§ SIR BALDWYN LEIGHTONasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to a Memorial presented to him from lead minors and others in South Shropshire on the subject of the use of explosives, Whether He can see his way to make any concessions in the Regulations under the Explosives Acts for those engaged in industrial and mining operations, with a due regard to the public safety?
§ SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT, in reply, could not say he thought it safe that dynamite should find its way into the hands of any persons who wished to have it, without any security that they were proper persons to possess it. In that respect he could not modify the Order in Council. With regard to the miners, no man who was known to be a respectable character could have the smallest difficulty in getting a certificate; or if he did not wish for one the mine-owner could keep in a registered store all the dynamite required, and serve out enough for the day's work, the rest being retained in store. That, after all, seemed the safest and best way of using dynamite in mines. He was bound to say that complaints of inconvenience had not come to him so much from persons who used dynamite as from those who manufactured it. They were promoting Petitions everywhere upon this subject, because they thought it placed them at some disadvantage as compared with the manufacturers of gunpowder.