The Welsh Coast Pioneer and Review for North Cambria

Cholera. is -Meyelmm g m MiOjdetra. During the last two months, 600 cases have boen re- ported, with 200 ckeths. ) The lock-out in tihe shajryan-ds of the Bm- furnvrs' Fccktrafcioai is at <vn and. By a i snaj<*rity of 12,425 th» mesi have aooqptod fcbe w Edinburgh agreement. a t In Apr-i UCKT, A rof,dum is to be takon jin Austj-albsk on tihio proposals of the FedctraJ ^CovcrtJi»fHiV,: r«ga>r<iui<j constitutional azoGnd- wW. Arcbdieacon Emery, tho founder of the Church Coo^u-eas* diiod on Wtectaesday, at the ZLgle. of 85. Quean Mary is pffiering a gold medal, to be oarmpe-bad far by Territc^iials at the mext Bis- ley roeetanff. Th>e National Rifle Association have added a silver and a bronze modal as pmws in tho agaw oampaltm. In the fateff^'iS'Axaity Rag-by watch, oa Tuesday, Oxford, boat Camburidge by 23 points to W >

WELSH QUARRY COM- MISSION. EVIDENCE FROM NORTH WALES. INTERESTING STATEMENT BY MR NEELE. The Quarry Commission resumed its sittings at London on Wednesday week, Sir Henry Cunyngham presided. According to the ex- tended report which appeared In the "Carnarvon and' Denbigh H,rald The first witness ca.Jed was Mr W. Kay- Mcnzies, Carnarvon, who appeared, in con- junction with Mr Mi.jt.on, of tiho GljTTriion.wy Company, and Mr W. J. Griffith., of the' Doro- thea Company, on behalf of the Carnarvon Quarry Owners' Association. Ln re[»!y to bho Chairman. witness said he had been actively ajsociatod in tho mana-gemem of woveral slate quarrios far the past fifteen yoare. At pre- sent ho was managing dircotor of tho Ak-xandra Coonpauy, of tho Llanhens Slate Company, of tho New Braioh Company, and of the South Dorothea Company. Ho had visited siato (fii&rrioB in Newfounidl'and, Pennsylvania, Angers and the Pyrenees for tho purpooe of c Atiiidyin-g the different methoda empioyod in those countries in too jnaraufaoturo of slate. QUARRY PROFITS. There were, vvitoass oontiniwd, thirteen quar- ries or pits owned by the oompani-es whoso operations iio controlled, which varied in depth from 80 to 400 feet. Ilo-.e quarries were worked wherover posable upon the gallery sys- tem, and the &!at<M were man-ufacbuied by tho men upon a system of contract, which he had always regarded as beiing wremg in principle. He had made offoits from timo to time to make the contracts upon terms which were more en. courag<ii»g toO the workers. The system of time ,-loop aii the quairio; was not, in his opin- ion, igood owing to the condritioiis under which men worked. The average rrambar of working hours per week was low. and tihat fiict, combin-ed witli the heavy "tops" which it was necessary to remove from -the quurno.i, togetlior wiith the cost of lilting out debris and ".1wter, made it very difficult, taking ono year with anothex. for the quarry eomparaiea to pay prodits. Hav- ing regard to all the circumsfanoo;, he did not reg>ard slate tjuarrying as aa industry wthioh was attractive to an jnvajtor. At prescsy/t tiicy were jjtaeairrg' through a period of serious do- precision in the alate trade, and, owing to the enture oliamgo of conditionu now prevailing in tho industry lie thought its future prospects, so far as tho \ale ot ^untile wiis concerned were very serious. In fact, if funther restrio- tion; upon the mt'th<xl of quarrying were' im- posed, it would obviously maJve it more diffi- cult for the owners to successfully carry on tho business. Questioned upon tho working- of tho Work- men's Compensation Act, witness said he wa> of the opinioin that that measure was wholly re- sponsible for tho largej- naimb.^ of accidents iccorded. He be Moved that the quarry spcckl rules now in vogue wijro conscion+iou-Jy put in force by the management, and. he did not think there was any necessity for adding to or aroend- lIlg them. QUARRY ACCIDENTS Mr Jone*; I think .the number of accident at the Alexandra Quarry double tho num- ber at the Dorothea. Why is that so?