March 15, 1918. THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN 545 LAW INTELLIGENCE. COURT OF APPEAL— March 14. Before Lord Justice Swinfen Eady, Lord Justice Bankes and Mr. Justice Eve. Iron Ore Case. Oconera Iron Ore Company v. Krupp’s. — The defendants were the appellants. The Oconera Company was promoted by the Consett and Dowlais Iron Companies, the defendant company and one Ybarra to acquire iron ore mines in Bilbao. It was agreed that Krupp’s should have up to 21)0,000 tons of ore a year, and their case was that the contract was an essential condition of the scheme by which their contribution to the capital was made. Mr. Justice Younger held that the contract was merely for prescribed quantities of ore, and was affected by the war in the same way as any other contracts with an enemy. His lordship accordingly held that the plaintiffs were entitled to abrogate the contract, and ordered Krupp’s to pay the costs. The appeal was dismissed. SOUTH WALES MINING TIMBER TRADE. A fair amount of Irish timber has arrived at the Bristol Channel ports during the past few days. The Ministry of Shipping has now fixed maximum freight rates for the carriage of Irish pit wood to Bristol Channel and Mersey ports. The following are the maximum rates: — From To Bristol To Channel ports. Mersey. s. d. s. d. Drogheda 19 0 ... ... 17 6 Dublin 19 0 ... ... 16 6 Waterford 19 0 .. ... 19 0 Cork 19 0 ... ... 19 0 Wicklow 19 0 ... ... 19 0 Wexford 19 0 ... ... 19 0 Dungarvan 19 0 ... ... 19 0 New Ross 19 0 ... ... 19 0 Fenit 23 0 ... ... 23 0 Galway 25 0 ... ... 25 0 Limerick 25 0 ... ... 25 0 Loading and discharging for charterers’ account; demur- rage as per coal scale; other customary conditions of charter. Merchants complain of the unfairness in pricing Irish timber imports, “ delivered to collieries ” when French wood is “ ex ship ” price. The wide range of the cost of delivery from ship’s side to collieries means the possibility of losses being made on the transaction at the maximum selling prices fixed. Imports of Foreign Wood. The imports of foreign mining timber were upon a slow scale. For the week ended March 9 the total quantity amounted to 5,660 loads, of which 1,920 loads were received by the Admiralty Pitwood Committee. The consignments were as follow:— Cardiff {Barry and Penarth):— Date. Consignee. Loads. March 2 Morgan and Cadogan......... 800 „ 4 Lysberg Limited............ 600 „ 5 E. Marcesche and Co....-.... 240 „ 6 Lysberg Limited............ 480 „ 6 Mathew Thompson.......... 1,080 „ 8 A. Broinage and Co......... 600 „ 8 Morgan and Cadogan......... 480 „ 8 Lysberg Limited............ 840 Total...... 5,120 Newpoit:— March 8 Morgan & Cadogan (pit props)... 540 Total...... 5,660 Foreign timber needed for the Monmouthshire district is now sent via Newport in order to save the leadage between Cardiff and Newport when supplies are discharged at Cardiff. There was a good demand tor wood by the collieries, and supplies went quickly into consumption. No collieries have been held up for pitwood since the Pitwood Allocation Com- mittee commenced operations. Home Grown Timber. Deliveries of home grown timber have improved. Private merchants are offering advanced wages to hauliers to clear stocks lying about for some time. There is still some mis- conception about the regulations concerning the selling prices of timber. Small collieries, it is stated, have offered to take supplies at prices above those laid down by the Controller of Mines. This is a breach of the scheme. THE IRISH COAL TRADE. Thursday, March 14 Dublin. Demand generally continues to be active, and prices are the same as those last quoted, namely:—Best Orrell, 51s. per ton; best Wigan, 49s.; standard coal, 46s. 6d. per ton delivered; retail, 3s. 2d. per 10 stone bag ; coke, 49s. per ton delivered. For the one class of steam coal which is in stock the price is 46s. 6d. per ton. At the Castlecomer collieries present prices are : - Best small coal, 30s. per ton ; best large coal, 28s. 4d.; bottom coal, 25s.; breakage, 16s. 8d.; culm, 13s. 4d. Supplies continue to be low, owing to the difficulty in obtaining steamers. The total quantity of coal discharged upon the quays during the past week from cross-Channel ports was 28,500 tons, as compared with 26,258 tons the week previously. Negotiations have taken place between the Irish Tran sport Workers’ Union and the Bray Coal Merchants’ Association to give the weekly men an all-round increase of 4s. per week, to reduce the hours on Saturday by two, and to pay the same tonnage rates as apply to Dublin. Belfast. There is no new feature with regard to the coal trade in the port, demand for household qualities being still main- tained at unchanged prices. Railway wagon shortage continues to hinder deliveries for the inland markets. Current prices of house coals in the city are as follow: — Best English coal, 51s. per ton ; English nuts, 50s.; English kitchen coal, 50s.; best English slack, 47s. ; Scotch house coal, 45s.—all less Is. per ton discount for cash. Standard coal can be obtained at 44s. per ton net; hawkers’ coal at 3s. 3d. per sack for English sorts, and about 2s. lOd. for Scotch. From February 17 to March 2 the total number of coal- laden vessels entering the harbour was 117. COAL CONSERVATION. At the Engineers’ Club, Manchester, on Tuesday, March 5, a club debate took place on the interim Report of the Coal Conservation Sub-Committee of the Recon- struction Committee, on the Electric Power Supply of Great Britain. Mr. G. Hughes presided. Mr. S. L. Pearce said it was not his intention to dispute the estimates of the coal savings likely to be effected through the proposals; no doubt they bad all formed their own opinion about the all - important figures, 5 lb. per horse-power-hour as the average for the country to-day, and II lb. per horse-power-hour which was said to be possible, Upon the correctness of those figures the accuracy of the estimates depended. He