§ 25. Mr. D. GRENFELLasked the Secretary for Mines if he will state the number of mines working three days a week or less during the month of May, with the number of mines that were temporarily closed down owing to bad trade in that month?
§ Colonel LANE FOXThe returns relating to time worked at coal mines are tabulated not according to the number of collieries but on the basis of the number of workpeople affected. From this it appears that during the month of May on the average about 146,000 wage earners, or 14 per cent. of the whole, were employed at pits which lost three or more coal-winding days per week owing to bad trade. Of the pits that resumed 1648 work after the stoppage, 160, employing 12,150 wage earners, had closed for the same reason and had not re-opened by the end of May.