§ 76. Mr. FREEMANasked the Secretary for Mines whether he is aware that a pit pony in Staffordshire has recently 762 been brought to the surface after having been down a mine continuously for 29 years; and whether he will arrange that all ponies working down mines shall be brought to the open fields at least a fortnight each year?
§ The SECRETARY for MINES (Mr. Ben Turner)If I am right in assuming that my hon. Friend is referring to a pony named "Lloyd George," a picture of which appeared in the Press on 16th April, the Press report is inaccurate. That pony is 18 and not 29 years of age, and except for a month or two has always been stabled on the surface. I am in sympathy with the object of the proposal in the second part of the question, and I hope that colliery managements will do what they can in that direction; except during a period of continued warm weather pit ponies would suffer and not benefit from being brought to the surface. For this and other reasons it would not be practicable to make any general or standing rule.
Viscountess ASTORIf these ponies have to work under the surface, would it not be almost better to keep them down continuously, because, it seems to me, for them to come up and then have to go down again is almost worse than not coming up?
§ Mr. TURNEROne of the inspectors has given me the following information: that some of the ponies were brought up on Goad Friday for a week in the fields, but that they shivered with the cold and were taken back into the pit for their own safety.
§ Mr. FREEMANIs it not a fact that pit ponies are not the only ones who shiver on holidays?