§ Mr. BUTCHERasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether, in view of the fact that the Coal Mines Act, 1911, passed into law on the 16th December, 1911, and came into operation on the 1st July, 1912, and that no special inspectors of pit ponies, as provided by that Act, have yet been appointed, or at any rate had been appointed on the 10th January, 1913, he will call for special reports from the district inspectors of mines as to the treatment of pit ponies during the year 1912, and the observance of the regulations in relation to pit ponies contained in the Coal Mines Act, 1911; and whether he will cause such special reports to be laid upon the Table of the House?
§ Mr. McKENNAAs I have stated in reply to previous questions of the hon. Member, the district inspectors will report on this subject in their annual reports for 1912, which they will shortly be preparing, and these reports will be laid before Parliament. It would not be right to take up time which the inspectors should be giving to actual inspection by calling upon them to prepare special reports on this subject in anticipation of their annual reports.