§ MR. W. KENNY (Dublin, St. Stephen's Green)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that Francis Farrell, Daniel Farrell, and Patrick Farrell were convicted at the Patrick's Well (County Limerick) Petty Sessions on the 17th April last of poaching in the Several Fishery of the Shannon Fishery Company, and fined £5 each, and that, on the same occasion, they were convicted and fined for assaulting one of the servants of the company; whether these fines were reduced by the Irish Executive to the minimum penalty in each case—10s., notwithstanding the protest of the company; if the same men were convicted in 1892 of assaults on the company's water bailiffs, and in 1893 of trespass on the company's property, and if the fines imposed in 1893 were wholly remitted; and if he will state the grounds for the action of the Irish Executive in this case?
MR. J. MORLEYThe question states the facts with substantial accuracy. The mitigation of the penalties referred to in the first and second paragraphs applied only to the fines inflicted for the breach of the Fishery Laws, and did not extend to the fines imposed for the assaults committed on the servants of the Fishery Company. As stated by me in replying to a question by the hon. Member for South Tyrone on the 10th July, 1893, the fines inflicted on the persons named for a breach of the Fishery Laws in the previous April were wholly remitted by the Lords Justices after consultation with the local Justices, who had expressed approval of this course. The Magistrates who convicted at Petty Sessions on the 17th April, for the more recent offence, also recommended a reduc- 374 tion of the fishery fines to 10s. in each case, and this recommendation, as I have pointed out, was acted upon by the Lord Lieutenant.