increased royalty rent, which he may have been able to obtain in a more flourishing state of trade than existed at the date of his lease.

The lease is subject to forfeiture if the lessee neglects to pay his rent within 40 or 60 days of its becoming due, or on any breach of covenant, or on his becoming bankrupt when the lessor may re-enter, but this provision is frequently modified by others.

A royalty or lordship on the tonnage is paid, ranging in Northumberland and Durham from 24d. to 10d., the average being about 5d. The difference in prices fixed for royalties arises from the leases having been granted at times when trade was depressed, prosperous, or unduly inflated; or from greater difficulties presented in working some mines than others; or from variety in the quality of the coal-seams to be worked; or from the difference in the depth at which they lie; or from the geographical position of the property under which the seams are to be worked. In an entirely undeveloped district, without railways or other suitable means of transport for the coal, a lessee would probably succeed in getting an unusually low royalty price fixed. If the coal to be worked is subject to a wayleave rent, it influences the royalty fixed. At the same colliery the royalty rent may vary on the different seams worked, in order to meet the increased difficulties and cost of working thin seams or those having other disadvantages such as a bad roof and floor. Where, however, there are a number of competitors for a property, the lessor of course obtains a high royalty rent. Fireclay and ironstone where worked are subject to royalties in precisely the same way as coal.

In some leases the royalty is paid on all coal raised, in others a certain percentage is allowed to be deducted for colliery consumption. In Monmouthshire, if a lessee has power to gob any portion of the small coal, his tonnage royalties are made proportionately higher. In Northumberland and Durham leases the rent is "tentale" instead of on the tonnage, a ten sometimes consisting of 48.583 tons and sometimes of 50 tons. In these counties as the small coal is of much less value than the round, it is subject to a separate tentale rent which varies from a half to a quarter of the tentale rent on the large coal.

In order to act as an incentive to diligent and energetic working of the minerals, a certain annual rent is fixed, which is termed dead-rent-so that in periods of depressed trade, when the usual yearly sale is not reached, or the production is reduced owing to unexpected difficulties, so that the royalty does not amount to the certain rent, that rent is paid to the owner and there remains what are termed "short workings." These are the deficiencies for which the fixed rent necessitates payment in advance, and may go on from year to year. On the other hand, if the quantity of coal worked in any year exceeds the standard fixed to make up the certain rent, the excess is called "over workings." Usually power is given in the lease to make up "shorts" during the whole term of the lease, that is, the short workings of any year or years may be made up in any subsequent year or years of the term, though in some instances the shorts may only be liquidated during triennial, septennial or other fixed periods. If quantities in excess of the dead-rent are worked in any one period into which the lease is divided, they are not allowed for in the next, but a fresh start is made for each period. If there are overpaid dead-rents at the expiration of the lease the lessor retains them.

The certain rent reserved in leases is determined by the number of acres in the property or the probable output of the colliery, and is imposed as a guarantee that the lessee will work the minerals under the lands leased and not keep them locked up. The surface area to be leased and the probable thickness of the seam over that area enable a calculation to be made as to the probable quantity of

available coal. This, after certain deductions for loss and waste in working, is divided by the number of years for which the lease is granted, and so gives the expected or probable annual output, which at a certain rate per ton fixes the deadrent; or, the surface area is divided by the number of years for which the lease is drawn, and this gives the annual acreage which will probably be worked and in some instances forms the basis for fixing the dead-rent. The fixed rent should only be a certain proportion of what would probably be payable to the landlord for royalty, say about 3rds.

In many modern leases a sliding scale has been adopted for the payment of royalty instead of a fixed unalterable tonnage rate. The amount of royalty rents then payable depends upon the selling price of coal at the pit's mouth, being usually from about th toth part of such selling price on every ton sold or raised. A minimum tonnage royalty is usually reserved, so that when the selling price descends below a certain point, the scale does not apply, or does not descend further with it. The object of a sliding scale is to give relief to the lessee during times of trade depression, and in prosperous times an increased rent to the lessor, who has had to bear his share in the adverse circumstances.

In general no royalty or fixed rent is charged during the first few years of the term for which the lease is granted, a reasonable time being allowed for the sinking of shafts and opening the workings. In some instances a very low minimum rent becomes payable a year or so after the lease commences, and gradually increases till at the fifth year or so it has reached the full dead-rent and continues the same throughout the remainder of the lease.

A dead-rent may be fixed so high as to ensure during the term granted, that the whole of the coal whether worked or not is paid for. What remains unworked becomes unconditionally the property of the royalty owner, who may sell it again, and this cannot be regarded as other than a hardship to the previous lessee. If, from unavoidable causes, the coal has not been worked by him, it appears only fair that the lessee should be compensated for what mineral remains unworked, or that he should be allowed an extension of time to take away that which he has paid for, on his paying for the use of surface land he must continue to occupy.

