The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-04-05 00:00:00

THE IRON AND COAL TRADES.
(From Monday's Times:

The general tone of budnees in the coal trade of the
North of England continues to be particularly dull.
Last week merchants both in the North and South
continued to withdraw their orders from the market,
and there was really very little business. Ever since
January the c al trade of the Tyne has been going on
by " fits and flans." Merchants hold off as long as
they can, and then are obliged to come into the market
to make up their stocks, which causes a little briskness,
but after their temporary wants are supplied business
gradually falls into a listless condition again. The
official price of steam coals is 255. per ton. It Inns been
standing at this figure some time. Bat a very small
amount of business has been done at the quoted
rates. As already reported, Newcastle merchants
made contracts in December of last year at 20s.
per ton for three months. The coalowuers subse-
quently advanced their official rates to 2.55. per ton;
but the bulk of the business has been done by the mer-
chants at an advance of from ls. to 2s, per ton profit
upon their con' recta, and for all practical purposes
fro u 21s. to 22.. per ton may be described as the rate
for beet steam coal. The few coals that have been sold
at 255. have been mostly for steamers' bunkers, or for
vessels which wanted very quick turns, and the enhanced
rate has been paid in lieu of despatch money. Some
of the pits have been accumulating stock, whereas at
some of the large Northumberland collieries, which
have contracts running, tuuns of shipment are from
three to five weeks. The household coal trade is aLso
dull. There was little inquiry on the Wear last week
for collier vessels to load household coals for London.
Coalownere are little disposed, with the prices current
on the London Coal-Eitchange, to eend cargoes for
sale, and canfine themselves to their regular
traders and steamers. The rigid economy which is
being exercised by households, not only in the South
but in the large towns in the immediate neighbourhood
of the coal Sell., it. the consumpti of coals for
domestic purposes, will tell heavily upon this trade
when the warns weather appears, especially if there is
no extra speculative demand for the iron dietricts.
Houeeh i coals of ordinary qualities are selling in
Newcastle and neighbouring towns at from 15s. to 18s.
per 15 cwt. delivered. A treat quantity of patent
fuel, which appears to be duff coals mixed with tar, and
made into blocks, is sold among the poor of Sunder-
land,. It seems to answer very well for domestic use.
There has not biten a pressingolemand for gas coals,
which may be quoted frorn Is. to 2s. down, with
shorter turns for loading. Manufacturing coals are
also more plentiful both in the Tyne and Wear. As
a rule, they are a couple of shillings lower. The pits
have been working very steadily upon the whole.
The large engine factories in Newcastle are kept
very busy. Messrs. R. Stephenson and Co. are build-
log a large number of locomotives. They have orders
on hand for no lees than fifty for the North Eastern
Railway, with a good deal of other work; Mea-rs. R.
anti W. Hawthorne and Co. are makieg marine en-
gines, and the Elswiek Engine Woks are very fully
employed. '

The iron trade of South Staffordshire continues in
an unsettled and unsatisfactory condition. The hopes
-
generally entertained that the wages dispute would be
settled at the adjourned conference last Monday not
having been realised, another week of suspense and
consequent interruption to business has been the
natural result. It is felt by impartial observers that
the ironworkers would beet have consulted their own
interests by accepting the original offer of the routers to
guarantee the existing rate (which is the maximum for
30 years) for nine months longer. However, they have
decline I I this offer, and the supplementary proposal of the
masters to concede any advance on the existing scale
that may be declared by the Court of Arbitration,
which opened on Thursday in the North of England,
has not been received with much favour. It in
earnestly to be hoped that no further delay will be
experienced in the adjustment of the matter, or the
consequence to busineas in the new quarter will be very
serious. The most experienced membere of the trade
affirm that at existing prices a eonnd and healthy
demand is impossible. Already the results of tic ad-
vance have been serious in regard to budness with the
United Staten, the orders, usually no large at this
eta.son, being very few and small. Nor in this to be
wondered at, seeing Chat the English market is £3 per
ton skive the standard of American iroumasters. The
inflated prices ruling in South Staffordshire and other
home centre. of the iron trade, being the result of the
unprecedented met of production, are not much affected
by fluctuation, in demand, and until the fuel-market
way it is not easy to see how any relief in this
direction can be affor led.

