§ MR. JOHN ROCHE (Galway, E.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that on or about 2nd November, 1907, eight or nine persons were arrested at Mount Bellew on a charge of unlawful assembly and conveyed to Ballinasloe, a distance of about 19 miles, and there bound to the peace and to be of good behaviour before a resident magistrate; whether there are several local magistrates in the neighbourhood of Mount Bellew, and, if so, why the persons referred to were not brought before those magistrates; and what was the cost of conveying them to Ballinasloe.
(Answered by Mr. Birrell.) I am informed that the facts are as stated in the first part of the Question. Several justices of the peace are resident in the locality of Mount Bellew, but, in pursuance of the usual practice in such cases, the application to bind the offenders to keep the peace was made to the resident magistrate. The cost of conveying them to Ballinasloe was £10.