MR.D. CRAWFORD (Lanark, N. E.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he has inquired into a complaint by the miners of Rosehall Colliery, in Lanarkshire, to the following effect:—A checkweigher com-plained that the men were defrauded in two respects: that they were not credited with quarters of hundredweights, and that the balance of the weighing machine was unfair. On the 1oth and 17th of April respectively the Inspector of Mines and the Inspector of Weights decided that the complaints were well founded. On the 20th a notice was posted up dismissing all the men. On the 23rd a deputation of the men were informed by the manager that they would be re-engaged, but only on condition that they dismissed the checkweigher, as he had been causing disturbances at the colliery by bringing Inspectors, and that in the event of the men appointing another checkweigher, they must send in his name, and if he did not suit the manager he would shut down the pit; whether, if the facts are correctly stated, the action of the manager was legal; and what steps he intends to take in the matter?
MR. ASQUITHThe statement in the question is correct, except as to the balance of the weighing machine being unfair. The weighing machine was fair, but there was a dispute between the pit-headman and the checkweigher as to where the balance should stand at the moment of fixing the weight of the coal. However, in justice to the miners, the statements in the question require to be supplemented. The deductions of the odd weight had long been accustomed to be made in lieu of deductions for dirt, which 219 was not enforced. On neither of these matters—the not crediting the quarters of hundredweights, and as to the weighing—had any complaint been made, either to the owners or manager, or by the check-weigher or miners; and in calling in the Inspectors the checkweigher acted without communicating with the men. In my opinion, the dismissal of the men, in order to get rid of the checkweigher, is not actually illegal; but it is contrary to the intention of the Act, and the Bill I hope to introduce will declare such actions illegal. I do not think that any proceedings could be instituted against the manager with any prospect of success.