§ MR. ARTHUR O'CONNOR (Donegal, E.)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, with reference to Sessional Paper 6, "Boycotting (Ireland)," What is the meaning of the following terms therein used: 551 (a.) wholly Boycotted; (b.) partially Boycotted; whether, before the preparation of the Return, any steps were taken by the Government to secure the use of the terms referred to in the same sense by the compilers in all parts of the country, and also in the two different periods embraced in the Return; and, whether he will give the definitions of the terms "wholly Boycotted" and "partially Boycotted" furnished by the Government for the guidance of the compilers?
THE PARLIAMENTARY UNDER SECRETARY (Colonel KING-HARMAN)(who replied) said (Kent, Isle of Thanet)Persons are classified as wholly Boycotted when no one in their neighbourhood will buy from them, supply them with necessaries, work for them, or hold any intercourse with them; and as partially Boycotted when they suffer from all or any of these injuries in a partial degree. When the Return, which now forms the first period of the present Return, was originally prepared, the officers who compile these Returns were called on for an explanation of the method of classification adopted by them; and it was found, as must obviously be the case, that the method throughout the country was practically the same. Since July last there has been no change whatever in the mode of preparing these Returns, and therefore no new definitions were issued.