§ Mr. DUFFYasked the Secretary for Mines if his attention has been called to the closing down of a number of iron-ore mines in West Cumberland, many of which contain considerable bodies of workable iron ore, and that such actions are having a very serious effect upon unemployment in that area; and, for the purpose of ascertaining the cause and providing a remedy against such stoppages, will he cause a public inquiry to be made, with power to call for persons and papers, into the questions of rates, royalties, and railway carriage in their relation to the cost of output in the iron-ore mines referred to?
§ Mr. SHINWELLI am aware generally of the conditions in the iron-ore mining industry of Cumberland and Furness, but I am proposing to inquire into the situation in greater detail. When I have done so I shall be in a better position to judge whether any further and more formal inquiry is likely to be useful.