§ Mr. T. WILLIAMS(by Private Notice) asked the Secretary for Mines whether he could make any statement with regard to the cause of the disaster at Thorne Colliery, Doncaster, which involved the loss of six miners' lives?
§ The SECRETARY for MINES (Colonel Lane Fox)I regret to say that six men lost their lives yesterday in an accident at No. 2 Shaft, Thorne Colliery. The men were working on a scaffold 73 yards from the shaft bottom, and when the steam capstan, from which the scaffold was suspended by two wire ropes, was started, the ropes ran off the drums. The scaffold with the six men and 2,000 yards of rope fell to the shaft bottom, in which there was water 11 feet deep. I understand that the agent was able to descend the shaft in a sinking hoppit, about three quarters of an hour after the accident, and found that men, scaffold and ropes were under water. Inquiry will, of course, be made to discover the exact cause of the accident, but I am not in a position to make any statement upon this at this moment.
§ Mr. WILLIAMSCan the right hon. Gentleman say approximately when more details can be given, if the question is repeated?
§ Colonel LANE FOXNot until the inquiry has been held.