South Yorkshire Times — Friday, 15 June 1934
“Yorkshire Amalgamated” Chairman’s Concern
“Most Serious Thing”
Brighter Prospects for Denaby Group
The seventh annual general meeting of the Yorkshire Amalgamated Collieries, Limited, was held on Monday at the Royal Victoria Hotel, Sheffield.
Mr. W. B. Jackson (chairman and joint managing director) presided.
The Chairman referred to the loss they had sustained in the death of their late chairman, Lord Aberconway.
New Debenture Issue.
Turning to the business of the company, the Chairman said the shareholders were aware from the report that they had entered into an arrangement to issue Debenture stock for the amount of £1,250,000 at 8 per cent., bearing interest at 4½ per cent., repayable by means of a sinking fund of 1 per cent. per annum not later than June, 1967. The main object of the issue was to liquidate the £546,000 5½ per cent. Debenture stock of the Denaby and Cadeby Main Collieries and the outstanding loans of the Rossington and Maltby companies. The directors were perfectly satisfied they had done the right thing, and they thought the company in the future would benefit very considerably by the issue.
Mechanical Mining.
The individual collieries had done better than in the preceding 12 months. After deduction of depreciation and income-tax they had done something like £58,422 better than last time. The depreciation was very liberal. They had depreciated their own properties since the formation of the company by over £500,000. Rossington and Maltby, more particularly, had done better than their results were also very much better this year. During the first four months of this year they continued to do better than in the corresponding four months of last year.
The company had carried out improvements and had developed concentration of work in their collieries so that they had a very much less face for the same tonnage. They had introduced mechanical mining into several of their pits and in some instances it appeared to be a success. They had also determined that it would be better to work single rather than continue to work doubleshift. All those things had helped to improve their position. There were always drawbacks to concentrating work and to mechanical mining, and one effect was that they were employing nearly 1,000 men less than a year ago. The directors would rejoice if they were able to find employment for those men and rejoice still more if they could employ the men full time.
Serious Export Position.
The rate of the country and the trade of the district were very much better than a year ago, but unfortunately the local coal trade was not participating to the extent that other trades were doing. One reason was that scientific improvements in the consumption of coal and the introduction of the electricity grid and the gas grid had reduced the consumption of coal. There was no doubt that very much less coal was being used.
Another thing was the loss of the trade in export coal. That, to the mind of their board, was one of the most serious things that existed in their district. In the year ended March, 1930, there were exported from their district 6,345,000 tons of coal, but in the year ended March, 1934, only 3,200,000 tons were exported. That was a very serious position they had to face. They were hampered by very heavy railway rates, which made it impossible for them to compete for export trade. He hoped they would see a revival of the export subsidy which, before the Coal Mines Act was passed, was in operation under the scheme of the Central Collieries Commercial Association.
The Cadeby Trouble.
At Cadeby they had had a month’s stoppage owing to the introduction of machinery. He hoped the difficulty would be surmounted and that mutual content would reign between the management and the men. There was very little prospect of doing any good at Cadeby unless they could proceed with mechanisation of the pit. Pit-head baths had been erected at all their collieries, with the exception of Rossington. The company provided heating, light, hot and water, and the men subscribed for the maintenance of the baths. Pit-head baths greatly improved the position of colliery workers.
Better Prospects.
With regard to the outlook he could say that the directors viewed the future more hopefully than for some years. They knew that the condition of the collieries was improving; they had maintained their selling prices very satisfactorily and prospects were certainly improving compared with the position a year ago. They had a very good coalfield of long life, and the quality of the coal was good. In conclusion, he expressed appreciation of his election to succeed the late Lord Aberconway as chairman of the company. (Applause.)
Major Leslie, in seconding, said that the prospects were better than for four or five years.
The resolution was carried unanimously.