§ MR. COGH1LL (Newcastle-under-Lyme)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he has received any Report of the colliery accident on the 3rd April at Ape-dale, near Newcastle-under-Lyme, when ten lives were lost; whether the use of gunpowder was the cause of the explosion that occurred; and whether he will take steps to so amend the Coal Mines Regulation Act of 1887 as to prohibit absolutely the use of gunpowder in any coal mines, and to make the words of Sub-section (g) (2) of Rule 12, Section 49, the universal rule—
Unless the explosive employed in firing the shot is so used with water or other contrivance as to prevent it from inflaming gas, or is of such a nature that it cannot inflame gas"?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOB THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. MATTHEWS, Birmingham, E.)I have received a Report from the Inspector of the district, who informs me that there is every reason to believe that the cause of the explosion at Apedale, near Newcastle-under-Lyme, was a blown out shot of gelatine dynamite, and not of gunpowder. The circumstances of this explosion will be investigated, not only before the Coroner, but also by the Royal Commissioners on Explosions from Coal Dust in Mines, and I am informed that Professor Dixon has already visited the scene of the explosion.