§ SIR CHARLES DILKE (Gloucestershire, Forest of Dean)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, in reference to the statement on page 221 of His Majesty's Chief Inspector of Factories' Report, that girls in the boiling rooms of jam factories lift and carry copper cauldrons or pans of boiling jam, weighing about one hundredweight, and that accidents have been frequent, the girls falling and being scalded; whether the clause in the Fruit Preserving Order as to the lifting of weights by female young persons is being enforced; and whether the attention of occupiers has been called to this provision.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Akers-Douglas.) Copies of the Fruit Preserving Order were sent to every occupier at the time it was made, together with copies of the register to be kept and notice to be affixed on the premises, and further copies have been sent from time to time where necessary. As the Question of the right hon. Baronet only appeared on the Paper this morning, I have not been able to obtain a special report with regard to the cases referred to; but it is obvious that they were discovered by the inspector in the course of enforcing the provisions of the Order. It will be seen, from reports of inspectors appearing in other parts of the volume, that the requirements of the Order are on the whole being well observed.