(3) In the event of a scale being established, it shall have no limit upward or downward, and shall be subject to termination on 12 months' notice. The Committee could not grant the request, but at once made an offer of seven and a half per cent., to take effect on Monday, the 10th, or they would submit the entire matter to arbitration. These offers were refused by the owners, and as a consequence the meeting was adjourned until the 20th. The Committee called a Council for the 15th of February. On the 7th the Federation Board met, and passed the following resolution:-- This Board feels that the position of the county in reference to wages is anomalous. The owners having as a body demanded a reduction of wages, and as such reduction includes all classes of labour in connection with collieries, we recommend that each Association call a Council meeting to discuss the advisability of adjusting a sliding scale for the regulation of wages, consistent with all our interests. That the Secretary write and ask that at the meeting on the 20th inst. all the four Associations be represented. The Miners' Council decided against the seven and a half per cent., but by the following resolution offered arbitration:-- "That having heard the report of the Committee on their interview with the owners on the reduction now asked by the latter, this meeting is of opinion that the best means of settling the difficulty is, to refer it to open arbitration as heretofore." The owners refused to meet the Federation Board as a whole, and as a consequence the Miners' Committee met them on the 20th, in keeping with the Board Minute, on February 18th. At that meeting the owners modified their demand. OWNERS' MODIFIED OFFER _February 22nd, 1879._ "1. That a reduction of 10 per cent. in underground, and 7½ per cent. in surface labour, be brought into operation in the first pay beginning March next. 2. That the additional 10 per cent. in underground, and 5 per cent. in surface labour, claimed by the owners in their Minute of January 11th, be referred to arbitration in the following manner, viz.:-- Representatives of the two Associations to meet within the first week of March, and if they can agree on a sole arbitrator, the matter to be forthwith referred to him; and if they cannot so agree, each side to appoint an arbitrator, which two arbitrators shall forthwith appoint an umpire, and if they fail to do so by March 15th, such umpire shall, on the application of either arbitrator, be appointed by Mr Meynell, County Court Judge of Durham. In the event of there being two arbitrators and an umpire, they shall sit together to hear the case; and the award shall take effect in the first pay in April. 3. The expediency of re-establishing a sliding scale, to be left for consideration after the award has been given."