MR. MAODONALDasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether, since the occurrence of the Kersley accident, he still adheres to his expressed determination to do nothing more than issue rules for the enforcement of the Mines Act; when the rules will be laid on the Table, and whether the issue of such rules did not imply that the provisions of the Mines Act had been neglected?
MR. ASSHETON CROSSSir, no one regrets more than myself such terrible accidents as that of which we have just heard; but I would point out to the hon. Member that it does not necessarily follow because an accident has taken place that there is criminal negligence on the part of those who looked after the mine. Since I have been in office I have made it a practice of sending down to inquests arising out of colliery explosions a barrister of high qualifications to attend and watch the evidence. Mr. Horatio Lloyd and Mr. Maule have been among those chosen. I have before me Returns of eight cases in which I have sent gentlemen down. In six of those they have reported that no step could be taken to institute a criminal prosecution against anyone; in one the owner and manager of the mine were fined, and in the other a trial took place, in which the jury could not agree, and the Attorney General, on full consideration, recommended that a nolle prosequi should be entered. The hon. Member will, therefore, see that steps are being taken to enforce the Mines Acts; and it does not follow that, because there are serious accidents, owners and managers are criminally responsible. Although accidents still occur, their number is diminishing greatly when compared with the number of men employed in mining. The numbers employed for each fatal accident in the year 1851 was 310; in 1861 it was 360; in 1871 it was 440; and in 1876 it was 613. The number of coal miners employed for each life lost by accident was 220 in 1851; in 1861 it was 300; in 1871 it was 350; and in 1300 1876 it was 551. The House will, therefore, see that there has not only been an improvement, but a gradual, steady, and progressive improvement in regard to such accidents. It is quite true that I have thought it necessary to issue a code of regulations for the guidance of the Inspectors, not because I believed that they did not do their duty, but because their previous instructions had been issued from year to year; and were, therefore, not in a connected form, and it was thought better that they should be consolidated into one code. As to the Correspondence between Mr. Moore and the Home Office on this subject, if the hon. Member will move for it, I shall have pleasure in laying it on the Table.