§ MR. BOWLESI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many parents have been imprisoned by the Gateshead magistrates during the last twelve months for having failed to contribute to the maintenance of children forcibly taken from them and confined, against the parents' will, in reformatory and industrial schools; what was the total term of those imprisonments during that period, and the average amount of the arrears proceeded for.
§ * MR. GLADSTONEDuring the last twelve months twenty-one parents have been committed to prison by the Gateshead magistrates by non-compliance with contribution orders. The total of their terms of imprisonment, added together, is twenty-eight months, and the average amount of the arrears in respect of which proceedings were taken was £3 7s. 4d.