§ Mr. KNOXI beg to ask Mr. Attorney General for Ireland, whether his attention has been called to a letter from the Very Rev. Canon M'Neece to the Guardians of Magherafelt, in which certain practices relating to the hiring out of pauper children are described; whether he is aware that those practices are illegal under 55 and 56 Vic, c. 42, s. 2, which prohibits the employment of children under 14 except under special circumstances as therein mentioned; and, whether he will instruct the police throughout the north of Ireland to proceed against any person taking children into their employment in contravention of that section.
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. JOHN ATKINSON,) LondonderryMy attention has been called to the letter of the gentleman referred to, in which he makes general charges as to the practices mentioned, and gives two specific instances, in each of which, however, the boy alleged to have been hired out was hired out by his mother without the knowledge of the Guardians. The Guardians deny the general charges. The 2nd Section of the (Statute referred to in the Question is, by the 15th Section, confined in its operation to municipal boroughs and towns under town commissioners, and is, therefore, inapplicable to Magherafelt, which belongs to neither class.