HC Deb 18 April 1893 vol 11 cc564-5
MR. A. C. MORTON (Peterborough)

I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he is aware that on or about the 19th July, 1892, Commander Browne, of H.M.S. Partridge, seized and destroyed the nets of Charles Pitman at Lops Island, White Bay, Newfoundland, without any inquiry or trial; if so, whether he was right in so destroying these nets without any inquiry or trial; and, if not, will the Government compensate Charles Pitman for the loss and injury he has sustained, and for thus depriving him of the means of gaining a livelihood?

THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES (Mr. S. BUXTON,) Tower Hamlets, Poplar

The nets, which were salmon nets of an illegal mesh, wore seized by Commander Browne in his capacity as a Justice of the Peace of the Colony, and were dealt with as forfeited in accordance with the Colonial Law, which is administered by the Colonial Government. I may add that, as regards the salmon fisheries, in no place where there is a local Magistrate is the initiative taken by the captains and the Executive officers of the ships employed on fishery protection duties.

MR. A. C. MORTON

I should like to ask if it is true that these nets were seized and destroyed without any inquiry of any sort whatever before a Court or before the Admiral commanding the ships?

MR. BUXTON

The nets were seized by the captain, and in the usual course handed over to the Local Authorities. The question of what was afterwards done with them is not one with which the Colonial Office has anything to do.

MR. A. C. MORTON

As I am not at all satisfied with the answer given, and as this man Pitman has been practi- cally ruined, I give notice I shall take an opportunity of calling attention to this matter on the Estimates.