§ Mr. WADSWORTHasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will consider the desirability of issuing regulation under the Coal Mines Regulation Acts, 1887 to 1908, showing whether the owners, agents, or managers of collieries and works were required to give on oath the total number of tons of coal, etc., raised yearly, and the number of tons of each class of material so raised, and the value of each class at the pit's mouth or works?
§ Mr. GLADSTONESection 33 and Schedule III. of the Coal Mines Regula-
1636Wtion Act, 1887, require the owner, agent, or manager of every mine under that Act to make an annual return of the number of tons of each kind of mineral wrought during the year; and an owner, agent, or manager failing to make the return or making a return which is to his knowledge false in any particular is guilty of an offence against the Act and is liable to a penalty. The return has to be signed by the person making it, but is not required to be made on oath. The Act does not require the value of the mineral wrought to be stated,
but information on this point is given, voluntarily to the inspectors, and is published in the Annual Reports.