§ MR. M'LAGANasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether the Railway Companies who have decided to carry explosives have submitted to the Board of Trade the bye-laws for regulating the traffic, as provided for by section 35 of the Explosive Substances Act; and, if so, whether it is his intention to insist that those Companies who do carry any explosives shall give equal facilities to all the explosives to which the Act refers, seeing that the refusal of most of the leading Railway Companies to carry some of the duly licensed blasting agents is inflicting an unnecessary injury upon the manufacturers of those explosives which the Railway Companies decline to carry, and upon the mining industries of the country, whose prosperity is largely dependent on the supply of suitable blasting agents; whether his attention has been called to the danger to which the travelling public are subjected by the surreptitious conveyance of explosives in passenger trains, in consequence of the obstacles now placed in the way of a properly regulated traffic by the leading Railway Companies; and, whether it is intended to give facilities for sea-going sailing vessels and steamers loaded or partially loaded with explosives passing through the Caledonian and Crinan Canals; and whether Government are prepared to grant equal facilities to all duly licensed explosives passing through those Canals?
MR. ASSHETON CROSS,in reply, said, the railway companies had submitted the bye-laws referred to by the hon. Member, but they were not considered sufficient, and they had accordingly been returned for amendment. He was informed that they were now being re-drawn by the Railway Clearing House, on behalf of the railway companies generally, in the sense indicated by the Board of Trade. The Board of Trade 880 had no power to insist on the carriage of all explosives, as the law left it to the railway companies to decide what explosives they would convey, provided they gave the same facilities to all parties alike. No complaints had been made to the Board of Trade, but complaints had been made to the Home Office, but they were entirely of a general character, and no specific complaint had been made against any individual or railway company. If a specific complaint were made, he should think it right to put the law in force both against the individual and against the company, if it could be shown that they knew that explosives were carried surreptitiously on their railway. The Board of Trade had no more power in the case of canals than they had in the case of railways to insist on the carriage of all explosives, but they would consider any suggestions on the subject, and a uniform code of bye-laws both for canals and railways was under their consideration.