DEATH OF A COAL-PIT

Grey River Argus, 6 August 1937, Page 7

DEATH OF A COAL-PIT

Seen by Commission A TOUR OF LANCASHIRE. On their way out to Wigan and Preston recently, on the first day of their three-day tour of Lancashire, members of the Labour Party Distressed Areas Commission visited a derelict coapit—Strangeways Hall pit, Hindley, says the “Manchester Guardian.” They had the illuminating experience of seeing the' pit being dismantled. The twenty men employed on this work are the only survivors in employment from among the thousand men who were employed there as recently as Last year. The pit, they were told, used to be one of the best in the country. The call at Hindley was visual preparation for the gloomy story of the conditions in the Lancashire coalfield which the Commissioners were to hear when they met trade union representatimes at Wigan an hour or so later. Both because of urgency and from geographical convenience the Lancashire coalfield was the natural first claim on the Commission’s attention, though the problems of cotton had to be faced at the same meeting. The other principal work of the day was to survey the Lancashire position in general, with the aid of Labour members of the County Council. Later there was to be a visit of Liverpool and a call at Bolton on the return journey. A third day would be given to Oldham, where the gleanings of the members about the difficulties of cotton can be co-ordinated with what was learned at Blackburn in a final call in the evening.

Dr. Hugh Dalton, chairman), Mr. I George Dallas (vice-chairman), and Mrs. Barbara Ayrton Gould, the three permanent members of the Commission, were joined in Lancashire by three other members of Parliament — Mr. Arthur Greenwood (Wakefield), Mr. B. V. Kirby (Liverpool, Everton), and Mr. Rhys Davies (Westhoughton) A.t Wigan they were also joined by Mr. Allan Parkinson, M.P. for Wigan. THIRTY-THIRD PIT TO CLOSE. The Strangeways Pit was shown to the Commissioners simply as an example of what has been happening all over the Wigan area. It was the last of the thirty-three pits in that .area to close. They were told that these pits used to employ between 12,000 and 14,000 men. The Wigan conference made it clear whatever may lie possible in new industries, the miners are clinging hard 1o a belief in the possibility of a revival of the local coal industry. There ate in Wigan Bor-, ough 5000 men now unemployed who were formerly miners and who hope some day to be active miners again. While severe competition has closed the collieries where these men worked, the men believe that a revival of demand for coal would bring many of the pits back into activity. There is coal still to be got, they declare, and they point to a pair of untouched seams even now being opened. The present pits are old and costly to work, and are consequently the first to be squeezed out when the struggle for markets is most intense, especially with the development of the mechanised new pits in South Yorkshire. But in better times, one was assured, Wigan could still take its place in the industry. This belief supports the Labour Commission’s insistence on the need for much more vigorous development of coal-oil,, production. The hope is that oil from coal would successfully compete with foreign petrol, and so increase the total demand lor coal. And there is a good deal of Wigan coal, the miners also say, that, is specially suitable lor the oil production processes. ,