PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference -
C.O.882
2
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
New manager
borrowing money, and troubled with
actions for non-pay- ment of wages.
Privations of the workmen.
State of the works at the close of 1870 very
good.
6
arrived, he found that the works were practically at a stand-still, ond that some of hisTM first duties were to try to borrow money at 20 per cent, per annum; and at the same to endeavour to settle actions brought by the workmen against the Company for non-payment of wages.
11. In these actions the Court awarded compensation to the workmen for the privations they had suffered; and the managers admitted that, owing to the non-arrival of funds, no settlement had been made with the workmen, as a general rule for more than twelve months, and that much individual suffering had been the result.
12. I am disposed to think that the present small output is due rather to these two causes the want of money, and the recal of an experienced manager, than to any inherent defect in the colliery itself. In the manager's report to the Directors, dated 23rd November 1870, I find the following passage:
"It thus appears that, exclusive of No. 3 seam, won by No. 2 pit, there is an aggregate of 180 yards of coal face, and a total of 65 working-places. I submit that that is very good, for though some of the places are out of order they are all within grasp. Taking the output contracted for by Baird and Gilles, from the dip mine of 2,000 tons of coal per Gowrie, No. 4 seam as a measure, we should be able to put out 2,000 tons of clean coal per month. Why is it not done? simply because I have never had men to fill up the mines. Your agents have never offered me the least assistance or encouragement or given me a single man."
month to be got if
men were available.
Working places not filled on a count of the non-payment of wage
Example: in the esse
of Baird, who, with
some native coal-
howers turned out
300 tona a month from
13. The difficulty of filling the available working-places with men was considerably increased when wages were no longer paid, and the Company removed a manager in whom the workmen had confidence.
14. The man Baird, mentioned in Mr. Lumsden's report, was working No. 4 seam by contract and putting out from 300 to 400 tons of coal per month. During the interval between Mr. Lumsden's recall and Mr. Gray's arrival, this man, with five-sixths of the one seam as long as he Scotch miners, struck work, as the clerk left in charge had no money to pay them, and Mr. Gray's first experience of litigation in Labuan was in the case of "Baird versus the Oriental Coal Company," when, by consent of both parties, judgment was given for the plaintiff for some hundreds of dollars for unpaid wages.
was paid.
Stick
Action of Baird
against the Company,
In spite of this, outin-
factory progress made
in extent of opened up and
mumber of working places.
Compared with final Report of former Company,
And first Report of present Company.
l'ersonal observation of this improvement.
Present difficulty only tempurary.
Mr. Lumaden's trial of convict labour successful.
Appeal of the
temporary manager
the want of money.
15. But whilst the small output is clearly traceable to such facts, it is on the other hand satisfactory to know that substantial progress was made by Mr. Lumsden in the extent of coal opened up, and in the increase in the number of working places.
16. Just before the present Company got possession of the mines I received a report from Mr. Pitman (one of the officers of the China Steam-ship and Labuan Coal Company) dated 24th of April, 1868, in which he says-"We get an average of about seventeen coal-hewers daily in the pits-and these only work half time." The first report made by Mr. Lumsden to the present Company after they had obtained possession was in June 1868, and it informed them that "all the work that has been done here is in open mines wherever these could easily be made along the crop of the coal seams. These mines have one after another been abandoned, and are now inaccessible to everything but water."
17. My personal observation of the works enables me to corroborate the statement made by the manager in November 1870, that the progress of the colliery as to the extent of coal opened up, and the increase in the working places has been "very good;" and I can have no doubt but he was justified in saying that the absence of labour was the only difficulty in the way of turning out 2,000 tons of coal per month.
18. It is only fair to assume that this difficulty will diminish when the present manager gains the confidence of the natives, and when the directors pay their workmen their monthly wages with the same regularity as the sago manufacturers and other employers in Labuan. It ought to vanish altogether in the face of the arrangement by which the Governor agrees to supply the manager with a certain amount of convict labour. That plan was being successfully carried out by Mr. Lumsden; but, after his recall, the gentleman left in temporary charge of the colliery dismissed all the convicts from the mines.
19. About the time the convicts were dismissed, a large proportion of the Chinese coolics who had been brought under contract to Labuan, were turned away from the mines and driven to seek employment elsewhere. The only excuse given to them by the temporary manager was that he had no money. He wrote to me saying he had no funds to the Governor about. And that a meeting of the unpaid workmen was about to assemble, the majority of whom "had not been squared up with for twelve months." He suggested that I should write a letter to him which he could read to the meeting, and which might prevent an outbreak. I did so, stating that, although I could not lend him the government money, I would willingly let him [have] my own monthly salary as some proof of the confidence I had in the Directors and I authorised him to inform the workmen that I knew the Directors, to be honorable men, who would certainly pay their debts. On this assurance some of the
7
not work without
men returned to work; but the majority of the Scotch miners refused to enter the pits But the men would until their wages were paid, and as the manager had no money to do this, they remained wagon. idle for some months after the meeting.