-I could not say wjthout knowing' the nature of the accidents. I should say that there is no reason why Lhere should be more accnients at the Alexandra than at the Dorothea, and I should not say that there are. Mr Jones: If there was a dispute about a gallery, wou.d you bo prepai-ed to submit it to arbitration. You must (luite understand that wo always work our (juilrri-es on the gallery syatem, as it paya m to do so. Mr Greaves: Witth rog-ard to tho nsumber of inspectors. Is it a fact that in an. ordinary pit one inspector can see every man working A +h« same time?—Ym. ° The men themseJvoj have to sati^fv them- fioives as to the safety of the rock.—Yes every- day. I J Mr Jonos: I undersband that in some quarries there are three, or four men who are held re- sponsible for makiing a. periodical inspection of certain parti of the pit. h that so in your qiiarrios?—I do not thinik we have men who are specially appointed for the work, but wo have men who do gio around in that sort of way. Do they kiect a record?—Yes, they do MR ASIIXIORE-B EVIDENCE. Mr J. G. Ashrwire, £ Oora>tary and' -gejioral uaanaffer <A the Oakeley Company, was tib^n oallod. Mr Ash mo re. aaid he appeawd to re- present tlie members of the Festiniog Slate Quarry Proprietors' Association, and had had 1" thirty-five years' experionoe of ski,to Quarrying. Upon the questioni of the Work- rocn's Compensation Act, he said means should be devised so that the average monthly receipts _Uar of quarrvmen when on compensation should not exceed iih i average pay when at work. As to the health of the men, ho considered that the Œ.3:oS of blood jio.soning and other troubles fol- lowing upon, cuts wore mainly owing to general health and homo conditions. A the quarries were now carried on without profit, any addi- itional burd.en placed upon the industry would • bo against; both employers and It was, in his opinion, impossible for slatQ mines to bea.r further burden.s owing* to the competi- tion that existed with other rooding materials. Unhke ooal, the burden could not be put upon the public. The industry was now carried on under 10 diiTer-a.it Act- and he considered that the Quarries Act and tho Metalliferous Mines Aot should be embodied in oiia Act so far as might be, or that a separata Slate Mines Act should be put in its place. The existing law I waa confusing to manager and men, alike. Further quo^ioned, the witness said the total number of men employed in the quarries he represented, in November, 1909, was 2394. He did not oonjder tho phth'sis was attributable to the slate quarrying" industry. Witness attributed tho ixiorease in-the number "ic, of accidents to the Workingmon'i Compensation Aot of 190-5, and remarked that a man could oft-en get more moimy by sitting at home Nitii his hand in a bandage, than when o working, what with the various sick "undi3 and provioent funds. He did net s-ug'gest that ire men malingered, but they now took life more easily, and would si; at home as long as t.tie T?K,JV<4,d certify them as being unlit. INCivI'iiiSK jN NUMBER OF ACCIDENTS Mr E. Miiton, M.R.C.S., of Glyn Padarn, Llan- be, 's, tnen gave evidence, and in reply to the Chairman said he was general manager of the Giyrirhonwy Slate Quarries, End was appointed spccial.y to go into the surgical side of the ques- tion of accidents in connection with the work of the mon employed in the. qua-z- rlcs under the Car- narvon Quarry Owners' Association. The general conclusions h .• had itrrired at were: '1) That up to he year 1907, the number of acc dents in the quarries was not excessive, re- gard i>eing had to the nature of the work pcr- foi;r«cd and th: matt-rial dealt with. (2) That the marked increaie in the number of accidents i-:po:ted in the years 1907 to-lS09 was due, not so much to an actual increase in 010 number ot accidents occurring as to the men reporting and leaving work for a larger numboi of trivial accidents than formerly. ° (3) I hat the increase in the number of cases reported wes d'.1e to the working of the Work- men's Compensation Act of 1906. (1) That a careful consideration of the causa- tion of the accidents reported showed no clearly marked way in which the number of accidents miht be rodueed by now