§ Colonel WOODCOCKasked the President of the Board of Trade if he will give the figures for the last three years of imported foreign roadstone, roadstone quarried by municipal owners of quarries,
A.—IMPORTS OF FOREIGN ROADSTONE into Great Britain and Northern Ireland. — 1926. 1927. 1928. Tons. Tons. Tons. Unmanufactured Granite other than setts and pavement curbs and monumental and architectural objects: Consigned from foreign countries 218,461 229,261 338,167 NOTE.—Roadstone is not a separate heading in the Trade Returns, but unmanufactured granite is believed to cover the larger portion of foreign imports of materials which are used for road-making.
B.—QUANTITIES OF MINERALS produced in 1926 and 1927 at Quarries more than 20 feet deep and used for purposes of road-making and ballast Mineral. 1926. 1927. Tons. Tons. Igneous rock (granite, etc.) … … … … 7,707,706 7,994,258 Limestone … … … … 4,503,928 5,003,853 Sandstone … … … … 1,506,370 1,639,137 Gravel and sand … … … … 601,427 814,188 Total … … … … 14,319,431 15,451,436 NOTES.—1926 and 1927 are the only two years for which reasonably complete particulars are available. It is not possible to give separate particulars for road-making only, but the quantity of ballast included in the figures for Igneous Rocks and Sandstone is probably less than 1 per cent. of the total for those minerals. Particulars are not available of minerals other than the above-named used for road-making, nor of minerals obtained from quarries less than 20 feet deep. No separate records are kept of the output from municipally-owned and privately-owned quarries respectively.