§ MR. HAYDEN (Roscommon, S.)To ask Mr. Attorney-General for Ireland, whether, in the town of Roscommon, boys have been interfered with by the constabulary in selling copies of the Roscommon Messenger newspaper in the streets; if so, under what authority, and by whose instructions.
§ (Answered by Mr. Cherry.)I am informed by the police authorities that in three instances recently, one on 3rd ultimo and two on 1st instant, the police found boys under eleven years of age having copies of the Roscommon Messenger for sale in the streets of Roscommon. In each case the parents of the children were warned that they were committing an offence against The Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act, 1904, by allowing their children so to act, with the result that they sent the children home and the papers were returned to the Messenger office. The police acted on their own initiative in the matter.