DECENNIAL RETURN.-Port of Newcastle.-Foreign and Intercolonial Ports.

Vessels cleared

outwards for
Foreign and

Intercolonial

Ports.

Total value of

Imports from

Foreign and
Intercolonial

Ports.

The foregoing statistical return, furnished by Mr. W. R. Logan, the Collector of Customs at Newcastle, shows that the greatest increase in the export of coal from that port has been :-To Victoria, 144,871 tons; South Australia, 107,161; Chili, 44,606; Hong Kong, 42,873; Java, 38,206; Tasmania, 28,071; Philippine Isles, 27,573; Singapore, 21,178; and New Zealand, 18,165; and the greatest decrease to the United States, 18,236; and South America, 14,822.

SYSTEMS OF WORKING.

The system on which coal is for the most part worked in New South Wales approximates to that practised in some of the collieries in the South Wales district, and generally known as "pillar and stall." This system has doubtless arisen in the neighbourhood of Newcastle from the special conditions obtaining there, and has been gradually extended to other localities. At Newcastle the great thickness of the Borehole Seam, and the necessity for supporting the strata where there was water overhead, very naturally suggested the idea of getting the coal out in bords or stalls, and keeping the strata up by leaving ribs or pillars of coal between them. It is needless to remark on the extraordinary wastefulness of this system, and it is much to be feared that the ribs of coal left for support are permanently lost, as any attempt to get them would probably bring on a "creep." The system is generally condemned by the best Australian mining engineers, and other systems are now being introduced; but any change is attended with very great difficulty, owing to the determined opposition of the miners and their unions. The writer has never been able to ascertain on what grounds change is so strenuously resisted, but it has probably something to do with a fear of disturbing the mystic hewing price of 4s. 2d. per ton-a figure sacred in the eyes of the Australian miner, and not to be tampered with by adopting any casier method of working the coal. As might be expected in a democratic community, Parliament is inclined to legislate in the direction desired by the workers; and last year a Bill passed the Lower House of the New South Wales

Parliament which would have stereotyped many very objectionable practices, notwithstanding the tremendous sacrifice of national wealth in the shape of coal left permanently in the mines. The Upper House, however, referred the matter to a Select Committee, and the consensus of evidence from the best mining experts was so strong that it is to be hoped the Bill will not be re-drafted on its present lines.

The section of the Borehole Seam at the Australian Agricultural Company's Colliery, can only be completely extracted either by successive longwall operations, or by the following method, which is proposed to be pursued by the Australian Agricultural Company :—

:

The pit will be laid out in panels, and equal widths of coal (viz., 8 yards) will be taken out in the bords and left in the pillars. The centre of the seam, 8 feet 4 inches thick, will be first worked in the bords until the panel is completed; then the bottom coal will be got up in a second operation; and, last of all, the pillars are to be got by a species of longwall, being brought back obliquely from a corner of the panel, the 3 feet 8 inches of roof-coal left standing in the bords being got out, as far as possible, with the pillar coal. This system would be a new departure, but the able manager, Mr. Turnbull, is sanguine that he will succeed in getting nine-tenths of the coal.

At the Durham New Winning of the Scottish-Australian Company, an attempt will be made by Mr. Croudace to work the coal on the North of England pillar system, or by longwall. At the Greta Colliery, it has been decided to lay out large pillars, 70 yards by 40 yards, and to work these out by cross juds. It must, however, be evident that the best system of working coal must vary with special circumstances, and that any attempt to legally stereotype any particular system, however excellent under certain conditions, would be an egregious blunder. It may be necessary to lay down rules for working coal under the sea or under estuaries, especially with such shallow and thick seams as those of the Newcastle district, but even in such cases any method adopted should be so designed as to make the removal of the pillars possible when the "whole" workings have been pushed as far seaward as possible, provided that experience shows that this can be done with safety. In the recent Mines Bill, already referred to, the rule was to be to take out 6-yard bords and leave 8-yard pillars, which, allowing for waste and strait work, would involve the loss of two-thirds of the coal. The quantity left in pillars is, in this case, either too much or too little. Too much if there is no intention of ever working the pillars, and too little to secure an economical working of the pillars if they are to be finally brought back. As far as the writer was able to judge of the character of the overlying strata, there would appear to be less danger working the coal by longwall in two layers than in any other way which would admit of getting most of the coal, the solid coal being forewon by the formation of large pillars so as to explore the field in advance; the one risk would be in the neighbourhood of certain trap-dykes, where the goafing of the coal might cause open cracks, which would, of course, be highly dangerous. Probably the system proposed by Mr. Turnbull for

