Cape Clear Island Fisheries. MR. GILHOOLY (Cork Co., W.): I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that a memorial from the inhabitants of Cape Clear Island was sent to the Congested Districts Board in April 1901, requesting that increased accommodation should be given for their fishing boats, and that a reply was received from the Congested Districts Board in the following May to the effect that an engineer would visit the island and report on the proposal; and whether, in view of the fact that no engineer has done so, and that the inhabitants of that island suffer loss and inconvenience for want of a suitable harbour and anchorage for their boats, he will give the matter his immediate attention.

THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. ATKINSON, Londonderry, N.): In the absence of my right hon. friend, I have to say that the Board's engineer has visited the island. His Report will be considered by the Board at an early meeting.

United Irish League, Mullaghdun
Branch.

MR. P. A. M'HUGH (Leitrim, N.): I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that a band belonging

to

the Mullaghdun, County Fermanagh, Branch of the United Irish League was stopped on the public road leading to Belcoo on the 17th March ultimo by a policeman named Johnston, and that this policeman threatened to break the band instruments, and to turn the members of the band off the road; will he explain by what authority this policeman interfered with the liberty of these persons on this occasion?

MR. ATKINSON (for Mr. WYNDHAM): The members of the band, who were accompanied by a crowd, were requested not to play when passing the house of an

boycotting and intimidation. This demonstration near his house was part of the system of intimidation to which he has been subjected. It was therefore the bounden duty of the police, under the circumstances, as conservators of the public peace, to prevent a hostile demonstration in the vicinity of the residence of this man. The police did not threaten to smash the instruments, or to turn the members of the band off the road.

MR. P. A. M'HUGH: Was it the policeman who supplied the answer to the right hon. Gentleman ?

MR. ATKINSON: No, Sir; the answer came in the regular course.

MR. P. A. M'HUGH: From Johnston, the policeman.

Belfast Orangemen The "Bogey Clan.'

MR. MACVEAGH: I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware of the existence in the city of Belfast of an organised body of Orangemen known as the Bogey Clan, whose members march through the streets and attempt to murder Roman Catholic citizens; whether he is aware that one of the local resident magistrates, himself a Protestant, has described the conduct of these men as the worst he ever heard of; and whether, in view of these and of previous disturbances in the streets of Belfast, it is intended to proclaim that city under the Criminal Law and Procedure (Ireland) Act.

MR. ATKINSON: A gang of roughs, estimated to number twenty-four or twenty-five, recently committed a murderous assault on a boy, who is a Roman Catholic. Twenty-one of the gang have been arrested. The resident magistrate described their conduct in the terms stated at the end of the Question. There is absolutely no foundation for the statement that the members of the gang belong to the Orange Society. Persons who break the law in Belfast are brought to justice under the ordinary law, and receive exemplary punishment. It is

Galway Local Government Elections.

MR. ROCHE (Galway, E.): I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he can state the date upon which the Local Government Board fixed the nominations for county and district councillors in the county of Galway; and whether he can state the date upon which notice of the said fixture, if any, was conveyed to the general public.

MR. ATKINSON (for Mr. WYNDHAM): The Local Government Board did not fix the dates. This duty devolves upon the County Council and the Returning Officer, and the notice of election issued by the latter should specify the date upon which he will receive nomination papers. The Board has no information on these points.

Disturbance at Annaghmore.

MR. MACVEAGH: I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, whether he is aware that attacks were made on the 16th ult. by an Orange mob at Annaghmore, county Armagh, on Roman Catholic residents of the village; that a young woman near her confinement was so maltreated that her life is in danger; that the authorities have been unable to take her depositions; and that on the same occasion a young man was mutilated beyond recognition; whether any of the men who made this attack have been traced, and, if so, why they are still at liberty; whether, as disturbances also occurred in this locality last Christmas, he will give immediate directions for the re-establishment of the police barracks which were recently closed;

and whether he will proclaim the district under the Criminal Law and Prɔcedure (Ireland) Act, and direct that any trials which there may be shall take place before two resident magistrates.

MR. ATKINSON (for Mr. WYNDHAM): A prosecution has been directed against the ringleaders in this riot. Pending the hearing of the case, I must decline to enter into particulars of the occurrence, further than to say that I am unable to accept the hon. Member's representation of the facts as accurate. No disturbances took place at Annaghmore last Christmas, and it is not proposed to re-establish a police barrack there. The reply to the third paragraph is in the negative.

