§ MR. CHARLES CRAIG (Antrim, S.)On behalf of the hon. Member for South Down, I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether, in view of the statement that the total number of agrarian crimes recorded as such in 1907 was 372, and that the total number of crimes of cattle-driving in the same period was 381, he will state what proportion of the latter is included in the statistics of agrarian crime; and why these statistics include only a certain number of the reported cases of cattle-driving, while others, forming apparently the majority, are excluded.
§ THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. CHERRY, Liverpool, Exchange)The 372 agrarian crimes recorded in 1907 were all indictable offences. Non-indictable offences are not included in returns of agrarian crime. The 372 cases include fifteen cases of cattle-driving under the head of Unlawful Assembly, in which persons were proceeded against on indictment. In the great majority of cases the drives were carried out by stealth and there was no evidence that three or more persons were engaged in them, or that there were any circumstances of terror such as are necessary to constitute an unlawful assembly. They could not, therefore, be classified as Unlawful Assemblies and placed in the category of indictable crimes. Cases in which compensation has been awarded for malicious injury to the cattle by overdriving, etc., have been treated as indictable, and included in the 372 agrarian cases. These cases appear under the head of Injury to Property.
§ MR. CHARLES CRAIGThen are we to understand that a cattle-drive, no matter how serious, is not included in the statistics of crime unless some person is arrested or punished in connection with it?
§ MR. CHERRYI do not think that follows. If there is an assembly of persons large enough to constitute an unlawful assembly with circumstances attending to justify its being returned as an unlawful assembly, it is included among the indictable offences; if it is a drive by one or two persons at night and there is no evidence of an unlawful assembly, then it is merely included in the return of cattle-drives.