The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-09-18 00:00:00

THE IRON TRADE.
THE WAGES QUESTION.-GOOD TRADE

IN STEEL.

WOLVERHAMPTON, Wednesday.
Excepting in special departments ironmasters
did not this afternoon report themselves as fully
supplied with orders. In truth, there were
tiose who spoke of the demand as very tame,
end prices unremnnerative now that no ease is
pogeible in respect of wages. Sheets are still in
stoat request, and the quotations keep at £ll.for
singles; but no great difficulty would have been
experienced this afternoon in getting a fairly
good specification accepted at 1() 15s. Makers
of plates are variously circumstanced. The pro-
&Leers of qualities which stand high in the mar-
ket keep tolerably well occupied ; hut there are
others—firms who are, nevertheless of long stand-
ing—who cannot sell all the plates they are mak-
ing. The quotations to day for boiler plates
'ere £lO. 10s.
In all the localities there are furnaces standing
In Rome cases for want af orders, and in Übe I'S
because of the under supp!y of puddlerg, steel,
on the contrary, of all kinds is in demand ;
sealer is called for innen in excess of production
The metal is being used up mostly in the making
of tiros, and axles, and a few rails, together wita
sorne engine forgings. To conipens ite for some
portion of the deficiency in local supply billets
and ingots of Fteel are being imported into Staf-
fordshire from other districts, where ()Wing to
the fal jug off in the demand foe rails. to 13.!sse-
wee converters have not demand enough from
their own mills. It answers the purpose of the
steeltuasters hi such C:lBe9 to niake biTets ;Ind in-
gots for use under the rolls and hammers of
other steelrusikers, rather than keep their own
epplianc-s unproductive T e terms upol. which
ouch steelwakes are ready
:ad t bell crude steel
lads to a larger ultimate lirotit npon the 0002-
pleted article made here than wh,in local steel is
"alloyed.

Certain ironmasters -re—ported this afternoon
that the giving to the puddlers the 6d. extra and
paying the rnillmen as before has not satisfied
all their workpeople. They explained that their
puddlers object to have their pay-notes made out
with 9s. as the price for puddling, and 6d. as an
"extra," demanding that 9s. 6d. shall appear
upon the face ot the transaction as for puddling
without reference to extras. The men assert
that as the masters are now paying the millmen
the old scale, pure and simple they too will be
paid exactly upon the old seile. Because iron-
masters who are desirous of acting in close con-
formity with the resolution come to at the meet-
' ~f ironmasters, where the extras were con-
ceded, hesitate to depart from that resolution
their puddlers have struck, and declare they will
not resume until their pay-notes are made out at
Os. tid. for puddling. Other firms have nob hesi-
tated to do just what the puddlers demand shall
be done. The difficulty is not, therefore, of
very extensive operation, and is likely to be less
conspicuous as the firma affected learn that they
are in the minority, for they, too, will give way.

Birraiughami Thursday
All real ground of dispute between the iron-
workers and their employers having been removed
by the resolution adopted at the ironmasters'
meeting, last week, to withdraw the notices of
reduction to millmen and others, business was
generally resumed after the race-week holidays
on Monday night. In a few cases difficulties are
reported with the puddlers; who object to receive
the sixpence as an extra, and claim it as an
integral part of their wages; but the difference is
one of form only, and is not likely, therefore, to
stand in the way of. a settlement. The specifica-
tions in hand are not of large extent, but some of
them are rather urgent, as their execution, has
been retarded by the strike, and the shipping
season is now advanced. Sheetmakers especially
are well engaged, and, though the plate mills are
by no means in full operation orders for boiler
plates are decidedly improving. For marked bars
of the leading brands, the demand for India,
Australia, Russia, and Italy has been tolerably
good of late, and the United States orders for
hoops and sheets, &c., show a decided improve-
ment. Local requirements in connection with
the hardwares run chiefly upon nail sheets, angles,
galvanised iron, and foundry pig. Prices are not
quotably altered since last week, but the tendency
is towards firmness, more especially as regards
iron of the better class. Marked bars remain at
.210., but there is, as usual, some underselling.
Common bars range from .27. 15s. t 0.28. 59. Coin-
' mon sheets (singles) are £ll., or in some cases
£lO. 15s. Plates may be had as low as £lO. 10s.,
but the more general quotation is £ll. Pig is in
limited demand, but production has boon so
greatly curtailed of late that prices are well up-
held. Cinder pig is quoted .£2. 15s. to £2. 17s.
61. ; hot-blast is ~t 4. 10s. to .24. 15s. No
steps have been taken yet to reconstitute the
Conciliation Board, but some conference have
taken place on the subject between the men and
their representatives, and the former appear to be
quite alive to the importance of preserving so
efficacious a means of arranging trade difference.
The organisation of the workpeople, however, will
be an indispensable preliminary to their represent-
ation at a Conciliation Board, as neither masters
nor delegates will care to pledge themselves to
resolutions which men decline to abide by.

LORD LYTTELTON ON CaTINCH SCHOOLS.
On Monday afternoon a new—aud commodious
Church school was opened at Reddal Hill, Rowley
Regis. At the dedicating service the Rev. G. J.
Taylor (Vicar) presided; and amongst others pre-
sent were Lord Lyttelton, Ven. Archdeacon Hone,
Rev. Dr. Cosens!(Dudley), Rev. Dr. Dixon (Quarry
Bank), Rev. Dr. Winder (Oldbury), J. H. Thomson,
(Cradley), J. Buneher (Cradley),—Price (Selly Oak),
R. S. G. Pideock (Halesoweu),—Eceleston (Dudley) ;
and Messrs. Nock,Ellingley, T. Standish, W. H. Nock
and W. C. Barker.

