GERMAN COAL.

Hokitika Guardian, 29 May 1926, Page 4

GERMAN COAL.

BEUTMEN, Upper Silesia April 1.

From the spick-and-span neatness of the model collieries in the Ruhr disLrict, the members of the ‘‘Daily Mail” l’. Mission of British miners find themselves trnsnportcd. after a day-and-'O . , .. . „ night railway journey, to a scene of more familiar grimness, and to working conditions more nearly akin in s * this vast mineral region—one of the richest in the world—of German Upper J f-’ilesia. on the new border of Poland. 1 ’ The trade depression, of which they heard much but saw so little in Westphalia, displays its distressing symptoms almost- as visibly in the streets of \ tliis busy town of Beuthen as in the V mining centres of South Wales or Land, . ” , ! eashiro. In November of last year the unemployed in all trades in the Province numbered 11,251; in the middle of last month they had increased to 44,901. Tn prosperous times the coal, iron and steel industries of the country employ ri 80,000 men; now the collieries employ ' I only 47,000 and the iron and steel J j trades only 15,000, many of whom are working short time. 1 LESS COAL ORDERED. Since last December, owing to the ” difficulty of finding markets, the coni output has been reduced by 10 per cent., though 3,000 tons are added 1 every day to the dumps. These amounted at the beginning of the year j to 9,980 tons, and in the middle oF March to 75,000 tons. The exports abroad in February were 32,607 toils *■ less than in January, the decline being * chiefly due to the decrease of orders from Czecho-Slovakia and to the sharp competition of English, Ruhr and Saxon coal. These facts were stated to the members of the Mission this morning at the Ludwigs-Gluck colliery, to which they ». were conveyed in four motorcars under the escort of Genera l-t)irektor Stabler. ’’ At the mine they were received by Berg-Assessor Pyrkosch, Direktor Hoffn mann, and Berg-Inspector Pino, who. accompanied them down the pit and explained its remarkably distinctive ’ features. " i UNLIKE BRITISH SEAMS. e The first point of novel interest to ° the delegates was the phenomenal thickness of the seams, one of which is from 13 to 19 feet thick, another 18 to .27 feet, and the depth of the one visited is actually 28 feet. Of course ~ they had seen nothing like it in Bri--1 tain, and they expressed envy of the ' miners whose toil was expended—most- " ly by blasting—on resources so richly 1 productive. The scientific work of timbering by ’ which the high roof of the mine is sustained as the coal is extracted also excited their admiration. - But what impressed them most was the system—deployed in South African gold mines, as Colonel Feilding explained, but nowhere in England—of filling the vacuum left by coal extraction with sand washed in through water-pipes. The seam is worked in slices, and as the mineral is taken out the sand pours in, mixed with water. When the “goal"’’ is filled the upper seam is tackled. The process is costly, not only in original installation of pipes and • pumping machinery, but also in daily operation, as the sand has to be dug out and transported a distance of 15 miles. Yet- some of the delegates were convinced that the system might be profitably used in some of our English mines. CbSTLT GERMAN TRANSPORT. But though the system is probably the best-possible in the ease, of deep cuttings like those of the LudwigsGluck colliery, subsidences are a source of continuous anxiety and cost. The surface-owner lias no rights or valtics in the mine, but lie is entitled to heavy compensation where the underground excavation injures his property, and as fields, and even villages and churches, have sunk by. several inches through .tl’.e, .withdrawal of coal,, the cost of compensation is one of the' most serious disadvantages conn-

teraeting the geological richness of the coalfield. •

Another disadvantage is the costliness of transport to the consumers. At the pit-head the coal is sold for less than 11s per ton—a price which amazed the visitors; but by the time it lias been conveyed to Berlin the cost is increased to 21s.

“ That is where we are handicapped as compared with you,” explained Herr Stabler; “we have no ports near and cheap accessibility as you have in England.”