20. Thus the two complaints the Directors make, in their letter of the 7th of Hence the small December, 1871, namely, the small output of coal and the accumulation of water in the output of coal, and pits may be traced to the want of necessary labour consequent on the want of money pita. to pay the workmen.
the flooding of the
Directors of the want
21. For a year and a-half before Mr. Lumsden was re-called, he continued to press Ample notion to the this point upon the Directors. I also ventured to write privately to Mr. William Miller, of funds, and its result. late Member for Leith, urging him to induce the Board to pay the workmen regularly.
I undertook to allow the Coal Company to deposit money in the Treasury chest (as there Facility given to the
cash in the Govern-
is no Bank in Labuan) where they could safely retain a balance for each pay-day. In Company to deposit dealing with any deposit they may thus make, I said I would give them the same facilities sent best. that the Government of Labuan gave to the Commissariat Agent in making provision for the pay of the troops.
informed of the high
22. To my own knowledge the Company were also kept informed of the serious loss Directors also kept in the shape of interest which they sustained every month, that the manager was left interest they paid for without money.
loans in Labuan.
23. For a year and a-half before Mr. Lumsden was recalled, he was compelled from time to time to borrow money to pay some portion of the wages; and though a few of the Government officials let him have an occasional loan for nothing, he had to pay the Chinese merchants, from whom he obtained the larger sums, 2 or 2 per cent. &am month.
24 per cent. per
24. His temporary successor had to pay still higher for such loans; and I understand that the present manager, Mr. Gray, who arrived in the Colony without any money, and Then 36 per cont. at a time when there was not a dollar in the chest at the colliery, had to raise a little Sometimes as high as
money for the Company in Labuan, at a cost of 40 per cent, per annum.
25. Lord Kimberley will see, in such facts as these, some explanation of the want of commercial success of which the Directors complain.
40 per cont.
wasted in other ways.
26. As his Lordship desires me to make this a full statement, I am bound to add Their expital ano that the mere payment of high interest was not the only way in which the Directors wasted their capital.
to be uselem.
27. They sent out to Labuan two costly road-steamers and a large number of expen- sive waggons. Mr. Howard, the Surveyor-General, has reported to me that the two Roadsteamers found locomotives are useless, and that the waggons, being made of rotten wood, are worthless, we from I inspected them, and saw that, by their mere weight, they were settling down upon Bootland made of bad the springs, which were breaking their way up through the floor of the waggons. The timber used in their construction was so bad that I was able to break it to pieces with Falling to pieces. my fingers like touchwood.
wood.
28. The Directors must have been aware that there was an abundance of good timber Plenty of good wood at the disposal of the in Labuan, suited to the climate, and readily manufactured on the spot into carts and
Company in Labuan. waggons. For all practical purposes, the Coal Company can avail themselves of such timber in Labuan for nothing. I have seen carts made from it, by the convict carpenters, which, after many years of constant use, were still sound and fit for work.
29. I have heard it said-but I cannot vouch for the fact that the useless Humour that the locomotives belonged to one gentleman connected with the Company, and that another and the worthless gentleman connected with the Company sold to them the timber from which the waggons old to the Company had been constructed.
An expensive coal-
30. Again, the Directors purchased and sent out to Labuan an expensive machine called a "coal-getter." They did this without taking the precaution of consulting the local manager. He told me the money paid for it might as well have been thrown into the sea; and he showed me the report he made upon it to the Directors in November 1870, in these words, "This thing is truly of no use. By our system of working it neither saves nor simplifies labour."
useless Locomotives]
timber waggone were
by one of themselves.
rent from
Scotland a'eo quite
want of commercial
31. The commercial success of the colliery was also checked by other causes, for Other exe for the which I must hold the Directors, or their Singapore agents, responsible. For instance, ecoss. Lord Granville drew the attention of the Admiralty to a despatch describing the improvement in the quality of the Labuan coal, and the Admiralty at once purchased 1,300 tons as a sample-800 tens to be delivered as soon as possible by the Company at Fresh cut coal allow Hong-Kong, and 600 at Singapore. The order required the coal to be fresh cut being shipped. and double-screened. Mr. Lumsden did not lose a day in getting the required quantity ready for shipment; but more than six months passed before one of the Company's Delay in fulfilling steamers came to take away the coal.
32. Not only were the naval authorities able to complain of the delay, but as the wet season had set in and the coal had been lying from day to day ready for shipment,
to deteriorate Before
Admiralty contries.
2.
would
and
the
to the the want
lita rummit,
to the
20 deposit
Govern-
also kept of the high
My paid for
16. per
post.
ju na high na
M.
acher ways.
mes found
made of had
pieces.
good wood
pond of the
In Labona.
nd the
arthless
Éve coul.
from
fuo quite
100 for the
allowed
Mit before
PUBLIC RECORD' OFFICE
Reference -
ETC.O.882
2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO