Major MORRISON-BELLasked the Secretary for the Home Department if his attention has been called to the case of Alice Emily Gordon, aged seventeen, who was sentenced to six weeks' hard labour for failing to report herself on probation; and whether he intends to take any action on the subject?
§ Mr. CHURCHILLI have made inquiry and find that the girl's offence was larceny, and that the magistrate released her on probation; but she broke the conditions of her probation and disappeared, and when arrested obstinately refused to give any account of herself. The magistrate again postponed sentence to give her an opportunity of reconsidering her attitude, but she declined to avail herself of the special opportunity thus given her. In these circumstances I cannot interfere with the sentence. If the Probation Act is to be of any real effect it must be made clear that probation will be firmly enforced, and that a person who deliberately breaks the conditions of probation is liable to punishment for the original offence.