HC Deb 28 February 1881 vol 258 c1853
MR. A. M. SULLIVAN

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, If there is any foundation for the following telegram in the London papers of the 22nd instant: — Another case of incendiarism—making the third within the past few months—was reported at Chard this morning. Several corn stacks belonging to a farmer named Chapman, were, last evening, fired and entirely destroyed. Notwithstanding a reward of £25 offered Try the police authorities, no clue has been obtained as to the guilty parties. Later in the night a stall containing five cows, the property of a farmer who suffered in a recent incendiary fire, was set on fire, and the ricks near were saturated with oil; and, whether any one has been brought to justice or arrested for these crimes of incendiarism on reasonable suspicion or otherwise?

SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT

, in reply, said, that more than one case of incendiarism had been reported from Chard; but that it was not the fact that a stall containing several cows had been set on fire, or that the ricks destroyed had been saturated with oil. He had good hopes that the police would be able to arrest the perpetrators.