§ MR. J. DEVLIN (Belfast, W.)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he can state the number of prosecutions for breach of the Truck Act which have taken place in Ulster during the present year and the number of cases in which convictions were secured; and also, whether he will direct the attention of the local inspectors to the necessity of strictly enforcing the provisions of the Act.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) Two cases for breaches of the Truck Acts have been taken in Ulster during the present year, the offence in each being the payment of wages otherwise than in current coin, One case was dismissed on the grounds that it was the first of the kind in the district and that no fraud was intended, the defendant being required to pay 2s. 6d. as costs. In the other case, in which four informations were laid, the defendant was convicted on one information and fined £5, and the 1084 other three were withdrawn on condition of defendant paying costs. The inspectors are fully alive to the necessity of strictly enforcing the provisions of the Acts, and have been giving considerable attention to the subject.