heard at Sheffield County Court in connection with
the death of a workman from blood poisoning, caused by a
piece of coal getting into one of his clogs. The widow said
that one evening her husband came home from work and
told her that a piece of coal had got into his left clog and
cut his foot. On examining the foot she found a wound
about 4 in. long in the sole, and on the sock a patch of dark
dried blood. She bathed the foot with boracic acid, and put-
on a clean bandage and a clean sock. The day after the
accident, which happened in June 1914, he returned to work,
and continued until July 19, but was then off until
September 20. On July 20 the wife called in a medical man,
who then gave her a certificate, which she took to the works,
and handed to a chief foreman. So far as she could
remember, the certificate was 'to the effect that her husband
was suffering from blood poisoning, due to the wound. A
fellow workman, in giving evidence, said that he was shown
the injured foot about two hours after the accident happened,
and saw that there was a sore on it. The medical man
called in by the wife said that when he first saw the injured
foot he had no doubt that the man was suffering from septic
poisoning. He made incisions, and later found that the work-
man was suffering from a recurrence of the complaint. The
witness continued to attend the workman until he died early
this year from blood poisoning. The county court judge was
of opinion that the man’s death was the result of an accident
arising out of and in the course of the employment, but he
decided for the employers on the ground that they had been
prejudiced in their defence owing to failure to give notice of
the accident “as soon as practicable after the happening
thereof,’’ as required by section 2 of the Workmen’s Com-
pensation Act, 1906?*

An Accident on a Colliery Railway.

A claim which has been the subject of an application at
Rotherham County Court originated in circumstances which
deserve the attention of colliery owners. Under an arrange-
ment with the Great Central Railway Company, workmen’s
trains are run to and from the sidings of the Rothervale
Collieries Limited. So far as the railway company’s
responsibility goes, the railway terminus is the junction, with
the colliery sidings. The actual terminus, however, is a
platform further on in the colliery grounds, but when a train
reaches the junction the railway company’s engine is with-
drawn, one of the colliery company’s engines is substituted,
and the train is then drawn to the platform, where the
workmen alight. Similarly, on leaving the pit the workmen
walk to this platform to board the train, which is then drawn
by the colliery company’s engine. to the junction, where
the railway company’s engine is attached and their officials
take control. Between the junction and the platform, both
on arrival and departure, trains are not only drawn by the
colliery company’s own engines, but are under the control
of their own officials. For travelling between the platform
and the junction the workmen are charged no fares. This
system has existed for 20 years. In connection with the
claim referred to, it appeared that on leaving the pit the
applicant walked’ to the platform with other workmen,' a
distance of fully a hundred yards. There was no light
except that from the train, there was something of a rush,
and the applicant, failing to see the edge of the platform,
fell over, a distance of 3 ft., receiving injuries which
incapacitated him from employment. For the company it
was contended that when the accident happened the man’s
employment had ceased, and that the accident therefore had
not arisen out of and in the course of the employment. The
county court judge, however, was of opinion that it was
an implied term of the contract of service that the workman
should travel free of charge between the platform and the
junction, and that the employment had not ceased. In other
words, the junction was the point at which the employment
began or. ended, as the case might be. That is to say, the
workman was within the sphere of his employment so long
as he was on the colliery company’s side of the junction.

Effect of War on Contracts.—A question as to the effect
of war and strike clauses in contracts for iron ore was
decided by the Court of Appeal on Thursday, when dismiss-
ing the appeal of the Ebbw Vale Steel, Iron and Coal Com-
pany against a decision of Justice Bailhache. The defen-
dants, Macleod and Company, iron ore merchants, Glasgow,
suspended the operation of two contracts, dated March 16 and
November 2, 1914, for 15,000 tons and a further 10,000 tons
of Axpe Arrazola calcined spathic iron ore in monthly instal-
ments. The defendants pleaded the stoppage of the mine,
deficiency of shipping, and high freights, in connection with
the exception clause in the contracts, and Mr. Justice Bail-
hache decided in their favour. The Lord Chief Justice said
that the fulfilment of the contract was “affected’’ within
the meaning of the clause, and Lord Justice Warrington and
Mr. Justice Lush concurred.