754

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN

April 12, 1918.

Collieries, was presented by the officials and workmen
with a writing-desk and ink-stand on taking up his duties
as manager of the Ffaldau Collieries, Pontycymmer.

Mr. Ivor Gwynne, who is general secretary of the Tin
and Sheet Millmen’s Association, has been nominated
Labour candidate for Neath.

Amendment of the Compensation Act was discussed at a
meeting of the Rhondda district miners on Monday, and
a resolution was passed desiring the Triple Alliance of
miners, railwaymen, and transport workers to consider
whether a demand should not be made for compensation
to be payable at the rate of a sum equal to the injured
man’s wages.

The Rhondda National Service Tribunal, dealing with
applications of miners who had entered the pits since
1914, made an announcement which qualifies the statement
published at the preceding meeting. It was then stated
that no miner who had gone into the occupation since the
outbreak of war would be allowed to remain at work if
he were subject to the tribunal; but the statement on
Monday was that in the case of bond fide miners who had
left the pits on account of ill-health, or similar good reason,
and had returned, their calling-up notices might be can-
celled if the good faith in each instance were guaranteed
by a miners’ agent.

Mr. T. Hodges, miners’ agent, in the Garw area, has
declined an invitation to stand as Parliamentary candidate
for the Frome division.

With regard to the registration of men as war work
volunteers, it is understood that they will be paid, at
rates approximate to their earnings at the collieries.
Timbermen and repairers who volunteer will have their
wage rate taken as 12s. 6d. per day, and then they will
have 17s. 6d. added for married men, with 10s. 6d. for
unmarried men.

Northumberland and Durham.

Housing ' Scheme—Truck Scarcity—Labour Candidates—
Comb-out—Mr. W. Straker on Exemptions—Colliery
Officials il Bewildered.*’

Mr. J. C. B. Hendy, C.C., replying at a meeting of the
Auckland Rural District Council to criticisms with
reference to the postponement of the housing schemes,
stated that, when the war broke out, plans had been passed,
for the erection of 500 houses by Messrs. Bolckow, Vaughan
and Co., Messrs. Pease and Partners, and other firms; but
at present neither money, men, nor materials could be
found for the work.

The Wallsend and Hebburn Coal Company Limited has
leased to local shipbuilders a piece of land at Hebburn
Colliery, whereon it is proposed to lay down four berths
for shipbuilding purposes.

The Stanley Local Military Tribunal was informed
recently that some of the miners’ lodges had declined to
make any selections for military service, as advised by the
executive committee of the Durham Miners’ Association,
with the result that amongst those left in the ballot was
the last son of seven, all the other six having joined up
and one being now dead and two wounded. In another
instance, the young miner’s father was a disabled soldier,
and the lad was the main support of the household. Some
lodges had refused to allow those men to vote whose
families had made no contribution to the nation’s man-
power, although it had been ruled that every member of a
lodge had a right to vote on any question coming before it.

Three years ago, the North of England Institute of
Mining and Mechanical Engineers raised funds, partly out
of its reserves but mostly by subscriptions from members,
to provide an ambulance for the use of the wounded on
the Western Front. Capt. Dennis Bayley is asking for
further funds for the upkeep of the vehicle and the insti-
tute has therefore sent out a fresh appeal. Nearly <£220
has, up till now, been subscribed in response to this latest
request.

The April number of the Middlesbrough Monthly
Circular, issued by Messrs. Hanson, Brown and Company
Limited, iron, steel, fuel, ore and general merchants, states
that allocations of foundry iron had been granted freely
of late, for there has never been any shortage of iron.
“ The difficulty has been to get the iron delivered, owing
to the scarcity of trucks. Having regard to the exigencies
of the war and the cumulative effects of wear and tear,
any substantial improvement would appear to be very
improbable, unless there be some drastic and revolutionary
change in our whole system of inland transport.” The
writers state that lighterage has been resorted to, to a
limited extent, in Scotland and on the north-east coast,
in order to overcome the difficulty. Individual initiative
in export business for Italy has been put practically out
of court, the Italian Commission having taken over the
sole control of chartering. “ The demand for haematite
continues to be extremely heavy, and makers are barely
able to keep pace with it. Home requirements have been
adequately met and the increasing supply of basic iron
tends to relieve the pressure.” The surplus for export is
small.

Mr. Robt. Richardson, of Ryhope Colliery, who has been
selected as prospective Labour candidate for the Houghton-
le-Spring Division, is a native of West Auckland. He is
an aiderman of Durham County Council, vice-chairman of
the Durham Education Committee, chairman of the North-
East Durham Education Committee, etc.

