§ MR. CAINE (Cornwall, Camborne)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies if his attention has been called to the number of deaths underground at Kimberley diamond mines, stated in the Mines and Quarries General Report for 1900, just issued by the Home Department, to be 10.93 per 1,000 persons employed in the year 1900; if he is aware that the death rate from underground accidents in all mines within the United Kingdom during 1899 was only 1.41 per 1,000, Canada 3.61, Federated Malay States 26, Mysore Gold Mines 2.66, New South Wales 1.14, Victoria 1.45, Western Australia 4.32, and Mexico 1.02; can he give any reason why the death rate at Kimberley is so much greater than that of the countries named; and, as numbers of Cornish and other British miners are employed at Kimberley, will he order some expert and impartial inquiry into this excessive death rate.
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES (Mr. J. CHAMBERLAIN,) Birmingham, W.The death rate quoted by the hon. Member is for the year 1899, not 1900, and was unusually high in consequence of a serious accident which occurred in that year. The question of the propriety of holding any inquiry is entirely a matter for the Government of the Cape Colony.