was in agreement with certain suggestions bearing on engineering and technical questions, but to a great extent the case put forward by the Sub-Committee rested upon assertion. There was an absence of data. No figure was given as to the estimated cost per unit of the energy delivered from the proposed super-power stations, or as to the cost of transmission. The first recommendation of the Sub-Committee was that the present system should be superseded by a comprehensive system under which the country was divided into a number of areas. The individualistic system must yield to the collective system and existing local authorities merging in larger councils and joint boards. But while admitting that the existing areas were too small, they must be careful not to jump to the other extreme and make them too large and unwieldy. It was desirable the sites of the stations should be on important waterways, especially if the coast facilities were also good; but in Lancashire he knew of no inland sites that had ample natural water facilities for super stations of lOO.OUO kw. The alternative was cooling towers, on which the Sub-Committee had passed strictures, but he held that the transmission costs from a waterside site might more than counterbalance the extra working cost due to cooling towers. He had given in evidence before Sir Archibald Williamson’s Committee some elaborate calculations assuming for Manchester a Merseyside site where it would be possible to obtain ample river water for condensing purposes. The load was assumed to be 100,000 kw.; power factor, 0'8; load factor, 66 per cent.; transmission voltage, 150,000 volts. The annual charges on such a transmission line would be £100,000 to £125,000. Supposing the station to be Manchester, the use of cooling towers would result in an increased coal bill —he put the increase in coal con- sumption at 15 per cent. Summing it up, he estimated that the extra annual cost due to cooling towers would be £70,000 per annum as against the £100,000 or £125,000. He had also examined the question of trans- mission cost in relation to coal transport cost, and came to the conclusion that it wotdd only pay to establish power stations 30 miles away from the area of supply if one could get coal 5s. per ton cheaper, the water facilities being the same. It was always difficult to establish a case in favour of transmitting electrical energy rather than railing coal—the superiority of transmission only became apparent with very high load factor. Careful calculations were required before a final pronouncement could be made in favour of this or that site. The report laid too much stress on the suitability of a site to allow a low cost on the station bus bars to be obtained, and neglected the cost of transmission and also the desirability of having the station well selected with regard to the load it had to supply. He agreed that sites should be chosen with a view to the possible adoption of gas distillation processes. It was very desirable to prepare plans for what was to be done after the war, but he dissented from any policy of wholesale scrapping, as this would involve a great and unjusti- fiable waste of money. A truly national policy could be attained by evolution rather than by revolution. There would be practical unanimity on the proposals with regard to waste heat stations. On the north-east coast such stations had been very advantageous. Incidentally, he must say that the majority favoured the use of cool- ing towers. The question of stopping extensions of all existing stations was presumably put forward on the ground that the new super-power stations would be able to deliver energy at a lower rate per unit than modern extensions of existing stations. That was too wide- sweeping a statement. The comparison between the price on the north-east coast and the price in Lancashire was very misleading. The north-east coast output was mainly a bulk supply, a power supply, and lighting was only a small portion of their business. In Lancashire, taking the municipalities as a whole, they dealt with a mixed business; the greater proportion was power, but there was a big lighting load and a big tramway load. Finance was a vital point. The methods of the com- panies and municipalities were very different. Taking, for the purposes of comparison. Manchester and the north-east coast, the capital outlay was approximately the same, 3J millions, but the Newcastle Company set aside for depreciation purposes £30,000, or about 1 per cent, on the capital outlay, whereas Manchester put aside £160.000, about 5 per cent. Generally speaking, local authorities produced and sold more cheaply than companies. He expressed a measure of agreement with the proposal to set up Electricity Commissioners, with the proviso that after they had made up their minds what was the best thing to be done for a district, their policy or plan should receive the approval of Parlia- ment. The majority of the Commissioners should be engineers who had an extensive experience in the control and management of electrical undertakings. The legal and financial side must also be represented. It was a matter for argument whether the Commis- sioners should form a separate department of the Government or of the Board of Trade. There were four alternative types of district authori- ties :— 1. A District Board, constituted on the lines of muni- cipal ownership and municipal operations. 2. A Board constituted on the lines of company ownership and company operations. This would be applicable in a district like the north-east coast. 3. A great amalgamation of the foregoing two— municipal ownership and company operation. Such schemes had worked extremely well on the Con- tinent. He saw no solution on the lines of combined ownership and operation by local authorities and com- panies. Any such scheme would, sooner or later, break down on the question of finance. 