§ VISCOUNT WOLMERI beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether, considering the serious injury to health, the disturbance of business, and the hardships inflicted on many of the poorest wage earners of the Metropolis by the curtailment of their working hours, caused by the increasing prevalence of fogs, Her Majesty's Government will consider the advisability of appointing a Royal Commission to examine and report how far the evil is one which can be mitigated by legislation?
§ SIR HENRY TYLER (Great Yarmouth)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether he will cause inquiry to be made as to the various descriptions of coal used in the Metropolis, and their relative capabilities for converting mist and white fog into the yellow and dark conditions of the atmosphere known as London fog; and also to the possibility of inducing persons residing in London to use coals comparatively smokeless by means of legislation, having the effect of placing taxes or duties on those coals which are most deleterious to the atmosphere?
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY (Mr. W. H. SMITH, Strand, Westminster)Her Majesty's Government are, in common with other inhabitants of the Metropolis, extremely sensible of the serious injury, disturbance, and hardships inflicted by the increasing prevalence of fog. They are, however, seeptical as to the value of a Royal Commission for the investigation of the subject. It is notorious that the evil mainly arises from the smoke emitted by ordinary domestic fires, and the problem to be solved is whether it is possible by legislation to prohibit and prevent the production of smoke in this way. A Bill was introduced into the House of Lords in 1887 with this object, and was referred after a Second Reading to a Select Committee, which took evidence which went to show that smoke could be prevented by the use of non-bituminous coal, by the substitution of coke or gas for coal for heating purposes, and possibly by the adoption of an improved grate and great care in lighting and feeding fires with common coal. The Bill was not proceeded with beyond this stage in 1887. Another Bill with 1942 the same object has been introduced, and stands for Second Reading in the House of Lords this evening. If it should come down to the House, the noble Lord will have an opportunity of considering whether it is possible by penalty on occupiers of houses and tenements to secure the object he has in view.