§ Viscount CASTLEREAGHasked the Home Secretary whether his attention has been called to the inquest at Clapham, on 30th January, on the death of an old lady caused through being knocked down by a boy who was roller-skating on the pavement; and whether, having regard to the fatal effects of this accident and to the rider of the jury condemning roller-skating on pavements, he will reconsider his decision not to allow by-laws forbidding this practice?
§ Mr. CHURCHILLMy attention has been called to this case, and I am informed, as the result of inquiries which have been made, that the correctness of the old lady's statement that she was knocked down by boys roller-skating on the pavement is open to great doubt. The police have failed to discover any corroborative evidence. The old lady, who was ninety-one years of age and suffering from senile decay, is stated to have been in the habit of imagining things which never occurred. Upon the general question, I have received no evidence that the dangers arising from roller-skating by boys and girls are so much greater than the ordinary dangers of traffic in the streets, particularly motor traffic, that the practice ought to be prohibited by by-law. Such a by-law would create a new offence punishable by the criminal law, and, if sanctioned in one metropolitan borough, punishable only when committed in one particular locality not divided from the rest of London by any noticeable boundary. It would lead to the imposition of fines, and possibly to the detention and imprisonment of children and young persons for indulging in a form of amusement which846W would be legal on one side of the road and illegal on the other. I am very reluctant to increase the number of occasions when the children of the poorer classes may be brought into the police court and rendered liable to imprisonment. If the prohibition of roller-skating in the streets is eventually proved to be necessary, the step should be taken upon a united demand on behalf of the local authorities of the whole Metropolis.