§ MR. WINTERBOTHAM (Gloucester, Cirencester)asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether John Duggan, unemployed labourer, of 13, Sardinia Place, Lincoln's Inn Fields, was, on the 1st of March, sentenced to, and underwent, five days' imprisonment on bread and water, with plank bed, for 1275 not sending his boy, aged nine, to St. Mary's School, and whether the reason stated by Duggan to the magistrate, Sir James Ingham, was correct—namely, that the child's absence was caused by the family being foodless, and the boy suffering from a bad ankle; and, whether he was at the time actually under treatment for the same at King's College Hospital (out patient. No. 2235)?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. MATTHEWS) (Birmingham, E.)I have received a Report from the magistrate, from which it appears that this man had been four times summoned for neglecting to send his son to school regularly. He had been twice previously convicted. On the occasion in question, I am informed, the attendances of the child had been only 22 in 126. For two weeks during this period the boy was sick, having hurt his ankle. The magistrate took this fact into account; but convicted the man, on the ground that the boy had been persistently irregular before he was sick, and fined him 3s. and 2s. costs.