Appropriate religious formalities were observed.
Lord Lyttelten expressed the pleasure it gave him
to attend on such an occasion. He had attended,
and was at all times willing to attend, at the opening
of Board schools so long as they were conducted on
the principles which the law intended. The questou
before the country at the present time was how they
were to maintiau Church schools and Board schools
in harmony together, so that each might do their
proper work. He did not believe they *would ever
see such an important step as that of the establish-
ment of schools supported and fostered by law as
Board schools were done away with, or that they
would ever go back in that matter, any more than in
any other, in this country. Unless they had abso-
lute prohibition, he apprehended they would endeav-
to maintain their voluntary schools, and he felt no
doubt whatever that as long as their time lasted
they would see both those sets of schools more or
continue more or less to flourish. The question, as 1
he had said, was how they could best promote that
equality which was themanifest intention of the law,
for it must be repeated over and over again, so great
had been the misrepresentation, that Board schools
were intended to be secondary and supplementary to
their voluntary schools. Government and Parlia-
ment called upon these voluntary schools to provide
for the education in their districts. They said, "We
are arrived at such a pitch of want of instruction
that ignorance could no longer be tolerated, and
unless you can do the work we svill step in and sup-
plement or supply that which you are not able to do.'
But where schools complied with the regulations of,
the Government then it was not desired that any
other system should supplant them. On that occa-
sion, however, they were not concerned as to the
whole of the population (though the Church of Eng-
land opened its doors to the whole population) ; but
they were primarily concerned with the children of
the Church. It was absolutely impossible for schools
constituted as Board schools were to stand on the
same tenet as Church schools, or to challenge the af-
fection of the people in the same degree. As they
knew a level and specific testriction had been laid
upon religious teaching in day schools, many of
them regretted that Parliament should have gone ; 0
far, and thought it would have been better to have
allowed every district, to settle for itself about re-
ligious teaching should be given in its schools. This
was not in in the Act of Parliament, as urgently
brought in, and in the eyes of the Church people it
was an inevitable defect and imperfection in the Act,
because it was easy to see that without formularies
of somekind, Christian teaching might be devised
which should be equally satisfactory to the parauts
of all denominations, which by the intention of the
law are to take advantage of the Board schools.
The Church of England defined it's teaching in cer-
tain forms of sound words ecclesiastically devised,
though not copied from Scripture. The Church re-
quired all her children to be confirmed by the bishop,
and that each child before it was brought tolconfirma-
tion should be made thoroughly and intelligibly ac-
quainted with formularies. Therefore it was impos-
sible for them to vslue equally and to recognise as
taking the place of the Church schools any schools
in which such teaching should be omitted. It was
their business—without one word of blame against
the Government or the promoters of Board schools
—to follow the plain meaning of the statute, and to
, maintain their voluntary schools. In a district of
that kind, where the calls of mammon, the calls of
worldly business and property are so very urgent, he
feared that the Church or any religious body what-
ever could be but scantily supported, and they should
endeavour to make up the leeway of the last thirty
years, during which there had been no Church
school in the district. They should endeavour to
reclaim some of those who had grown up in that
time ; and all events, the present generation should
not be allowed to suffer any such g,revious disadvant-
age. He trusted all those who were interosted in
that school would do their utmost to promote its
success, and that they would be rewarded:a hundred-
fold—(applause).
The Rev. Dr. Cosens proposed a vote of thanks to
the subscribers, and made special reference to the
Earl of Dudley, who had contributed X2OO, and to
Mr. Noah Hingley, who had given the land and sub-
scribed He then went on to observe that on
the authority of a Government inspector he could say
that in the next session there was to be a bill brought
into the House of Commons which would receive
the support of the Government, the object of which
was to enable ratepayers to decide when they paid
their rates, to what denomination they should pay
them, or whether to Board schools. If that bill was
passed, it would at once place the clergy in a difer-
eut position to that at present occupied—(hear, hear)
The vote of thanks having been acknowledged by
Mr. Hingley, a similar vote was passed, on the mo-
tion of Mr. Kew, to the Rev. Cannon Barry, D. D.,
who had preached at a preliminary service
which had been held in the parish church.
The Von. Archdeacon Hone then moved that
the thanks of the meeting be given to the Building.
Counnittee.—This was seconded, carried, and res-
ponded to by the Vicar, who had acted as chairman.
Thanks were afterwards accorded to Lord Lyttels
ton, who in the course of remarks when replying,
I said he hoped it was true that there was some pros-
' pects of the legal charge to the School Boards being
allowed to be apportioned. He was afraid, however,
there was no immediate prospect of such a measure
being passed; but as the authority of Dr. Cosens
ap-
peared to be a good one, he hoped it would prove to
,be true. Any such measure would have little chance
' unless it was not only supported by the Government,
; but introduced as a Uoveruraeut measure. If such
a bill, however, was passed, it would be a great boon
,to the cause of voluntary schools—'cheers). It
would be one way of dealing with the present dis-
. advantages of the Church schools, and a step in the
direction of establishing something like equality
ioetween the voluntary schools and the Stats-inp-
! port- d schools. Till some amelioration should take
I place, they would have an unequal contest to ga
ta4l—(applapse). •