§ 78. Mr. AUGUSTINE ROCHEasked if at the Bandon Petty Sessions, held on the 30th June, 1913, a Unionist named William Williams, and locally known as Carson, was fined for drunkenness 2s. 6d.; why, though he has not as yet paid the fine, he is still at large and under the eyes of the police; whether at the Petty Sessions held at Bandon on the 7th July last a Nationalist labourer named Hartnett was fined 2s. 6d. for a similar offence, and though he there and then asked for time he was curtly refused and taken into custody and conveyed to the Cork male prison by the next train, though there were several other trains during the day that he could be taken by; and, seeing that on the way to the station the police escort met Williams, why Williams, who should have been taken a week previous, was not arrested?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe police authorities inform me that at Bandon Petty Sessions, on the 30th June, William Williams was fined 2s. 6d. for drunkenness, but that the warrant to enforce the penalty was not executed as he promised to pay the fine in a short time. In cases of this kind, to avoid hardship and to save expense in conveying prisoners to prison, it is usual for the police to allow defendants a certain latitude where they are satisfied that the fine will be paid, and that there is no danger of the defendants absconding. On the 7th instant Hartnett, who is described by the police as a man of bad character, having no fixed residence, was convicted of a similar offence, but as he made no application for time to pay the fine the magistrates issued a warrant for his committal in default. He was conveyed to Cork by the first available train so as to enable the escort to return that evening. The escort did not meet Williams on their way to the station, and the politics of the men are not known to the police.