In Northumberland and Durham, in order to get an accurate account of the coal raised from the different royalties, books of account are kept in which are entered the actual weights of the coal worked from day to day as sent up the shafts, the plans of the workings serving to show which roads or stalls send out coal from any particular area belonging to a royalty owner.

In many districts, instead of this being done, the royalty rent is based on the acreage worked, and periodically such area is calculated from the working plans. Again, in other districts the royalty rent is charged on the tonnage, no account being kept of the coal sent up from any particular area, but an estimate is made of these from the acreage shown on the working plan and the known thickness and yield of the coal-seam.

A rental paid on the acreage may certainly have a tendency to prevent waste in working, as it is to the interest of the lessee to extract all the coal and leave behind no stumps or unnecessary barriers. At the same time there may be instances in which it is a hardship for him to pay on a considerable area left either for the support of a continually increasing number of valuable buildings, or through its being unworkable to profit owing to its inferior or faulty character.

Surface subsidence increases in proportion to the thickness of the coal extracted, and also in proportion to its proximity to the surface, and for these reasons where there are two or three seams being worked at the same time at any shallow colliery, a covenant in the lease often stipulates that the uppermost seam shall be first worked and kept in advance so that different seams would not be worked simultaneously over the same area. By a provision in the lease of an acreage royalty to that effect, the lessee may be exempted from payment for such areas of

coal as are not workable to profit, and for any left for the protection of the surface. Where large blocks of coal have to be left for any purpose they always cause additional expense to the lessee in opening out the mine again, and where of frequent occurrence may seriously hamper the working. Where the coal is

worked by the lessor himself it becomes a question whether he will leave blocks of coal to support the surface buildings or run the risk of injury from subsidence for the sake of the profit from the working of the coal.

Instances occur in which what are practically a second royalty and a second wayleave rent occur. In the county of Durham a large area of coal lies beneath lands of copyhold tenure. By law copyholders are entitled to surface support and are not compelled to give their consent to the coal being worked, or the non-manorial coal being conveyed under their copyhold land, even if compensation for damage is paid, unless the custom so to work can be proved. An agreement is in force in this county by which the copyholder, besides receiving compensation for actual damages done to the surface, is paid also one penny per ton on all coal worked from under the copyholds, which is equivalent to a second royalty and wayleave rent to be paid by either the lessor or lessee.

Besides providing for payment of the royalty and certain rents, a lease may have clauses dealing with surface wayleave, underground wayleave, outstroke, instroke, shaft, air, and water privileges, which may be subject to payment.

In some districts, the necessities of colliery owners as to surface wayleaves are met by the large railway companies, who wherever it is likely, or it can be guaranteed that a large quantity of coal will be worked regularly, obtain parliamentary powers to make a branch line for its removal. In others, great difficulties have occasionally arisen in consequence of owners prohibiting any coal but their own being carried over their lands. Again, where connection to a railway or shipping place can only be made by going through intervening lands, the owners may demand exorbitant or prohibitory terms. In Monmouthshire under an old Railway and Canal Act, 1792, there is a provision by means of which any mine or ironwork owner having a colliery within 8 miles of the Monmouthshire Canal, had power to make a railway to connect with the Company's Canal in case the Company refused to do so. In Glamorganshire, similar powers were given to mineral owners within 4 miles of the Glamorganshire Canal in 1790. This provision became inoperative in 1799, when a Standing Order of the House of Commons was passed requiring the usual notices to be given in the case of all railways proposed to be constructed as a means of transport to canals.

In Northumberland and Durham, these wayleaves sprang into existence very extensively at the commencement of the last century before the development of public railways, there being no canals in those counties. The object of all the private wayleave railways then made was to place the collieries in communication with the sea or a navigable river, so that the produce of the collieries might be exported. The place of shipment was sometimes far away from the colliery, necessitating the construction of a long-distance private railway. This of course, would often pass over many properties outside that on which the colliery itself existed, and the owners might or might not be interested in the minerals under their surface areas. In later times, short branch wayleave railways were made connecting the collieries with a public railway, or a long-distance main private railway, a river, or the sea. Fig. 18 shows a case where a private branch line connects the colliery with a public railway, which may be used to carry the coal to staithes at the river or elsewhere. The owners of such a branch line would pay a wayleave rent for that portion of it outside the mining lease. Had the public railway company constructed that branch railway under parliamentary powers, the land would have been purchased by them, and so no wayleave rents would be paid by the colliery company, but a tonnage rate to the railway

company who made and worked it. It may have been inconvenient for a lessee to purchase all the land necessary for the construction of a railway before developing his colliery; moreover, he had no power to compel a sale of the land if he desired it, and therefore pays a certain tonnage rate for the privilege of conveying coals over these railways. The area of land occupied per mile of wayleave on a private railway having only a single line of rails laid, is usually about five acres. The annual wayleave charge on the land occupied generally exceeds, and sometimes largely exceeds, the full fee-simple agricultural value of the land.

