§ MR. PIKE PEASE (Darlington)To ask the President of the Local Government Board if he will say what steps have been taken towards making the inquiry prescribed by The Metropolis Water Act, 1852, into the grounds for the complaint of twenty inhabitant householders that the source of supply of the new pumping station at Darenth, Kent, about to be handed over by the Kent Water Company to the Water Board for London is visibly liable to intermittent pollution by surface drainage. 810 Trade for a Board of Trade assessor; and in how many such cases the Board of Trade has held an inquiry by one of the inspectors or sub-inspectors of the Board.
(Answered by Mr. Gerald Balfour.) The subjoined table gives the required information, so far as in the possession of the Board of Trade, in respect of all fatal accidents in which the running of trains or the movement of railway vehicles was concerned. The Board have no reason to doubt that a coroners' inquest, or in Scotland an inquiry by the procurator-fiscal or sheriff, was held in each case.
Number of Railway Servants killed in accidents connected with the running of trains or the movement of railway vehicles during the years 1900, 1901, 1902, and 1903; the number of Inquiries into such accidents by the Inspecting Staff of the Board of Trade; and the number of such cases in which the Coroner applied for an Assessor.
(Answered by Mr. Walter Long.) I recently received the reply of the Water Company to the complaint and I sent a copy of it to the complainants. As the undertaking of the Company will be handed over to the Metropolitan Water Board this week, it appeared to me better to postpone further action in the matter until this event had taken place. I will then communicate with the Water Board on the subject.