THE HOSPITAL SUNDAY MOVEMENT
IN LONDON.
On Tuesday a meeting of the Council of the Metro-
politan Hospital Sunday Fund, was held at the
Manson-house for the despatch of business, the Lord
Mayor presiding. Among those present were Arch-
bishop Manning, Sir Antheny de Rothschild, Bishop
Claughton, Sir Charles Trevelyan, Mr. W. H. Smith,
M.P., Miss Stanley, Mrs. Garrett Anderson, the Rev.
Canon Nisbet, the A rchimandrite Morphinos, the Rev.
T. J. Roweell, Mr. R. Biddulph Martin, Mr. Robert
Few, the Rev. Dr. Fin-h, the Rev. It. Maguire, the ,
Rev. Canon Oakley, and many others.
The sub-committee reported that a copy of the letter '
of appeal, a pamphlet giving a history of the fund,
and a letter from the Lord Mayor had been sent to
every minister of religion within the nietropo.
Stan area and the ne'ghbourhood, including, in all,
the iniehters td 2,623 places of worship, and replies
expressing a-beut to the movement had been received
from a large number of them. They (the cub-com-
mittee) recommended that admission ticket privileges
should he secured from all the medical charities acmes- '
towed to grant such privileges for the use of the
co-operating ministers, and negotiations with that,
view were now in pr.gres.. They also suggested that
all the hospitals and dispensaries within the area of
collection, and fulfilling the conditions laid down now
or hereafter by the Council, should he admitted to
participate in the distribution of funds, though no in.
stitution should be so admitted if the costs of its
management exceeded, in the opinion of the distribu
tion committee, a reasonable percentage of the whole
current expenditure. The sub-committee concluded
by reporting tee satisfactory result of their intery kers
on the subject with the rural deans of the remdon
diocette. The report, which bail been read by the
secretary, was unaninitowly adopted, and resolutions
inpuranance of its suggestions were carried,
Mr. Rowsell, replying to Mrs. Garrett Anderson,
elated that the various charitbs would not bs expected
to send tickets to every ieiniter in whose place of wor-
ship a collection had been made on Hospital Sonday,
but they would forward a certain number of tickets in
proportion to the amount allotted them from the fund
to the committee of distribution, who would circulate
them among the ministers of the particular districts
in which the charities were.
The Lord Mayor, in answer to the Rev. J. F. Kitt°,
said he ha I received as yet only nine positive refusals
to join in the scheme. He also etated that the com-
mit-CO of distribution consisted of Sir Anthony de
Rothschild, Mr. Samuel Morley, M.P., Mr. Thomson
Hanney, Mr. Aldermen MArthur M.P., Mr. W. H.
Smith, M P., Lord Mahon, KV, Mr. Jervoise
Smith. and biome if ; and that they would have first of
all to nettle the list of recipients, being guided in that
task by the conditions already laid down by the
Connell.
Archbishop Manning, in moving a vote of thanks to
the I.ord Mayor, congratulated him so far on the suc-
cess of the movement, that being, he said, due mainly
to hie Lordship's j.erte,erame in the face, at first, of a
goof deal of ehecouragement
Mr. W. II Smith, M. P., seconded the resolution,
and it wax carried umminaeusly.
. The Lord Mayor, in reply, said he had never met
with any serious; opposition to. the scheme of the
Council, but, on the contrary, it had been approved
awl 4 . 1111 l itrinauce,l by the leading men of all religious
1
dsinceraftationa. i Hs was quite sure that in course of
time the movement would be rmivereal, andlefeWhietive
of much good.
The meeting then sepasated.

THE COMMITTEE ON COAL.

