MR. YOUNGOn behalf of the honourable Member for South Down, I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he has received a petition from the women of Newcastle, county Down, directing his attention to the injury and threatened ruin caused to them and their families by steam trawlers without lights trawling in Dundrum Bay; whether the petitioners complain that a number of the poor fishermen of Newcastle are now being prosecuted for alleged carrying away of gear belonging to one of these trawlers, while the owners of the trawlers, notwithstanding their destruction of fish, have been allowed to escape; and whether he will, in the interest of these poor fishermen, cause full inquiry to be made into the matter.
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThe answer to the first and second paragraphs is in the affirmative. With regard to the proceedings now pending against a number of fishermen at Newcastle, I am informed that the case will be investigated by the magistrates at the next petty sessions to be held on the 17th instant. Under these circumstances, it is undesirable, at the present stage, to make any statement respecting the action of the fishermen which led to their prosecution for malicious injury.