Mr. J. W. Taylor, secretary of the Durham Colliery
Mechanics’ Association and sitting M.P. for Chester-le-
Street, has been overwhelmingly rechosen as candidate for
the “ redistributed ” division at the next election, receiving
7,639 votes from the Labour bodies in the area, as against
2,446 for Mr. James Gilliland and 588 for Mr. William
Smith. Mr. Taylor is a strong supporter of the national
war policy.

Lieut. Geoff ry Brandon, R.E., who is officially reported
missing since March 21, was manager of the Algernon and
Prosperous Pits of the Backworth Collieries Limited. He
is about 36 years of age.

Through some mischance, no ballot for the “comb-out”
under the Man-Power Act has been taken at New Delaval
Colliery, although such procedure has not been neglected at
the other pits of the Seaton Delaval Coal Company Limited.
As a result, a number of the New Delaval miners had
received calling-up papers to join the Army without there
being any opportunity afforded them for collective selec-
tion. At Bedlington A Pit the miners have passed a
resolution in favour, of the taking of a fresh ballot at the
colliery, as some eligible men were inadvertently overlooked
when the first ballot was taken.

Mr. W. Whiteley, one of the agents to the Durham
Miners’ Association, has been chosen as prospective Labour
candidate for the newlv-formed Parliamentary division of
Bl aydon.

Dealing with the decision of the Miners’ Federation to
put no obstacle in the way of the “ comb-out ” of 50,000
miners for the Army, Mr. William Straker says in his
April circular to the members of the Northumberland

Miners’ Association : “ At the national conference everyone
recognised the difficulty of the position. To many there
seemed to be only the two alternatives—either to ignore
the result of the ballot or to down tools if the Government
persisted in taking the men. The latter course was at once
recognised as out of the question, as it would mean
absolute disaster to this country and the slaughter of
thousands of our own at the front, who would be left help-
less for lack of the necessary supplies. The former course
also had its dangers, as it might appear to many of the
members of the Federation that, if the result of a vote of
the kind was to be set aside, it was worse than useless
taking such a vote and would lead to a loss of confidence
in the Federation. It has always been my opinion that,
as soon as conscription was adopted, there should have
been no exemptions because of either occupation or age.
The test should have been fitness for military service. We
are citizens of one country, and none of us has any moral
right to shelter behind either an occupational or an age
certificate and at the same time force others to lay down
their lives in defence of us and ours.”

The Newcastle electric supply companies, which have
notified their customers of considerable increases in charges
for domestic lighting and heating on the ground that the
cost of labour and raw materials has advanced very much,
are not to be allowed to have it all their own way, for the
Parliamentary Committee of the Newcastle Corporation
has decided to apply to the Board of Trade to enquire into
the grounds of the proposed increases and to reduce the
present maximum prices of electrical energy. Both com-
panies are in a very highly satisfactory financial condition,
and the Parliamentary Committee cannot see the justifica-
tion for the additional charges.

Northumberland and Durham coalmen ”—colliery
owners, managers, engineers, and workmen’s officials alike
—are somewhat bewildered over Mr. Lloyd George’s
announced intention of calling up yet another 50,000 men
from the mining industry, and are puzzled to know the
justification for the Prime Minister’s statement that “ We
are convinced these men can be spared without endanger-
ing the essential output of coal for national industries.”
So far as the local coal fields are concerned, if the activity
of the industry during the last few weeks can be taken as
a criterion, there is no hesitation locally in declaring that
Mr. Lloyd George is wrong. The collieries, as a whole,
have been taxed to their utmost capacity of output in
order to provide the requisite amount of fuel which is
called for, in many instances directly for war purposes
and in most other instances indirectly for the same military
ends. It seems certain that, if a further drain on the
man-power at the collieries is made, either there must be
a great introduction of labour-saving machinery (and
where that machinery is to come from at the present time
no one knows) or a suspension of the shorter working day,
which has now become general.

Cleveland.

The balance-sheet of the Cleveland Miners’ and Quarry -
men’s Association’s Relief Fund shows that, during the
past year, £1,254 has been paid to members for distress
caused by the war. Grants amounting to £135 were made
to widows whose husbands were killed in the war. A
grant of £37 10s. was made to the St. Dunstan’s Hostel
for the Blind and £25 was given to the Prisoners of War
Fund. During the year workmen’s subscriptions to the
fund amounted to £5,263.

