§ MR. BRADLAUGH (Northampton)asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether, as reported in The Derbyshire Times of July 7, at Dronfield Petty Sessions, a lad, William Barber, was fined 30s., including costs, and in default of payment was committed to gaol with hard labour for 14 days for attempting to take fish, to wit, minnows, by letting down into the stream a glass bottle fastened round the neck by a piece of 1392 string; and, whether he will take any action in the case?
§ THE SECRETARY of STATE (Mr. MATTHEWS) (Birmingham, E.)The magistrates inform me that William Barber is a lad 19 or 20 years of age, who was fined 6s., and 14s. costs. The magistrates were of opinion that he was catching minnows as a bait for trout. He was fishing in a trout stream where poaching has been rife by youths from Sheffield, who have repeatedly been warned and dismissed without fines; but the practice has continued. Barber has undergone his sentence. There is no ground for any action on my part.
§ MR. BRADLAUGHasked, whether it was not the fact that the evidence went to show that the boy was fishing with a glass bottle with a string round the neck; and whether that was the usual way of fishing for trout?
§ [No reply.]