HC Deb 16 February 1911 vol 21 cc1240-1
Mr. MARKHAM

asked whether the estimated cost of carrying out a full test of safety lamps under Government supervision would exceed a cost of £500; and whether any application has yet been made, and, if so, on what date, to the Treasury for a grant for this specific purpose, what was the amount asked for, and was the money granted or not; and (2) whether, seeing that Sir H. Cunynghame, on 26th July, 1906, stated before the Royal Commission on Mines that the Home Office were prepared to test safety lamps in the same way as explosives are tested, he will say what experiments, if any, have been carried out at Woolwich since this date to ascertain the safety type of lamp; and whether, seeing that the jury found in the case of the Pretoria explosion that this disaster was due to a defective safety lamp, he will say what steps he proposes taking to ensure miners having a safe type of lamp?

Mr. CHURCHILL

The Royal Commission on Mines recommended that the law should be amended so as to permit the use only of safety lamps of such types as had passed a Government test, and I am proposing to give effect to this recommendation by a provision in the new Mines Bill, which is now in course of preparation. In order, however, that no time might be lost in bringing the provision into force when it had become law, it was decided, with the approval of the Treasury, to proceed at once with the construction of the necessary station and apparatus and with the determination of the nature of the test to be applied. The Woolwich station and apparatus, to which the hon. Friend refers, were designed for the testing of explosives, and would not have been suitable for the testing of lamps. A provisional sum was accordingly taken in the Estimates for the present year, and a Departmental Committee was appointed by me last June to consider the nature of the test. The general arrangements as regards the station have now been settled, and it is hoped that the station will be ready by the summer. The total cost will probably amount to not quite £1,000, and the necessary further provision is being made in the Estimates for the new financial year. When the station is ready, the experiments for settling finally the details of the test will be proceeded with at once.

Mr. BOOTH

Will the right hon. Gentleman consider the advisability of having representatives of the miners present when those tests are taken?