HC Deb 02 April 1908 vol 187 cc663-4
MR. FELL (Great Yarmouth)

I beg to ask the Secretary to the Admiralty if the hours worked in the construction of the dockyards at Keyham and Haul-bowline by the stonemasons are 10 per day and the wages paid 6d. per hour; and if these are the trade union rates of wages in the respective districts.

MR. EDMUND ROBERTSON

The stonemasons employed by the contractor at Haulbowline work fifty-three and a half hours weekly—six hours on Saturdays, and nine and a half other days. Their weekly wage is 36s., which equals 8d. per hour, the current rate for Queenstown. The only stonemasons employed by contractors at Keyham are on piecework. The current rate for stonemasons in the Devonport district is 8d. per hour.

MR. FELL

And are not the wages paid in Norway at the rate of 6d. an hour as against 8d. in Cornwall?

[No Answer was returned.]

MR. T. M. HEALY (Louth, N.)

Can the right hon. Gentleman give us the name of the Norwegian firm who supply this granite?

MR. EDMUND ROBERTSON

The only firm we deal with is an English firm.

MR. T. M. HEALY

Will the right hon. Gentleman get the name of the Norwegian firm from which the patriotic British firm get their granite?

MR. WEDGWOOD (Newcastle-under-Lyme)

Will the right hon. Gentleman see that all stones for Government dockyards are bought in the cheapest markets?

MR. SWIFT MACNEILL (Donegal, S.)

Has the right hon. Gentleman never heard of the Donegal quarries?

[No Answer was returned.]