4. A body of trustees, incorporated by Parliament on the lines of the Mersey Dock and Harbour Board. The traders’ interests would predominate, but representation of the local authority was not ruled out. There were no shareholders and no dividends. Money could be raised on the business done. He was not clear how far this type was applicable to the electrical industry, but he believed it was being very carefully considered. He would absolutely rule out State ownership and control. It was not essential to have the same type of district board for every district. Regard should be had to the existing paramount interests. In Lancashire the type should be municipal; on the north-east coast it might be company. But he hoped that at least the principle of public owner- ship would be adopted as the basis of a new and truly national system over the whole of the country. The report expressed a hope that State assistance would be given in connection with the establishment of a national system. If the State had any money to give away, it should be applied towards writing down obsolete plant. In any case, a very big outlay had to be faced, and that would militate against any very early drop in the price of electricity. Mr. Selvey said the question of the transmission of large blocks of power over long distances had occupied his attention for some years, and bis figures agreed with Mr. Pea,rce’s. At 30 miles the net cost would be increased by 20 per cent. He had looked for technical arguments and suggestions in the report and found none. It was an essay on Government control or company control, and was intended as propaganda. Of the three forms of government suggested, the first was a benevolent autocracy, the whole thing being managed by one huge company. The second proposal was Government commissioners, which meant bureaucracy— government by a small number of permanent officials controlled by some elective heads. The third proposal was devolution or decentralisation, the local administra- tive work being carried on by permanent officials controlled by local representatives, the whole being controlled by a deliberative law-making elective body. Something similar to this was in vogue before the war, but the trouble was that the engineers and permanent officials were not suitably selected, and had not adequate power to make a scheme a thorough success. It was suggested that if a trust took over the whole business of electric power supply in the country, it would do the work more efficiently, and be content with a small dividend, the exact amount being determined by the Government. A striking thing about an electricity undertaking was that it turned over only 15 or 20 per cent, of its capital. One need not bother about a 5 per cent, dividend on that, but the total would be taken not on the units generated but the plant sold to the concern. The objection to the second form of ground was less serious. Presumably the owners would be selected from men of known probity, with wide engineering, legal and financial experience, but a centralised Government department wa s not the best nurse for a growing, lusty infant like the electrical industry. The third plan was decentralisation. On this subject he was in ag»eement with Mr. Pearce, but the muni- cipality must be given freedom to extend its operations, and it was highly advisable that water, gas. transport, traction and electricity should be dealt with in the same district. Aid. Walker pointed out that Mr. Faradey Proctor compared the companies and the public authori- ties in the Metropolitan area, and showed that under corresponding conditions the municipal electricity departments worked and sold more cheaply. Taking the public supply undertakings in the country, there were 95 companies and 199 municipal undertakings, and the figures were: For the companies, revenue. l-97d , cost, 121d. ; and for the corporation undertakings, revenue, l-33d., cost, -69d. What distinguished them particularly was the different methods of treating depreciation. Affection for local autonomy must not be allowed to warp electrical development—the district of supply could not be limited to the geographical or municipal area. People were now taking broader views th in they did before the war, and the large municipali- ties at any rate were prepared to come in with any scheme that did away with the parish pump idea. Mr. Drummond Paton said there was wasted annually in this country an amount or coal sufficient to meet the necessities of the industry. Under the present system it was impossible to handle com- mercially bastard cannel coal, and it was there- fore allowed to waste, but there was no adequate reason for the loss, since by low temperature distillation such coal could be utilised to advantage. If the suggestions were adopted there was no necessity to consider the transmission of power on any other basis than that of electrical systems developing power from waste coal. Oil played an important part in the national economy. In the home aieas they I ad coal which on being tested in the laboratory com pared satis- factorily with the oil-producing material uti ised in the plants of the West of Scotland. A scheme for its recovery and utilisation had been shown to Hie members of a small commit tee lie was in touch with, and they admitted that they had never previously realised the possibilities. It had been actually done. Mr. T. R. Wollaston said he could only speak on technical points and knew nothing about the adminis- tration, but it seemed to him that there was no real basis of comparison between the north-east coast and Lancashire. It was explained in the report that if the price of current was brought down to Id. it would bring in practically every industry. He did not agree. In factories with a good load factor, like cotton spinners and weaving mills, flour mills, and the like, power was obtained at considerably less than Id. In one case he was told it was 0-3d.; after that they installed their