asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether the police authorities in Ireland have been instructed to prosecute, for non-compliance with the law, farmers and others who put their names in Irish on their carts?

No instructions to the effect suggested have been issued to the police.

asked why Mrs. Finnerty, of Culleens, Collooncy, county Sligo, has been deprived of the old age pension awarded to her by the local pension subcommittee; and on what evidence the Local Government Board have proceeded in this case?

I would refer the hon. Member to my reply to a similar question asked by him on 23rd November last.

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether the Congested Districts Board have entered into negotiations with the proprietors of the Brinkley, Tottenham, and Brereton estates, Easkey county Sligo; whether the proprietors have agreed to sell; if so, when the sales are expected to be completed; and whether, if the proprietors have not agreed to sell, the Board are prepared to apply in those cases the compulsory powers of the Land Act of 1909?

The Congested Districts Board have communicated with the landlords of the estates referred to, but they are at present unable to state the result of the negotiations.

asked when the Congested Districts Board are likely to be in a position to complete the purchase of and acquire the estates of Parke, Dunally, and Middleton, Bosses Point, county Sligo?

I have nothing to add to the reply given to the question of the hon. Member on 21st March with reference to these estates.

asked the Chief Secretary the cause of the delay on the part of the Congested Districts Board and the Estates Commissioners in completing the purchase of the Jones estate in Easkey, county Sligo?

The Congested Districts. Board inform me that the maps in the case of this estate have not yet been furnished, but the agent states that they will soon be lodged.

asked whether the Congested Districts Board or the Estates Commissioners are willing to assist the inhabitants of Collooney and Ballisodare, county Sligo, to acquire by purchase the landlord's interest in these townlands?

If the hon. Member can furnish the names of the owners of the lands referred to, the Congested Districts Board or the Estates Commissioners will cause inquiries to be made.

asked the Chief Secretary if he can say, in reference to the estate of Philip Smith, Mullagh, county Cavan, and D. A. Mortimer, tenant, advertised to be sold on 3rd May, whether, after negotiations with the small holders in the district, the Estates Commissioners have made an offer for the purchase of the estate with the view of distribution among the owners of uneconomic holdings?

The Estates Commissioners have had a preliminary inspection made of these lands, and have recently communicated with the owner their preliminary estimate of the amount they would be prepared to advance for them if formal proceedings for the sale of the lands to the Commissioners were instituted by the owner.

asked the Chief Secretary whether he is aware that the Estates Commissioners propose to vest in Sarah Foster a large tract of land situate in Blackslea, county Fermanagh, on the estate lately acquired from Lord Ely; that Sarah Foster already occupies two holdings in the same townland with an area of nearly eighty acres, while in the immediate neighbourhood there are a number of small landholders who are most anxious to acquire the Blackslea tract for the enlargement of their uneconomic holdings; and whether he will call the immediate attention of the Estates Commissioners to the facts with a view to their vesting this tract of Blackslea in those who are most in need of it?

I have referred this question and the information which the hon. Member has kindly furnished with regard to it to the Estates Commissioners, who inform me that the matter will be duly considered by them.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if his attention has been directed to the conviction, at Northamptonshire Quarter Sessions, on 7th April, of Mrs. Sarah Lambert, of Wellingborough, for knowingly receiving stolen goods; if he has made in quiry into the circumstances of the case; if he is satisfied that Mrs. Lambert pawned the goods in question with criminal intent; and, if not, whether he will revise-the sentence passed upon her?

I had not heard of the case until my hon. Friend wrote to me-about it. As I have already informed him by letter, the proper course in such a case-is an application to the Court of Criminal Appeal, which can be made by the prisoner herself. The application can be made free of cost. Assistance is given by the prison officials in preparing the application; and if the prisoner's friends desire to see her for the purpose of her appeal, all necessary facilities will be given. The Home Secretary is charged with the exercise of the prerogative of mercy, but he-has no power to retry a criminal case, and no means of doing so.

asked the Homo Secretary if, in the case of new collieries, he will consider the advisability of the upcast shaft being made larger than the downcast, seeing that as air passes through a mine it increases in volume and in the event of an explosion the smaller shaft is wrecked from too little size to take the coal dust and air?

I am informed by my expert advisers that it is considered good mining practice to make the diameter of the upcast shaft greater than that of the downcast. The expansion of the air, however, due to the temperature of the mine, is not of much importance except in the case of mines ventilated by an underground furnace—a method now seldom used—where the heat of the fire-largely increases the volume of the air besides adding to it the products of combustion. In most coal mines the air is now drawn through the workings and up the upcast shaft by means of fans placed at the surface and the increase in its volume is insignificant. Moreover, in many mines the upcast shaft is not habitually used for winding persons or minerals, and, being, therefore less obstructed than the downcast, it has a greater net size. The wrecking of an upcast shaft in the event of an explosion would not depend on its dimensions relatively to those of the downcast shaft, but (1) on whether the explosive blast enters the return airway, and if so (2) on the absolute size of the upcast and the obstruction encountered by the blast. To make the upcast shaft larger than the downcast would not therefore prevent its wreckage; and in the great mining disasters of recent years it has been the downcast shaft that has suffered most owing to the fact that the explosions have been carried along the intake airways (on haulage roads) by the coal dust.

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware that over one hundred girls and women are on strike at Messrs. Idris and Company, mineral water manufacturers, on account of the president of their union, who has been thirteen years in the service of the firm, being dismissed for being three minutes late in reaching work; and whether his Department will take action to investigate and report upon the facts of the dispute?

My attention has been called to this dispute. I am now in communication with the parties with a view to a Conference.