Welsh Newspapers

Search 15 million Welsh newspaper articles

Hide Articles List

12 articles on this Page

UNPAID MAGISTRATES.

[No title]

ABERDARE LOCAL B(.\llD OF…

MERTHYR BOARD OF GUARDIANS.

THE ATLANTIC STEAMSHIP COMPANIES…

!THE COAL COMMISSION.

News
Cite
Share

THE COAL COMMISSION. The Select Committee appointed by the House of Commons to inquire into the cause of the present dearm ss and scarcity of coal reassembled 011 Mond iy, Mr Avrton in the chair. Mr Lothian Bell was called, and in reply to the chairman, stated that he was connected with va- riou^ iron works on the riv r Ryne a )d Tees, and 11 with iron mines in Yorkshire. He w is also one of the directors of the North-Eastern Railway, lie was aware that th price of coal had increased 1-irgely within the past two years. He believed it was absurd to attribute the present high price of coil to any combination on the part ol the masters, or to any independmt action on the part of the m *11. The real cause was the excessive demand which had been made upon the coal producers of iate for coal for manufacturing purposes. The wages cf the men employed had increas d largely, whilst the number of hours worked per day had been decreased so that the men were earning the same amount of money per week now that they did when they worked longer hours. He attributed the excessive demand for coal to the iron trade, but throughout the whole of England the manufacturing industries had in- creased very largely. Iron was not got on the Tees until 1853 or 1854. When they first began to smelt iron on the Tees, they bought large quantities of cohI for 6-t. 6d. per ton. Pricei had however risen greatly since that time. Running contracts were made to supply ironmasters with coal, generally for one year out sometimes for five. He had prepared a table of the quantity of coal rais:d in Durha:n and Northumberland during the last ten years, the figures of which he quoted and placed alongside of the amount used in the manufacture of iron. Th. returns for last year were taken from the evidence given before the Committee. He believed that during the last four years the output of the Durham coal-fields had considerably diminished because of the de- crease in the hours of th J workmen In 1871 15s, a ton was paid for pig-iron, it rose in price, and last July had reached the sum of 110s. per ton. Coke has also risen considerably. The ex- portation of iron had greatly increased of late ir w iS chiefly imported to Germany and Holland, a very little was sent to America. There had been complaint made of the difficulty of send- ing coal by rail; it was caused by the extraor- dinary deuund for the traffic. The Committee, at the conclusion of the witnesses' examination, adjourned until Thursday. ——————————-

EXTENSIVE ROBBERY OF MONEY…

Advertising

Advertising

Family Notices

IMOUNTAIN ASH.J

ABERDARE POLICE COURT.