MR. BRYN ROBERTS (Carnarvonshire, Eifion)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that the Mr. Williams, the recently appointed Assistant Inspector, who is said to have worked at an open quarry, never worked at the rock, but simply, when a young man, used to pick up slabs cast aside by the regular quarrymen and split them into slates; and that, ever since, he has been engaged as a pupil teacher and a schoolmaster; whether, inasmuch as he has appointed, in addition to Mr. Williams, another Assistant Inspector, also from Merionethshire, who has thorough practical experience of work in quarry slate mines, he will re-consider his decision, and appoint 1240 another assistant equally experienced in open slate quarrying; and whether he is aware that only about 4,200 workmen are employed in the slate mines of Merionethshire, from which district both the Assistant Inspectors recently appointed are drawn, whereas over 8,000 quarrymen are employed in the open slate quarries of Carnarvonshire?
§ MR. ASQUITHIt is the fact that Mr. Williams when a young man began work at the quarries as described in the first paragraph of my hon. Friend's question, but he subsequently became for a time a workman in the slate mill. He did not work as a rockman, but he received the slate that he had to dress from a part of the quarry which was then worked as an open quarry, and which he had to visit almost daily. After leaving the quarry he was employed in school work. The fact, however, that Mr. Williams did not work as a rockman appears to me to be immaterial, having regard to the wide knowledge of quarrying in all its branches which ho has since obtained, and which, as I have already stated, fully qualified him in my opinion for the appointment. The numbers of quarrymen employed in the open quarries of Carnarvonshire is 8,436; the number employed in the Merionethshire slate mines is 4,321, of whom more than one-half work above ground. There are also in Merionethshire open slate quarries employing from 300 to 400 men, and it must be borne in mind that nearly all the slate mines in Merionethshire were originally worked as open quarries. The Inspectors are appointed not for particular counties, but for the whole of North Wales, and I believe no one is more fitted for the work in all its branches than Mr. Williams. I cannot make any additional appointments at present.