working out the pillars at the Australian Agricultural Company's Sea Pit, or some modification of it, will be adopted, unless the removal of the pillars by any system is forbidden by law.

In most respects the Newcastle collieries are worked on lines similar to the home collieries of Northumberland and Durham, the arrangements and technical terms being the same. Most of the miners hail from the North Country, and the Tyneside dialect is every bit as pronounced in the Australian as in the English Newcastle.

Till quite recently the plant of Australian collieries was hardly up to the modern English standard, but this may be explained by the very favourable conditions under which the mining has been hitherto done. With shallow pits and thick seams much machinery was not needed, but at the newer collieries modern plants are being put down. At one new and extensive colliery very large and elaborate fuel economizers have been put in, though the small coal in that particular case was almost unsaleable, and a good deal of it is tipped over the heap-a case where modern improvements have been carried a little too far, but indicating that Australia intends to have everything up to date before long. If coal should be proved under Sydney it will be at a depth of 1,000 yards, and plant of a very powerful class will be required.

The Australian mines are, as a rule, very free from gas, and safety-lamps are not very generally used, but this is only a question of time. As the mines get deeper they will probably become more gaseous, and safety-lamps will follow as a matter of course. At the Metropolitan Colliery, Helensburgh (Illawarra district), a dangerous gas, approximating to carbonic oxide, has been met with. Its specific gravity is slightly greater than that of air, so that it lies along the ground, a circumstance which makes it all the more dangerous.

Explosions of fire-damp have not been numerous, the worst case being the accident at the Bulli Colliery in 1887, when 81 lives were lost. In the case of this explosion the effects seem to have been aggravated by coal-dust.

The absurdly high cost of labour in Australia seems to point to the adoption of labour-saving machinery, but its introduction will probably be looked upon with some jealousy by the miners' unions. These organizations are more powerful in Australia than with us. They assume a right of interference with the management of the mine which seriously hampers the managers, and frequently overrides them. In the Northern district particularly the Union may almost be said to be supreme. At nearly all collieries the branch of the Union has an executive committee before whom any change in the system of working, even of the most trivial kind, is brought by the miners. The first impulse is to resist any change whatever, no matter what the circumstances, and many managers think it good policy to let the men's committee know beforehand any alterations they may contemplate, and their reasons, so as to disarm opposition. Still the system is most unsatisfactory to those who have the responsible charge of mines. Mr. Croudace, who probably occupies the highest position as a mining engineer in Australia, told the writer

that, in a conversation with Mr. Curley, M.P., President of the Northern Union, he mentioned the system on which he intended to work a new colliery he was opening out. He was promptly told the Union would not allow him to do so, to which Mr. Croudace replied that it would be a trial of strength, for he intended to persist. This shows how very unprogressive, if not reactionary, the views of trades unions sometimes may be. Of course, at out-of-the-way collieries, where men cannot easily come and go, a firm manager can rid himself of a good deal of this tyranny; but in the Newcastle district it is very irksome. A manager desirous of working economically is confronted with a most resolute opposition. For example: At a colliery in the Northern district the system of haulage was changed from "tail" to "endless" rope, and a continuously-running engine substituted for the tailrope engine. The manager appointed a youth of sixteen to oil and watch the new engine at 48. a day, but he at once received a letter from the Enginemen's Union insisting on the employment of a man at 9s. The manager had to submit, but to emphasize the absurdity of the demand he retained the youth at the job, though he had to pay him 9s. a day instead of 4s. Altogether the labour question is one of the most important factors in Australian mining, and is, I fear, destined to curtail its expansion to the extent which it might otherwise be expected to attain.

