§ 54. Mr. KENNEDYasked the Prime Minister if his attention has been drawn to the case of two pit ponies left underground at the Leven Colliery, Fifeshire; whether the two ponies in question were carried to the mine workings on bogies about nine months ago; whether since then, on account of injuries received while being taken into the mine, the ponies have done no work and have not even been exercised; and whether he is aware that, on account of the roads underground having become lower and narrower, it is now, and has been for some months, a physical impossibility for the ponies to be removed?
§ Sir P. LLOYD-GREAME (for Mr. Bridgeman)My information does not altogether tally with that of the hon. Member. I am informed that at a place where the gradient is steep these ponies were carried in on bogies, but that neither received any injury. Only one has been working since June, 1920, but the other has been exercised daily. It would have been quite possible to get them out, though at one point they would have had to be carried on bogies owing to the lowness of the roof.
§ Mr. J. ROBERTSONIn view of the practice in many collieries of shackling 926 ponies and conveying them on trollies and bogies through narrow passages to places where the men work, making it often impossible to rescue them when serious underground accidents take place, will the hon. Gentleman take steps to put an end to that cruel practice?
§ Mr. R. McLARENIs the hon. Gentleman aware that the statements contained in the question are entirely untrue, and that the ponies were taken out in the usual way?
§ Mr. SPEAKERThe information has already been given.