HL Deb 30 June 1899 vol 73 cc1129-30
* THE DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND

My Lords, I beg to ask Her Majesty's Government whether the Home Secretary has power to prohibit the taking of plovers' eggs in any county after a certain date without extending the prohibition to the whole year. As your Lordships are aware, the Home Secretary has power to forbid the taking of eggs of certain birds during the whole of the year. Certain county councils have applied to the Home Secretary to prohibit the taking of plovers' eggs during the whole of the year, and the Home Secretary has in some cases very naturally declined to sanction such a prohibition. In the first place, a good many of us are very fond of eating plovers' eggs; and, secondly, they are more or less a subject of trade, and it would be a serious matter to preclude the taking of these eggs during the whole of the year. But I have been told that shepherds bring plovers' eggs into country towns well into June, when not more than one out of six is really fit for food. The question is whether the Home Secretary has power to prohibit taking the eggs for a part of the year only. There is considerable doubt on that point in the minds of county councils, and I have been asked by the County Councils Association to put the question of which I have given notice.

LORD BELPER

My Lords, in answer to the noble Duke, I have to say that there has been no special application to the Secretary of State for the Home Department from any local authority for an Order such as he describes; that is to say, there has been no application to the Home Secretary to prohibit the taking of plovers' eggs for a certain portion of the year without prohibiting for the whole year. The subject has been under the consideration of the Home Secretary, and, as a doubt has been raised whether Section 2 of the Act of 1894, which deals with this question, gives power to make an Order such as that indicated, he is taking the opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown on the point. Of course, if it is found that the Home Secretary has the power, it will be within his discretion to exercise it whenever application is made to him.

House adjourned at a quarter before Six of the clock, to Monday next, a quarter before Eleven of the clock.