§ MR. HARRIS (Galway, E.)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Is it true that in November last a man named Rhatagan, gamekeeper to Messrs. William and John Hynds, 28, Elgin Road, Dublin, fired a shot at a man named Fineran while Fineran was on the public road and in the act of running away, and that the medical officer for the district (Dr. Delahunt) extracted several grains of shot from the head and back of Fineran; and, whether Rhatagan, when convicted at the Petty Sessions, Ballinasloe, for this offence, was only bound to keep the peace for 12 months; and, if so, will the Government consider the advisability of taking steps, by legislation or otherwise, to secure the more severe punishment of similar offences?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR) (Manchester, E.)I am informed that at daybreak Fineran was discovered poaching. The gamekeeper pursued him to ascertain his identity, as he wore a mask. Fineran made no charge against the gamekeeper until he was summoned for poaching, when he took out a cross-summons against the gamekeeper. The medical officer did 178 not extract several grains of shot, hit one grain. On the cases being heard at the Petty Sessions Fineran was fined £1 for poaching, and the gamekeeper was bound over as alleged. The existing law is ample to deal with all such cases.