§ MR. BURT (Morpeth)asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, If his attention has been called to complaints that the weighing sections of the Coal Mines, &c., Regulation Act are not being carried out at the Baxenden Colliery, near Accrington; and, if this be so, whether he will take steps to enforce the provisions of the Act?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. MATTHEWS) (Birmingham, E.)Yes, Sir; it is the fact that the weighing provisions of the Coal Mines, &c., Act of 1887 are not carried out at the colliery referred to, which has an exemption from the weighing provisions of the Act of 1872. The legal question involved is not free from difficulty; but I have directed a prosecution to be instituted in a similar case, the effect of which will be to determine whether or not the Act of 1887 has done away with exemptions under the Act of 1872, or makes their revocation compulsory.