§ MR. SEXTONasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether he is aware that the working licensed fishermen of Lough Neagh, upwards of three hundred in number, complain that they have power to elect only four out of twenty-four members of the Board of Conservators of the Coleraine district; whether the total number of licences of all kinds issued annually in that district is not more than about four hundred; what proportion of the funds administered by the Board of Conservators is derived from the licence duty paid by the working fishermen; whether the fishermen represent that some of the Conservators, being themselves the owners of salmon fisheries on the Bann, between Lough Neagh and the sea, are hostile to the industry of the working men who fish the lake, and have caused the institution of regulations which impede and harass the working men to such an extent as to deprive them of the means of subsistence; whether the fishermen claim that Lough Neagh should be constituted a separate district; whether, the voting for elections of members of the present Board being open, the water bailiffs are in the habit of using intimidation to induce the working fishermen to give 820 their votes for certain candidates; whether the fishermen declare that the loss of the lives of four of their body in the Lough, on the 26th November last, was caused by the want of a suitable landing place; and, whether the Inspectors of Irish Fisheries will hold a public inquiry into, and make a report upon, the several complaints in question.
§ MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANNo complaints on any of these matters have reached the Government or the Inspectors of Fisheries within recent years. The proper course would be for the parties who consider themselves aggrieved to address a Memorial to the Lord Lieutenant, setting out the particulars of their complaint, and a decision would then be come to as to whether cause is shown for a public inquiry.