general legislation. SLA1E DUST AND CONSUMPTION. The witness further said that ha was of opi- nion that the actual bonofit which might in some cn: accrue to men through injury was tending to maKo thu men less caroful than was formerly the case, and ha azit'cipated that that might lead to an incrcas; not only in the trivial accidents, but, eventually, in the serious accidents also. He thought that that tendency might be ^yiated to a certain degree by a more stnei control-of' tho cases for by giving the employe? the right, whlch he Ad not at present possess, of requiring a medical certificate, without pay- mont by him, in all cases of accident on which a cla m for compensation was founded,'such certi- ficate to be renewed each seventh day during the continuance of the workman's disability. Questioned upon th: effect of tho inhalation of slate dust. w;tnes3 said he was of opinion that such inhalation did not, in practice, give rise to phthisis among quarrymen. arid thst he was in- clined to think was due to the probability that the di!st inhakd was arrested bafore it could ob- tain accost to the deeper parts of the Jungs. The Commission tiier. adjourned.

DINORWIC QUARRIES. MR NREI.E'S EVIDENCE. 1 I. The Commission resumed its sittipga on Thurs- day morning. c Evidence having been given dolling with a new "First-aid" treatment box which had been pre- pared by a wollrkr.own firm of chemists for thr> use of miners, more witnesses frQm North-Wales were calkd, "J Mr E Ncele, General Manager of the Dinor- wic Quarries, in reply to the Chairman, said his quarries were cpen and were entirely worked in gallery style, with the exception of three sinks or shafts which were, however, open to the sky. There wns no underground working whatsoever, except when a tunnel was occasionally made. This, however, happened very rarely. The aver- age height of the- galleries was 24 yards and the width 12 yard-3. Questioned as to the working of the quarries, the witness said thy were divided into inside and outs;de workings. The inside working con- sisted of all operations connected with the delv- ing of rocks and the dressing of rocks to suitable sizes for tho dressing sheds. The rocks consisted of slate material and a local rock which was locally known as "Bastard granite." The rock was divided into lengths of about seven yards, which were generally oalled "bargains," and each length was worked as a rulo by two men, assisted by a journeyman. No lad could become a jour- neyman until he had been in the quarry for two years. The "bargain" was let monthly, and the same parties continued to work the same "bar- gains" in many cases for years. It was the cus- tom for both partners to work inside the quarry for a few days at the beginning of each month drid.ng and blasting to procure blocks for the dressing sheds, as it had been found that ono man could not very well keep his partner and a journeyman supplied with sufficient blocks for dressing unless he was assisted at the beginning of the quarry month. The non-slate-producing rook, or bastard rock, was worked by another class of men cailcd "rcckmen," who worked in couples as partners and cleared away the worth- ies; reck. Another claas of men called "wag- geners" loaded the debris into iron waggons, which we're pushed up to a tip in some cases, and in others taken away by an engine, and put over the tip. The fuse generally used was a tape fuse, and ali th, ex-plosives? used wcro stored in a magazine under Government inspection. The mm were provided inside the quarry with shelter- ing sheds for use when blasting and the signal for blasting times was given bv whistles. FREE MEDICAL ATTENDANCE. Upon the question of accidents, the witness said the men were supplied with a stall of doc- tors and nurses and a hospital. All the employed were not only med.caily attended to in case of accident, bit were also ini-d Tally attended for all ailments th,>y might suffer from froo of charge. He adm fto-d that the number of accidents re- ported at tho luarrias he managed was in excees of other slate quarries in Wales, and this