§ MR. SLOANTo ask the Vice-President of the Department of Agriculture 1553 (Ireland), if his attention has been called to several cases tried on the 20th instant at Burnfoot petty sessions on the charge of cruelty to cattle; if he is aware that a number of cattle were shipped, by steamer for Fahan, and, in order to get them landed, a gangway was made up with planks and the animals forced over into the sea, and some of them had to be dragged ashore by means of a rope and landed in an exhausted condition; and if he will make inquiry into the matter in order that arrangements may be made that the unshipping of cattle in this place may be carried out in a humane manner.
(Answered by Mr. T. W. Russell.) The Department have seen a newspaper report respecting these cases. The place where they occurred appears, owing to the movement of sand, to have become unsuitable for disembarking cattle in certain conditions of the tide. The Department are arranging to have the circumstances fully looked into.