BRITISH MINING INDUSTRY

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 24 November 1927, Page 5

BRITISH MINING INDUSTRY

QUESTIONS IN COMMONS. MR MACDONALD’S CENSURE MOTION. (Received 24, 8.5 a.mA London, Nov. 22. In the House of Commons the Rt. Hon. Stanley Baldwin told Lord H. Cavendish-Bentinck (Conservative, Nottingham), that the Government had given attention to all aspects of the mining problem. It was impossible in the course of an answer to a question to deal with the member’s suggestions for increasing the schoolleaving age in the colliery districts, superannuation of miners at 60 and improvement in housing. Lord Cavendish-Bentinck: Have you given attention to Sir Alfred Mond’s declaration in the nress that the “Government can no longer remain aloof and indifferent to the serious crisis in the mining industry.”

Mr. Baldwip did not rise and the Labourites shouted “Answer 1 Answer!’’ Sir A. H. M. Sinclair: Will Mr. Baldwin answer in the course of the debate ? Mr. Tom Williams. Labour .Don Valley): Don’t the questions show it is the Government’s duty to attempt to solve the problem. , Mr. J. Westwood (Labour, Peebles); Does Mr. Baldwin’s silence mean that the seriousness of the problem has made him speechless? Mr. Speaker called on the next question. Mr. Baldwin later told Mr. Ramsay MacDonald that the latter’s coal censure motion might be taken on November 29. provided the committee stage of the Unemployment Insurance Bill were finished on the 28th,

The Hon. G. R. Lane-Fox, in answer to a question, said there were 923 fatalities in mines in 1925. and 943 in 1927. The serious accidents were 3707 and 3889 respectively. Mine accidents were always fluctuating and he did not agree that the above increase was attributable to the longer working hours.—(A and N.Z.)