Yorkshire.

Excellent progress is being made in the Doncaster district
with communal kitchens for the miners. These institu-
tions, the first of their kind in the South Yorkshire coal-
field, are about to be opened at Woodlands Model Village
for the employees of Brodsworth Colliery, and at Carcroft
for the employees of Bullcroft pit. They will be under
the control of a committee responsible to the Adwick-le-
Street Urban District Council, who are largely undertaking
the financing of them. The kitchens promise to be a great
success and to meet with the hearty appreciation of the
miners and their families.

Mr. Humble, managing director of the Bullcroft Colliery
Company, has been appointed a magistrate of the West
Riding Division.

A meeting of the Coal Merchants’ Section of the Brad-
ford Chamber of Trade was held on April 4, under the
presidency of Mr. Joshua Smith. It was reported that
in response to a desire expressed by the members of the
association the Department of the Controller of Coal Mines
had sent down a couple of investigators, who, during the
past few days, had been going through certain merchants’
books with a view to ascertaining the accuracy of the
statement made by the merchants recently, in dispute
with the local Coal Control Committee, and to satisfying
themselves that the net profit made by merchants does
not exceed the maximum under the Retail Coal Prices
Order. Reports were given to the meeting of the course
of these investigations, and it was understood that the
investigators were very pleased with the willingness shown
by those merchants to give every facility for carrying
out the enquiry.

North Wales.

Young coal miners in East Denbighshire are offering
themselves in large numbers for enlistment without
waiting for the result of the ballot, and men from the
Gwersyllt, Westminster, and Broughton and Plas Power
collieries have besieged the recruiting offices. If the
example set by these collieries is followed generally
throughout East Denbighshire the quota of men required
will .be reached on a voluntary basis.

Notts, and Derbyshire,

At a meeting of the Derbyshire Miners’ Council, of
Chesterfield on Saturday presentations were made to Mr.
James Martin, who resigned last October from the position
of president of the association, a position he had held since
May 1906. The gifts consisted of a gold lever stop watch,
suitably inscribed, and an illuminated address.

Under a Chancery Court Order, the undertaking of the
Derby Kilburn Colliery Company Limited was submitted
for sale by auction as a going concern at Derby on Friday
of last week by Messrs. E. Rush ton, Son and Kenyon, of
Manchester. The property consists of about 30 acres of
freehold land, 35 acres of leasehold land and cottages, and
500 acres of minerals, of which 260 are freehold. The seam
shows a section of 13 ft. 4|in., and a yield had been
shown of 5,352 tons per annum. It was stated that an
expert had estimated that there were 1,750,000 tons of
coal in the mine. The colliery is situated within three
miles of the Derby borough boundary. The whole of the
output, except about 8 per cent, for home consumption
and local sales, has hitherto been sent into the town. The
owners had carried out a system of extensive develop-
ment, including the installation of powerful pumps for
the purpose of reopening the Kilburn seam. The initial

bid for the property was £30,000, and this was advanced
by offers of £1,000 each to £35,000, at which figure the lot
was withdrawn, the reserve not having been reached.

Notts coalowners, as well as workmen, have already
contributed generously to the funds of the local medical
institutions, but the call for further help in the Mansfield
district, where the developments of mining work have
been enormous of late years, is a pressing one. Mr.
J. P. Houfton, of the Bolsover Company, has suggested
that colliery proprietors should increase their annual
subscriptions by 50 per cent, and expressed upon behalf of
his company willingness to do so, provided the workmen
increase their contributions in similar proportion. It was
pointed out at a recent meeting, when Lady Markham was
elected president of the Mansfield Hospital for the ensuing
year, that there were other collieries which ought to render
more substantial support to the hospital.

Capt. P. Muschamp has accepted the nomination of the
Midland branch for the presidency of the National Asso-
ciation of Colliery Managers.

Kent.

The inspector of mines cross-examined witnesses at the
adjourned inquest on a miner who had jumped down the
No. 3 pit at Tilmanstone Colliery, after being brought up
the No. 3 pit, ill. The coroner, in summing up, said the
inspector was satisfied with the arrangements at the
colliery. There did not appear to be any legal obligation
to report a case of illness to the manager, and he (the
coroner) thought it would be a wise precaution if this
were done in the future. In returning a verdict of
“ Suicide during temporary insanity,” the jury exonerated
the colliery officials from all blame.

