§ MR. CHARLES CRAIGI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether since 1st June last, in county Galway, there have been four cases of knocking down walls and gates, eight cases of intimidating letters and notices, four cases of agrarian assaults, eighteen cases of intimidation, other than by letters and notices, eleven cases of shooting into houses, two cases of shooting at persons, and one case of malicious injury to animals; and whether he proposes to take any action in the matter.
MR. BRYCEI am informed by the police authorities that since the 1st June last there have been in county Galway four cases of malicious injury to walls or gates, in three of which the injury done was trifling; twenty two cases of intimidation by threatening letters or notices; two cases of assault, which might possibly have arisen from agrarian matters, though this is not certain; one case of intimidation other than by threatening letters or notices; ten cases of firing shots into houses; one case of firing at the person; and one case of malicious injury to animals. In one of the cases of alleged agrarian assault the Grand Jury threw out the bill against the accused, and in the case of firing at the person the accused were acquitted at Assizes. I am informed that county Galway was in an unsatisfactory state last year owing chiefly to an agitation in the early summer against the grazing system, but that the condition of affairs has decidedly improved since then, and that there is every reason to hope that this improvement will continue.