asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been directed to the practice of requiring from candidates for mine-managers' certificates the preparation of a plan of a mine the levelling and surveying of which have been done by themselves; whether he is aware that this condition in certain cases bears hardly upon candidates drawn from the working classes, as it necessitates the use of expensive instruments; and whether, in these circumstances, he will take steps cither to have the condition withdrawn or to afford facilities to working-class candidates in the preparation of the plans in question?

I would refer my hon. Friend to my answer to a similar question put by the hon. Member for West Fife on the 1st of January, in which I fully explained the position. It would be quite impossible for the Board of Examination to give a first-class manager's certificate to a candidate who cannot show that he is competent to prepare a plan of a mine. I may mention, however, that the Board have recommended a modification of the rule, which I have approved, allowing the certificate of the plan to be given by the candidate himself, subject to the production of the original plottings made by him.