Irish National School Teachers. MR. DILLON (Mayo, E.): I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, in the case of the highest grade of national school teachers, known as first of first-class, who, during the three years ending 31st March, 1900, had charge of small schools with an average attendance not sufficient to warrant their full class salary for the whole period, whether he will state on what basis their consolidated incomes were calculated, and to what extent were their vested rights to a higher salary safeguarded when subsequently appointed as principals to schools with an average of sixty, considering that under these circumstances they would according to the old rules, get full class salary and about double their former capitation and results fees; and will he also state how the income of a first of first class teacher is determined if he leaves a school with an average attendance of sixty and takes charge of one with an average of less than thirty-five.

MR. ATKINSON (for Mr. WYNDHAM): The consolidated incomes of all teachers were fixed in accordance with Rule 36 (a) of the new Rules and Regulations which were laid on the Table of the House last session. (Command Paper

No. 601.) First of first-class teachers joined the new grades under Rule 37 (e). If such a teacher changed from a small school in which the average did not warrant his class salary to a large one in which the average would have warranted it, had the old rules remained in force, the case was specially considered by the Commissioners, and if the equity of the case was not, in their opinion, met by the general rules, they granted such a teacher what was estimated to be his "normal" income in the new school, or they granted an increase in his consolidated income equal to the difference of the rate of class salary which he was paid in his old school and that to which he might have been entitled in his new school. If a first or first-class teacher

leaves a school with an average of sixty and goes to a school with an average less than thirty, but not less than twenty, he will be paid second-grade income only, and if the attendance at such school is less than twenty he will be paid thirdgrade income only.

Convictions under the Crimes Act.

MR. O'DOWD: I beg to ask Mr. Attorney General for Ireland whether he is aware that Messrs. Michael Gormley and P. J. McDermott were convicted and sentenced to two months imprisonment each at a court held under the Criminal Law and Procedure Act in Ballymote on the 24th ult., for a offence alleged to have been committed nearly three months ago; and will he say whether the recently revived clauses of this Act are to be unlimited as to time in their retrospective operation.

MR. ATKINSON (for Mr. WYNDHAM): By the combined operation of Sections 2, 5, and 11 of the Crimes Act, prosecutions such as this, brought under Section 2, can only be instituted within six months from the commission of the offence.

The "Waterford Star" Prosecution. MR. POWER (Waterford, E.): I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he will state what sentences were passed by the Court held under the Criminal Law and Procedure (Ireland) Act, recently held in Waterford, on Mrs. O'Mahony and

Mr. Lynam for publishing in the Waterford Star the proceedings of certain branches of the United Irish League in the County Waterford; is he aware that in the last quarterly Return of agrarian crimes from Ireland no case of offences against the person, property, or public peace is reported from the whole County Waterford; and will he say on account of what crime committed in the city of Waterford, or for what reasons, the city has been proclaimed.

MR. ATKINSON (for Mr. WYNDHAM): The named were convicted on

persons

the charge of publishing matter inciting to intimidation. The proprietress of the newspaper was ordered to find sureties to keep the peace and be of good behaviour, or in default to be imprisoned for two months without hard labour. The editor was sentenced to

two months imprisonment without hard labour. On the applicationof defendants, the magistrates agreed to state a case. The quarterly Returns of agrarian outrages deal only with such crimes as may be classified under the various headings enumerated in these Returns. But these

Returns do not take cognisance of cases of boycotting or of the large number of incitements to boycotting and intimidation, which are equally crimes against the law. I must refer to the statement made by my right hon. friend on the 17th April, in which he set forth the the several towns and districts selected. reasons for putting the Act in force in

CAPTAIN DONELAN (Cork Co., E.): Is it intended to imprison women in Ireland under the Coercion Act?

MR. SWIFT MACNEILL: Why not send them to concentration camps?

Returns of Irish Agrarian Offences. MR. DELANY (Queen's County, Ossory): I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, with reference to the Return of agrarian offences in Ireland, whether any similar Return is made relative to England, and what authority decides whether an offence committed in Ireland is agrarian or ordinary in character.