MARKETS.

The growth of the New South Wales coal trade has been very remarkable, as will have been seen from the figures already given; but it would be rash to infer that it will continue in the future to progress with the same rapidity as hitherto. It is true that there are boundless areas of easily accessible coal, and these are being opened up so rapidly that so far as capacity of production is concerned there would be no difficulty in far exceeding the progressive increase of the past. But signs are not wanting that the limits of the export trade are being approached, and, as the Australian consumption proper is limited, the increased output can only be placed on foreign markets.

The principal outside markets for Australian coal have hitherto been San Francisco and other Pacific ports of the United States, Chili, Peru, and the Eastern Archipelago. All these markets are now being invaded by other coals, which will probably to some extent displace Australian coal. The United States markets will be more and more supplied from the vast coal-fields of the Rocky Mountains or Vancouver's Island; the Eastern Archipelago possesses important coal deposits in Borneo, Java, etc., which are now just beginning to be developed; and the Japanese are putting large quantities of cheap coal on this market. When the mines of China and Tonquin are opened up, Australia will probably be in some danger of having to defend her home trade by protective duties. The present export trade to America consists largely of return cargoes, and when wheat or other freight is offering there is even now often a great dearth of tonnage for the collieries. The war now raging in Chili must paralyse that trade for a time, and the excellent coal of New

Zealand is destined in the future to be a serious competitor for the Victorian, Tasmanian, and South Australian trade. Altogether the outlook for the future is not so bright as could be wished, and many of the collieries placed at a distance from a port will find considerable difficulty in disposing of their output with profit. The Southern or Illawarra district enjoys some advantages over the Northern, the chief of which are that the hewing price in that district is only 2s. 4d. per ton as against 4s. 2d. at Newcastle, and the Southern coal is preferred for steamers, which will ensure a considerable share of the most valuable of the home trade. The Newcastle Borehole coal commands, as a rule, from 2s. 6d. to 3s. per ton higher price than the Southern coal at Sydney, but this difference will probably be reduced ere long. The current prices for coal are 11s. f.o.b. Newcastle, as against 8s. 6d. f.o.b. Southern jetties, or Wollongong.

The price of coal in the Newcastle district is regulated by a "Vend" agreement, or ring, to which most of the older collieries belong. The rules of the Vend are given in Appendix C.* Each associated colliery must deposit a sum of £3,000 as security for good faith, a breach of which involves its forfeiture. The Vend Association fixes the price of coal from time to time, and no variation is permitted. A certain output is fixed for each colliery, and if that output be exceeded a heavy fine has to be paid to the Vend Association in respect of every ton sold over the output permitted. On the other hand, the quantity sold in excess of the fixed allowance gives a colliery a right to have its allowance increased by 50 per cent, of the excess in the following year. In the same way, a colliery which does not work up to its allowance is paid for every ton short, but in the following year that colliery forfeits its right to 50 per cent, of the deficiency. The weakness of this arrangement is that it is opposed to the interests of new and increasing collieries, and is also very favourable to those whose coal enjoys a special reputation. Thus ships frequently arrive at Newcastle with instructions to load either Wallsend or Greta coal, so that those collieries would work while others must stand idle. They have, of course, to pay towards the support of the less favoured collieries, but they are continually increasing their allowed output year by year. There are, moreover, more collieries outside the Vend than in it, and in times when competition is severe, these outside collieries will cut prices. That the Vend will probably not remain a permanent institution has lately been indicated by the secession of the important Duckenfield Collieries, whose Borehole coal is now being sold at considerably less than Vend prices. Indeed, there can be no doubt that 11s. f.o.b. is too high a price for such markets as San Francisco at the present time, and as local American coals are more and more developed, this will militate against the importation of Australian coal.

The shipping arrangements at "the Dyke" in Newcastle Harbour are admirable. Eight powerful hydraulic cranes lift the bodies of the railway trucks over the holds of the ships, and loading is most expeditiously accomplished. At Catherine Hill Bay, Bellambi, and Port Kembla there are fine colliery jetties for loading ocean-going * See Appendix C, page 311.