The prospects of the Channel Steel Company Limited
(in which Kent Collieries Limited, proprietors of the
Shakespeare Colliery, Dover, and the Channel Collieries
Trust were amalgamated) were the subject of references
at the annual meeting of the H.E. Proprietary (New)
Limited. This company is interested to the extent of
£30,000 in the Channel Steel Company, and the chairman
stated that the existence of a large deposit of valuable
ironstone in Kent has now been definitely established.

Scotland.

New Education Bill—Returned Miners to Serve Again—
Managerial Changes—Conservation of Coal Supplies—
Methil Shipments.

Mr. Robert Munro, M.P., the Secretary for Scotland,
attended at his chambers in Edinburgh on Saturday and
heard deputations in regard to the provisions of the new
Education (Scotland) Bill. The Secretary for Scotland
heard the views of Mr. Adam Nimmo, for the Scottish
coal owners, and Mr.. T. L. McLintock, C.A., for
the Scottish shale oil representatives, in regard to the
arrangements proposed for enforcing the attendance of
colliery boys at continuation classes. Mr. Munro, in his
reply, said he was glad to think that there was some
measure of agreement between the Government and the
representatives of the shale oil and coal mining industries
in regard to the Bill. Mr. Nimmo had urged that it was
practically impossible that the lads could attend continua-
tion classes in the course of the shift without dislocating
the work of the mine. He thought the coalmasters would
find that Mr. Fisher took rather a different view. The
other method of working it out was that the lads might
attend the classes after the shift was over, the proposal
being that the hour of nine should be substituted for the
hour of seven.

During the past two years a large number of miners
returned from the Army under Reserve (W) to find employ-
ment in the mines in Scotland. These men are being
re-called to the Colours. A representation will be made to
the Government by the Scottish Mine Workers’ Union
that men in Reserve (W) who have served overseas should
be permitted to remain in the mines.

Changes have been rendered necessary in the manage-
ment of the pits of the United Collieries Limited through
the appointment of Mr. Scott to the Carluke district,
where he will have charge of the collieries belonging to
the Shotts Iron Company. Mr. Morton is transferred
from Greenhill Colliery, Cleland, to Northrigg Colliery ;
Mr. Loudon goes from Quarter Colliery, Hamilton, to
Greenhill Colliery ; Mr. D. B. Gemmell is promoted from
Westrigg Colliery, West Benhar, to No. 7 and 8, Quarter
Collieries ; while Mr. John Martin, of Bredisholm Colliery,
Uddington, is removed to Westrigg Colliery, Westriggs.

The quota of miners called for by the Government from
the Lanarkshire area under the comb-out ” regulated
by the last Man-Power Act is 2,746. Rapid progress is
being made with the medical examination of the new
recruits.

The need for conserving the coal supply of the country
was emphasised at the annual meeting ’ of Scottish gas
managers in Glasgow. Mr. J. W. Napier, Alloa, who pre-
sided, referred to the future of the gas industry, and said
he was not sure that there might not be a Government
Department bringing influence to bear upon works which
were not so economical in coal as they might be.

Mr. Alex. Thomson, under-manager at Foulford Colliery
for several years, has been appointed manager at Moss-side
Colliery.

The amount of coal shipped from Methil last week
totalled 16,812 tons, as against 15,710 tons in the previous
week. At Burntisland 6,300 tons were sent out. For the
month ended 43,026 tons were shipped, as against 14,757
tons in March 1917.

Developments in the low carbonisation of coal have
made practicable the erection of retorts at a number of
collieries where there is cannel coal. These are being
erected on the Scottish system by Scottish experts.
Valuable results have been obtained so far by the use of
vertical retorts at a number of existing gasworks. The
aim is to use cannel coal and allied substances available
in Great Britain as a source of supply of motor spirit,
fuel oil, and other products.

The Miners’ Federation executive has sent a resolution
of protest to the Minister of Education against military
training in schools.

Electric Converter Plant—The Minister of Munitions has
issued an Order, to be known as the Converter Plant
Control Order, 1918, prohibiting the purchase, manufac-
ture. erection, or installation in. or in connection with,
any factory, workshop, steel works, shipyard, colliery, or
other premises, for which alternating current is, or can
be made available, of any rotary converter plant, motor
generator plant, or converter plant of any description, for
transforming alternating current to direct current, or of
any part of such plant, except under a licence. All appli-
cations in relation to the Order must be made to the
Director of Electric Power Supply. Ministry of Munitions.
8, Northumberland-avenue, W.C. 2.