§ MR. H. J. WILSON (Yorkshire, W.R., Holmfirth)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he is aware that under the late Boer Government in the Transvaal no coloured person was allowed to finish the preparation of the holes and to fire the charges for 108 blasting in the mines, these operations being performed by white labour; and whether the omission of the word "miner" from the list of trades (Schedule 1, Cd. 1941), from which the indentured Chinese in the Transvaal are to be debarred, will remove the above restriction and enable the mine-owners to employ Chinese to perform the operations mentioned, and thus to dispense entirely with the services of white miners.
§ MR. LYTTELTONThe indentured Chinese are restricted under the Ordinance to unskilled work in the mines such as is usually performed by natives. This restriction would appear to exclude the Chinese from work of the class in which white men have hitherto been engaged.
§ MR. H. J. WILSONWhy was the word "miner" omitted?
§ MR. LYTTELTONI have not the Order before me.
§ MR. FENWICK (Northumberland, Wansbeck)May I ask if the imported Chinaman, although he is not permitted to do machine drilling, may do hand drilling.
§ MR. LYTTELTONThe hon. Gentleman asks me rather a highly technical Question. I do not think I can give a better test offhand than to say that the operations in which natives have usually been engaged are the measure of the unskilled work. That unskilled work may be done by the Chinese. Nothing else can be done.
§ [No answer was returned.]