§ DR. TANNER (Cork Co., Mid)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the fact that the Coroner's jury at the inquest held at Atherton on Friday, 12th February, 1892, and the local medical doctor who attended Edward Sandiland before his death, stated that death was primarily due to inhaling the fumes of an exploded shot of roburite; is he aware that, when certain experiments were being made by the Lancashire colliery managers, who compose the Geological Society, into the safety or otherwise of roburite, at which Mr. H. Hall, Mines Inspector, was present, they came to the conclusion that in such experiments at the moment of explosion they had seen a "glare"; and if he can explain why Mr. Hall (Inspector) is now pressing the use of roburite on the colliery managers of Lancashire, in some cases against their wish and the wish of the miners, as, in their judgment, it entails not only a serious monetary loss, but is entirely unnecessary, and a serious injury to their health?
§ MR. MATTHEWSYes, Sir, as I informed the hon. Member himself on the 29th of last April, I received a Report from Mr. Gerrard, the Inspector of the district concerned in this case, the effect of which I communicated to the House. The hon. Member only placed this question on the Paper last night, and I have had no opportunity of inquiring into the statements made in the second and third paragraphs of it. But I have no reason to believe that roburite, when used with the proper precautions to which I referred in my former answer, is injurious to health; and I know nothing which confirms the imputation made against Mr. Hall by the hon. Member.