§ Sir CHARLES DILKEasked the Home Secretary if he can give the House the information contained in the report to the Home Office of the inspector who attended the inquest on Lewis Timmins, a little piecer, aged 13, lately killed under machinery in motion at an Atherton spinning mill on the day on which he commenced work?
§ Mr. HERBERT SAMUELThe reports of the inspector show that the accident happened in connection with a self-acting mule. The boy, who was a young person for the purposes of the Act, had only started work at the mule the same morning, but had been employed on mules for five months previously. According to the evidence of a girl who was working at the same mule, she saw the boy going under the frame with a brush and wiper when the carriage was "on catch," that is, while momentarily arrested at the end of the run before beginning the return journey; she called to him, but he appeared not to hear, and before she could stop him he had been caught between the carriage and the roller beam. The minder, who was at the far end of the mule, stopped it as soon as he saw the boy. The boy appears to have thought the mule had been stopped for cleaning, not noticing that the spindles were still revolving. No blame appears to attach to the minder.