he attri- buted to the fact that the cpjarry doctor encour- agad men net to return to work until their small cuts were perfectly healed; that the benefit club system which the Dinorwic men hed, made their remunerat'pn in some cas;s better than their wages; and that there was tho tendency on the part of an outside doctor to take a generous view of the injured man's casa. He had observed, con- tinued the witnest, that certain witnesses had at- tributed a froat number of the accidents at the Dinorw;c Quarry to the men bC:ng in a hurry with their work. He did net believe that that statement was correct, inasmuch as -from the re- turns he had got out for the yoar 1909 he found that only 12 per ecrat, of all the quarrymen and I roekmen employed at the Dinorwic Quarry, after allowing for abenc-e during accident or illnc«?. had kepi full t.jm. In his opinion, it was beyond doubt that a large percentage of accidcnts were _due to carelessness on the part of the men, and that ci.^l-ctsagss was due to thp fact that the men knew* the rospori^b'iity.^re^ted upon tr;e employ- ers. He believed that-aco detrl" Ad b? r?duc^ if Government inspectorships and the oWflisrs' I official inspection were not increased, but that every workman should, in part, be held respon- sible for those two classes of officials. He believed that it was absolutely impossible to prevent acci- dents by instituting new rules and stringent en- actments, if those chiefly ooneerned would not r take reasonable care, and in order to bring about is. a realisation of responsibility cn the part of the workman, he suggested that tho the workman should share in the burden of finding something towards the componsation-say 15 per cent,, the State 20 per cent., and the employer 65 per ccnt- He also considered that if gauze goggles. were used by those both inside and outsxfei the quarry, it would greatly reduce the number of the- acci- dents caused by small clips flying from a slodge hammer or chisel. Heimidf supplied his men with goggles at a cost, of 4d a pair. HEALTH OF QUARRYMEN. As to tho-health of the quarrymen the witness Considered it would odnvpam with that of any other simikur body of men. He wished to' oon- I

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tradict a statem-ent made by one of tho witnesses I that a quarryman, when he had got wet through, I would not- b3 aljowod to leave his work. That was not correct, nor was the statement that it would take a man an hour to find an official who could give him permission to leavo a true one. He had no reoord of any man having been sus- pended or stopped for going home woon he was wet through, and suoh a. thing would not happen. He thought tho vocation of quarryrnen in a eiata quarry was a& healthy as any other in the oountry Tho dust in connection with a elate quarry waa a negligible quantity, and WhJlt oust there was would not, he believed, be found as poisonous as the dust which he initialed on the roads of the country. Bandages and splints for uee of ambulance men wero always available in cases of accidient«, and probably there were 'Ioout 300 men employed at the Drnorwia Quarry who had pa«*d tho St. John Ambulance examina- tion. He was convinced that to increase rules and regulations for I works as slate quarries wouki only fetter both employer and employee. There was now every inducement for the em- ployer to do his utmost to reduce accidents, aa he had to pay dearly for them, and no one would sitspoct the workman of meeting with an acci- dent intcntkm-ally. CERTIFICATES FOR MANAGERS. Mr Greaves: Do you £ hink managers in epiar- ries ohould hold certificate showing that they are qualified to hold the position, the same" as managers of ocal mines have ?—I do not say anything against that. But the examination must be not only upon figuren and all that sort of fahin^. A managed must bo a practical man. I would rather have a man who has worked his way up. ) Mr Greavea: Of ootzive, 01.0 lei-cd, in. some of I our misxls with regard to certificates, is that all the more promising youths would read up and obtain thorn ju £ ? £ as a young* sailor his mate's certificate. You do not think it would bo wiss to make tLe oertificato oompuJoory ?