§ MR. MACDONALDasked the Under Secretary of State for the Home Department, If the Reports of the Inspectors of Mines will be laid upon the Table before the close of the Session; and, whether it is his intention to exact from the Inspectors their Reports at an earlier period of the Session in the future?
§ SIR HENRY SELWIN-IBBETSON, in reply, said, that at the beginning of the Session a communication from the Home Office was forwarded to the Inspectors of Mines, requesting them to send in their Returns. They did so before the end of April, and the subsequent delay had arisen from the printing, and the sending of the proofs to the Inspectors for correction. An application had been recently made for the corrected proofs, and he hoped to be able to lay the Returns on the Table before the end of the Session. For the future it was intended to require the production of these Returns at an earlier period of the year.