The House of Commons Stleit Committee on Coal
met again on Thursday, in last week, and the members
present were :—Mr. Ayrton (Chairman of the Com-
mittee), Mi. Anderson, Mr. Carter, Mr. Corrance,
Mr. Denison, Mr. Elliott, Mr. Grieve' Mr. Liddell,
Mr. Pease, Mr. Edmund Potter, Mr. W. H. Smith,
Mr. Stanhope, Mr. Huseey Vivian, Mr. Wistney, and
Mr. Wharton, the sole absentee being Mr. Pint.
Mr. Kingseete was Clerk of the Committee. There
was also a large attendance of strangers, and at one
time the proceedings were very animated, every
member in turn examining the witnesses after the
chairman had put to them a methodical eerie, of gum
thins. Two members, indeed—Mr. Hussey Vivian, on
the left of the chair; Mr. Mnnch-lla, on the immediate
right—displayed (without unfair Partisanship) all the
rivalry ,d comma in a court of law; the one on the
part of the owners, the other ou the part of the work-
ing men, examining, cross-examining, and re-examining
the witnesses with great skill and strictness.
The illness of Mr. Hunt, Keeper of Mining Records,
which makes it necessary to spare him every exertion,
renders it still impossible to count upon his appearing
before the Committee at an early date. In his absence,
Mr. Meade, the assistant keeper, was examined on
Monday, but in lieu of going on with his evidence on
Thursday, the Committee called before it three of Her
Majesty's Inspectors of Mines, who gave evidence re-
lating only to their respective districts. Messrs
Dickinson; Brongh, and Baker were the three In-
spectors who were called on Thursday.
The attention of the Committee was at once at-
tracted to the remarkable relative increase of produc-
tion in 1872, and the witness was called upon to explain I
it. He denied that the increase was due to extra dill
-
genre on the part of the men. It was owing directly I
to the action of the masters. Tempted by the extra- I
ordinary rise of prices, they put off all collateral
labour; all "dead" work was, as for as possible,
abandoned ' • the men were sent to the nearest workings,
and instead of the coal being won from the far end of '
the pit, it was got as near to the mouth as possible.
The object was to make hay while the sun shone, but
the witness feared that in many mines the airways
were neglected; mines were worked in a wasteful
manner for the sake of present gains, and that a fearful
day of reckoning would come. A not unnatural sensa-
tion was caused by these etatements from a gentleman
so 'experienced and well-informed as Mr. Dickinson, •
and though some attempts were made to shake bias,
he only slightly modified his assertion. He admitted
that no doubt many well-established and respectable
firms continued to work in a husbandlike manner,
but Mr. It, Vivian was unable to make him par-
ticularize what part of his evidence on this point
was due to inference and what part to observation. !
His inquiries, he said, extended over many years
—what he MIMI and what be heard, together
with his knowledge as to what statements might
be trusted—enabled him to take a broad philo-
eophical view, and to form the opinion that there was
a decided tendency in the direction he had mentioned.
He was as guarded as he could be; he said there was
such a tendency, let his opinion be taken for what it
was worth. Being premed to explain the expression
"a day of reckoning," he said it meant two things—
the scarcity of coal from wasteful working, and the
danger of explosion from the same cause. The work-
ing of coal near the mouth of the pit tended to thee
accumulation of obstacles to ventilation, and the
result would in due course be the collection of gas, and
ultimately its explosion. He spoke as a man who
scarcely failed to receive by any post news of a fatal
or other accident. He had alluded, in another part of
his evidence, said Mr. Elliott, to a "panic." Did he
not think these remarks of his were calculated to cause
a panic? Would not colliers hesitate to go down into
a pit, or owners to work one, running such a risk for
such gains on learning what he said ?" " No," replied
the viituess, "for a man thinks every man mortal but
himself." "After that," said Mr. Elliott, I have no
further question to ask you."
In answer to other members, he said it was no part
of his duty to caution or prosecute colliery owners till
actual danger existed. He had, it was true, made sug-
gestions to persons in the trads as to modes of working,
of which they had often taken advantage. A meniber
suggested that he might have hinted in a similar
manner that such modes of working as he had de-
scribed would lead to great danger, but the witness
said that any such hint would be certain to be discs.
regarded in the anxiety shown to tr.ke advantage of
the present prices.
The way in which the men indirectly contributed to
the increased production of coal per head was pointed
out by Mr. Dickinson under cross-examination by
Mr. Hussey Vivian. Firemen, part of whose work is
" dead " work, and other persons whose proper labour
is preparation for the actual getting of coal, seeing the
high wages earned by the colliers proper, are attracted
to that occupation; they are led to throw up their
posts and become colliers, and of rouse that cannot be
stopped except by the payment of higher wages to
them.

With reference to prices, the witness said he could
give little information. It was not part of the duty of
inspestors to watch them. He could say, however,
that at his own house (in Pendleton, Ildancheiter) hawse
paylog 14d. per cwt. for coal which he used to obtain
for 6Ael.