For coals brought from an adjoining royalty, as from B, C, D, E, F, or G, Fig. 18, and raised at the shafts on the parent property A, over which the

This land belongs

to other owners
than any of

PRIVATE RAILWAY
the owners
of ABCD&

Fig. 18.-SKETCH SHOWING POSSIBLE POSITION OF LAND HELD ON A MINING LEASE WITH RESPECT TO RAILWAYS, &c.

railway is laid, a tonnage payment is made to the owner of the parent property. If the wayleave is over lands unconnected with the minerals leased, as would be the case between the parent property A, and the public railway in Fig. 18, the payment is also per ton, but in this case there is a fixed certain annual rent and power to make up short leadings in a manner similar to the short workings of coal, or the wayleave charge may be fixed irrespective of the quantity carried, being then from £150 to £250 per mile per annum, railways less than a mile being charged nearly the same as those of a mile long. This fixed payment may become a serious strain on the lessee of a colliery in times of depressed trade when short time and a low output prevail. Besides the tonnage or annual payment for the coal carried, a surface wayleave contains a provision for payment of the land occupied estimated on the acreage at double its annual agricultural value, and in addition a stipulation for the lessee to maintain in efficient repair bridges, arches, culverts, drains, &c., and a liability to compensate

the occupying tenant for damage to crops, &c. Very rarely a surface wayleave varies with the selling price of the produce carried.

Underground wayleave is a right on payment of a tonnage or acreage rate to the owner of the parent or other property expressed in the lease, to convey coal from an adjoining or outlying property to the shaft or elsewhere. If it is not distinctly expressed in the lease, that the lessee has power to bring other coal through a property, he is prohibited from doing so. Possibly, an owner may refuse a wayleave right, because by so doing his own coal would, as a consequence, be more largely in demand. The coal obtained in a mine may pass under lands belonging to one or more royalty owners in their outward journey before reaching the parent property. Take, for instance, the circumstances shown in Fig. 18. The whole of the colliery taking consists of the properties A, B, C, D, E, F, G, of which A is the parent property. No wayleave is charged for coal obtained from the property A on which the shafts are sunk, but a rent is payable for that which comes to the shafts from the adjoining properties B, C, D, F, G, and from -the outlying property E, which is thus brought into competition with the coal obtained from the parent property. All coal from these would be subject to the payment of wayleave rent to the owner of A. As the coal from E cannot reach the property A without also passing through either D or B, the coal coming from that area would be subject to the payment of two wayleave rents, one to the owner of A, and one to either the owner of D or B, or perhaps both. The geographical position of E is not so favourable as that of the other properties, and may therefore be leased by the owner at a royalty as much lower than the royalty charged by the owner of A as would pay the necessary easements. Similarly the royalty owners of C, D, B, F, G, although better situated than the owner of E, because they adjoin the parent property A, may receive a royalty as much lower than the royalty charged by the owner of A as would pay the easements required for them. It is to the lessee's interest to have the shafts sunk on the larger of two takings, as in that case he has no easement rents to pay upon the larger part of his coal working. Moreover, the owner may insist on having the shafts sunk on the larger property, in order that he may avoid the risk of having a small portion of his property run over and then deserted by the lessee surrendering his lease.

Where the coal to be obtained is from a property which is not extensive enough to admit of shafts being sunk on it, and the wayleaves are high owing to the number of properties the coal must necessarily pass through before reaching the shaft, the royalty is usually correspondingly low. Many of these small areas which are much intermixed in some districts, are only rendered workable at all by their proximity to larger ones. Occasionally, the owner of a small area, or a grasping landlord's agent, tries to exact extortionate and prohibitory terms for royalty or wayleave, and so causes difficulties to the lessee, who consequently has to divert underground roads at considerable expense in order to avoid passing through that property. In other cases, the owner of a small area may be quite at the mercy of a lessee whose taking surrounds the small area. In such a case the lessor is obliged to let the lessee work his coal on the best terms he can get, otherwise it would soon be surrounded with the broken mine and quite isolated from any colliery that could work it.

A taking in a district of large owners under one landlord, is to be preferred to one made up of small detached lands belonging to many owners and surrounded by small owners. Mining properties of the former description have usually no difficulties with respect to wayleaves, and each lessee has access to a canal or railway on his own taking. Moreover, the continually advancing working face. of the coal bears no relation whatever to physical features on the surface. In a large total area, therefore, belonging to a number of small owners, it may take