§ MR. WEIR (Ross and Cromarty)To ask the President of the Board of Trade whether the North British Railway Company have yet acted on the suggestion contained in a letter dated the 20th January, 1902, in which Mr. Armitage (Board of Trade inspector), in commenting on an accident which occurred to a railway porter at Edinburgh on the 7th September last, recommends that the practice of filling railway car lavatory cisterns from the standpipe in the six-foot way should be discontinued, and that the lavatory cisterns should either be filled when the coaches are in the carriage sidings or from the platform.
(Answer.) No, Sir. The Railway Company concerned state that the standpipes are in the most convenient place for the work, and that when this work is performed in the ordinary course by the carriage cleaners, a look-out man is provided. The circumstances under which, in the particular ease referred to, a porter was employed in getting water were exceptional, as pointed out by the assistant inspecting officer, and the Railway Company explain that the cans might have been filled from a tap on the platform.—(Board of Trade.)