§ MR. MACDONALDasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, If it be correct that the Dinas Mine, Rhondda Valley, county Glamorgan, at the time of the explosion whereby over sixty persons lost their lives, was being carried on without a properly certified manager in terms of the Coal Mines Regulation Act, 1873; whether such a state of things was known to the inspector for the district, and if he had taken any action to enforce compliance with the section of the Clause which leaves it in the hands of the magistrates to impose a penalty of £50 sterling for neglecting to have a certified manager, and the liability to a further penalty of £ 10 sterling for every day until the Act be complied with, or whether he intimated he would take the advantage of the provision that permits an owner not to appoint a certified manager for two months; further, if there was any Correspondence between the inspector and the owner of the colliery; and, if he will object to lay such Correspondence upon the Table of the House?
MR. ASSHETON CROSS,in reply, said, that the manager of the Dinas Mine at the time of the explosion did not hold a certificate, having been appointed by the owners after the suspension of his predecessor, under the provisions of subsection B of the 26th clause of the Mines (Coal) Regulation Act, 1872, which provided that the owners of a mine might appoint any competent person not holding a certificate for a period of two months, or for such longer period as might elapse until the manager had an opportunity by examination of obtaining such certificate. In the case in question, the proper notice had been given to the 1404 inspector. There was not the slightest foundation for the suspicion that the owners of the colliery intended to close the mine. On the contrary, they were doing all in their power to recover the bodies of those that were unfortunately lost.