§ 44. Mr. HARDIEasked the Secretary for Mines whether he is now in a position to report upon the water danger in No. 23 Redding Pit?
§ Mr. SHINWELLI have had special inquiry made into this matter. I find that the Redding Ball coal workings are not under the old Meadowbank workings, as my hon. Friend stated in his question on the 18th June. They are at present 500 feet from the fault that separates the two collieries. The water in Meadowbank is to be lowered, and, until this is done, no workings from Redding will be allowed to approach within 120 feet of the fault. What my hon. Friend described as a heavy flow of water from the coal face is stated by the inspector to be a trickle amounting to about a pint a minute, which cannot possibly come from the Meadowbank workings. I am advised that in these circumstances there is no such danger, as my hon. Friend fears; nor can I find that any alarm has been felt by the men. The Stirlingshire Miners' Union inform me that they have no knowledge of any complaint by them on the subject. The manager has invited the men to appoint two of their number to make an inspection under Section 16 of the Coal Mines Act.
§ Mr. HARDIEIs it not a fact that before the recent disaster the miners, we were informed, had no apprehension; and if there is only a trickle of water, why is a thousand gallon power pump being used for a pint of water? Will any engineers give a guarantee that, no matter where the water is lying in reference to where the miners are working, the strata between 1122 them and the water, over which they have no control, will not break, and that the men may not be flooded at any time?