§ MR. A. J. WILLIAMS (Glamorgan, S.)asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Inasmuch as the Final Report which has just been presented by the Accidents in Mines Commission, with its Appendices, contains a large body of information which will be of great interest, particularly with reference to intended legislation, to colliery owners, managers, overmen, and workmen engaged in coal and other mines, on the following among other subjects; the different varieties of safety lamps, the details of their construction, as explained by drawings, and the manner in which they have stood the tests to which they have been submitted by the Commissioners; the use of the electric light in mines; the part played by the coal dust in explosions; the use of powder and other explosives in coal mining; the safe employment of explosives, other than powder, in fiery and dusty mines; the use of substitutes for explosives in coal mining; whether steps will be taken for issuing a larger edition of the complete Report than it is customary to issue of Reports of Commissions, say an issue of not less than 5,000 copies, at as low a price as possible?
THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. CHILDERS) (Edinburgh, S.)In reply to 749 my hon. Friend, I have to say that the sale of Parliamentary Papers has lately been placed, by Resolution of both Houses, under the management of the Stationery Office. The size of the edition of any Report would be a matter of arrangement between Mr. Speaker and that Office. With regard to the price, I am not aware of any precedent for making an exception in the case of a Paper of special interest. The price of Papers is fixed in accordance with Rules carefully laid down by the two Houses; and it would be extremely difficult to depart from those Rules without reopening the whole question as to price, which is not, I think, desirable.