M. W. H. Smith called his attention to a letter
from a firm in the district who was now paying about
240. per ton for coal which in 1871 they obtained for
6s. The witni es did not anticipate any reduction in
price unless the fine weather should reduce demand.
His was not an expoit district, but the coal was chiefly
consumed within it, with the exception of some inter-
change of different sorts of coal which went on with
neighbouring counties. Some coal was mired and
taken away in that form. The abaorpti in of coal in
1872 was not completely represented by the large
figures he had quoted (over 9,000,000 tons). At the end
of 1871 there were large stocks in the possession of the
coalowners. There was now absolutely no stock. Never-
theless, he believed that hoarding had been practised
by some consumers, that some people had coal in their
cellars to an amount greatly exceeding their wants.
Tne opening of new lines of railway might have
alightly tended to raise prices. Strikes had contributed
to the same result; aud so had the activity of
the iron and steel trades; but he believed the chief
agency was pani,:. A slight rise in real demand, even
1 or 2 per cent., might lead to an enormous enhance-
ment us price. Materials, as for instance iron, had
risen in consequence of the rise in coal, and recipro-
cally heightened the coat of coal-getting. As an in-
stance of the difficulties experienced by manufacturers,
the withers mentioned that many were burning the
best housecoat for steam purposes, and that a fort.
night ago, in visiting salt works, he was informed that
operations were entirely suspended in certain pans,
because coals could not be obtained at any price.
There was a great deal of waste in consumption, and
he believed that by improved boilers and furnaces an
economy of 30 per cent, might be effected. He could
not say that he expected any rapid increase in produc.
lion from the use of coal-cutting machinery. It
was not handy to use, and frequent stoppages oc-
curred in mines where it was employed. Yet
he knew a maker who bad more orders for such
machines than he could execute. It was twenty years
since the introduction of the first coal-cutting
machine which be remembered. Particulars of the
wages which the men received could beet be given by
the Coal Association. Unquestionably they had risen
lately 40 per cent., and this percentage was to be cal-
culated on the highest rate of earnings whieh the men
had previously made. Mr. Mundella questioned the
witness as to the alleged general Idleness and profligacy
of the men upon finding themselves is recept of high
wages. The witness denied that such a state of things
existed. There was not, however, that steady applica-
tion to hard work which existed in had times, lie had
heard the stories about the men drinking champagne.
He had not seen any such thing, but he believed it did
happen occasionally. Colliers were as a rule not so
regular in their habits of work as cotton operatives.
In his district, however, steadyj discipline was gene-
rally maintained. No district was better in that
respect. It was customary to make a holyday of
Pay-Monday, which occurred once a month, and the
holyday was sometimes prolonged into Tuesday.
The steadiest men woiked ten days and a half
In the fortnight. The number o hours in a day
varied. In some pits the eight-hour system had
been adopted ' • in others ten hours were done
in the day. The men would come at six a.m.,
and leave at 4 p.m. The present high wages
were merely temporary. It was his experience that
the rate varied in cycles of from six to seven years.
High wages would bring in fresh hands, and their
competition would lower wages. Labour would then
cease to be attracted till its reward rose again. The
rise of 40 per cent, in wages could not by any possi-
bility add more than 2s. 6el. per ton to the price of
coal. Fewer hours were now worked than formerly.
A good workman could cut in the four-foot seam four
tons a day, but when his boy, the firemen, the under-
lookers, and other persons whose work was necessary
in a colliery were reckoned in, the proportion was
reduced to, say, one ton for each person employed.
Being questioned as to an alleged difficulty in getting
coals convey ed, the witness said that in his district
means of conveyance were abundant. In reference ti
the Mines Regulation Act of Last Session, and the m U-
N isions as to juvenile labour contained therein, he was
of opinion that they tended to raise the price of coal,
but could not raise it more than 3d. or 601. per ton. A
practice was now coming in of substituting machinery,
attended by one boy, for the old usage of employing a
boy with each collier.
The next witness WM Mr. Lionel Brough, whose
district is Devon Glocester, Monmouth, and Somerset.
includes district inc:des 200 collieries, many of which con-
sist of several workings one containing so large a num-
ber as 21. In 1867 the district included 228 collieries,
but the largest were still open; only some small ones
had been closed. The number of male persons em-
ployed was in 1867. 1868, and 1869, 20,000; in 1871,
26,881 • in 1872, 27,800. The yield 19199, in 1867,
6,500,000 tons • in 1868, 6,200,000; in 1869, 6,250,000;
In 1870, 6,50i1,000 ; in 1871, 7,1)00,000 ; in 1872,
7,009,000. Tits would give the following proportions
Inc each person employed ; —ln 1867, 250 tons; in 1868,
238' in 1869, 2-10; in 1870, 250 ;in 1871, 200; and
in 1872, 250. The mines were fairly worked, although
almost any price could now be obtained by the pro-
prietors. Mr. Liddell drew the witness's &Rens
tiou to the diminution in the average out-
put for each person employed shown in 1872 as com-
pared with 1871. Although he afterwards withdrew
the question he founded on this discrepancy, the est.
deuce of the next witness seemed quite to justify at.
tention being paid to the circumstance. Being ques-
tioned by Mr. Wharton the witness attributed high
prices to the demands of men for short hours and
more leisure. The men work on an average nine hours ,
a day and four days a week. Their work is not worse
in quality than it used to be, but less in amount.
Their esprit de corps keeps up the quality. The wit-
ness mentioned as an additional cause for high price
that it is the natural tendency, of mining to grow
leis' remunerative in the course of years. The owners
get the chief advantage from the incteased stuns
paid per ton for coal. For instance, when Mr. Prough
went to re,iite at Clifton. near Brii.tol, fifteen years
ago, he paid 13s, per ton for ci aL He now pays 360.
The increase in the wages of the men is in a much
smaller proportion. Mr. Mundella elicited th.at as a
my last
ycownseinipc
tchae of the
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'Vita ligt...ostor44oao Artrrd
Alt i ere'cairied on at 3M ca
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not retire, for
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