-No; but if a man works his way up in a quarry amd becomes the maaiagor, then ii he ha* a certificate, so mucin, the better. Do you think the alate industry is important enough to have Pin Act to ii;'¡f?-Yœ, so km.g- as it dsooa not bring the open cjuarrieo under somo of tho oorditions whicih baar on the slate mines and not en tho quarries. PENYRORSEDD QUARRIES. Mr W. A. Darbiehire, man&gin-g- director of the Penyrorsedd Company, said the quarries- ho managed were worked in galleries, and the s'ates wero manufactured in covered sheds. Accidents ocoured occasionally, but they were rarefy cf im- portanoe andooloom of a fataJ character. I'ha. company, did not insuro owing to th3 excessive amount of the charges made by tho insurance rct.npm*«, but tlio oompensntiofa paid during tho past three years amounted to £ 246, £ 141*, 'and £ 197 respectively. The wages paid wero L25,000 and £ 35,030 a year. They employed a doctor, .paying him B500 a year, and they main- tained a first aid; hospital in the works. An. in- jured person was required to report hirrusolf at the hospital immediately after injury; to report hunaelf wlthln a week to the surged! employed by the company, and to report himself on a specified day in each week till pronounced re- covered by the doctor. Continuing, the wit-nees said he dissapproved entirely of the present system of providing? medical attendianoo in tho Nantlle Quarries which was to deduct an amount off eaoh man's wages every month, the sums thus ooJk-cted being paid to certain doctors chosen by a committee of the valley. The consequences of that mode of pro- viding medical aid had induced the Penyrorsedtl Company to make no deductions for "doctor's money." With regard to the Workman's Com- pensation Act of 1906, he thought that that iiica., sure was a vast improvement on the Act of 1397. but he oonsidered the Germans were far h-ewl of Bnghsh ideas in that matter. As far as he understood tho German system, is was one of insurance by tho State and not by any private company. That system cohered all employments and insured the workman against sickness, com- pensated for injury, provided for wife during childbirth, and provided a life insurance at e'eath and ralief during unemployment. With regard to tho inspection of mines, he objected very strongly to tho appointment of numerous sub- inspectors as any security for safe working. Ha suggested that as in ths cage of schools an inspec- tion diary should bo kept on the premises at every quarry, in which should be recorded <y>ca visit of an inspector with remarks in writing* to be signed in the usual way. COMPENSATION AT MOELTRYFAN. Mr J. Evan Roberts, Bangor, Managing Direc- tor of the Mooitryfan Company, said tho quarry W98 situated on the slope of th3 Mooltryfaa Mou*r*-a^aj. about seven miles from Carnarvon, arid the slato both the blue and Furp,,s vein. It was workea oH t^ salAOrj systo-^ with; tunnels and levels leading out ot uio ua.T._A- -tie depth of the galterios fcearug respectively, 30, l. 20 to 26 yards with the width varying from 7 to 12 yards. The Co»ni>any had boon insured against aocidents and had since 1898 paid 21,194 in. premiums and B512 in couipensation. Of tho amount paid in compensation, two sums— £ 150 and £ 120—were paid in respoct of fatal accidents, and the highest number of accidents in any ono year was 10 in 1894, in respect of which JS51 16s 9d was pakl in eompfnsAtton. Th lowest num- ber was 1, for whicih 210 06 4d was paid. Questioned by Mr Jones, the witness said ha was quite in favour of providing proper messinjj roonti for the workmen. The Commission again adjourned. -p--n-e-tors of the "WELSH. COAST PIONEER," and Published by them at their Head Offic.es: -Conway road, COL- WYN BAY, i the COUNTY of DENBIGH; and at 63a,Maityn-street,LLANDUDNO, is the COUNTY of CARNARVON; "Pioneer" Offioe, KinimJ-sfcreet, Rhyl; Central Build- ings. fligh-8tre^«t, PREkSTATYN, in he COUNTY OF FLINT, Thursday, December is. 1310.