MR. BRYN ROBERTS (Carnarvonshire, Eifion)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that the two Inspectors of Slate Quarries lately appointed by him have practical knowledge only of the mine system of slate quarrying practised in Merionethshire, 564 and have no practical knowledge of the totally different system of open slate quarrying practised in Carnarvonshire; and whether he will appoint one Inspector having practical knowledge of the open quarry system, so as to give the quarrymen of Carnarvonshire the same protection as is now afforded to the Merionethshire quarrymen?
§ MR. ASQUITHThe case is not as stated in the first paragraph of the question. Mr. Williams, one of the recently-appointed Inspectors of Metalliferous Mines and Quarries, has worked at the Upper Oakley Slate Quarries, which are open quarries; he has a good knowledge of the open quarries of Carnarvonshire, and he has delivered geological lectures on several occasions to the quarrymen of Llanberis and Nantlle Vale. He is bringing out a treatise on slate quarrying, for the preparation of which he tells me that he has visited and studied the methods of working in open and underground quarries in Wales, Cornwall, and France. One of the strongest representations that reached me in favour of the appointment of Mr. Williams was contained in a letter from Mr. Prichard, the manager of Penrhyn Quarries, in Carnarvonshire (who himself began life as a quarryman). I am satisfied that both the Assistant Inspectors are fully competent to inspect both open and underground quarries, and that there is no sufficient ground for the further addition to the staff as suggested in my Friend's question.