I would like to say this to Deputy O Briain: that he had better not follow the example of the Minister for Finance to-day who attempted to prejudice the case that he knew I was to make to-night by getting up and making the most insidious charges against an honourable gentleman whose boots he is not fit to wipe. The Minister said that this particular gentleman was in receipt of a pension from the State. Colonel Fraher is in receipt of a pension from the State for faithful and honest services rendered. No Deputy on the opposite side can refute that statement. It was an ill-wind that blew the Minister for Finance on to those benches to-day to cast a slur on this particular gentleman.
Colonel Fraher as a soldier, as a gentleman and as a good farmer is all that one should expect of a decent citizen of this State, but he is in the position that, even though he has land and stock, he has not cash to pay his annuities. He is in the position of the rest of us, that having paid once he is unable to pay a second time. On this particular occasion he was willing that the court messenger should take cattle when he could not pay. The court messenger did take a ramble around the fields to see what stock was on the land. My information is that the first animal the court messenger saw was a bull. I think he was rather intimidated by the bull and returned. I do not know whether or not he inspected the 101 pigs in the yard, but if he did he must have come to the conclusion that Colonel Fraher's dry stock and pigs were not a convertible security. We all know that what they are worth to-day is very little. At about 4 or 5 p.m. he announced, for the first time to Colonel Fraher, that if he could not pay he would have to take something. Colonel Fraher said: "Very well." The court messenger said that he would have to send for a lorry and that it might not arrive until the morning. On hearing this Colonel Fraher said to him: "If you remove your forces from my place I will give you my word of honour that everything that is now on the land and premises will be there when you come back again." But the word of honour of a soldier and of a gentleman was not sufficient for the representative of the Minister in collecting the annuities. The word of honour of a soldier and of a gentleman of this country who, in dark times, and at every time, fought honourably for his country was not sufficient for the representative of the Minister; the word and honour of the representative of a family which, in all periods of this country's history was in the forefront of the fight for the people's rights, was not accepted.
Colonel Fraher has a reputation which cannot be sullied on the benches opposite or anywhere else. The record of his family and of his predecessors is a proud one. His predecessors were always in the forefront of the fight for tenant right. They were in the fight at Ballycohey. Why was not the stock taken on this gentleman's land and why was it necessary to take the furniture? Was there not sufficient stock there? Perhaps the reason is this, that when the sheriff walked into Colonel Fraher's house the first thing to catch his eye was a rather admirable painting—I should have said two admirable paintings—of Griffth and Collins and portraits of Parnell and Davitt. Was it because this gentleman had on the walls of his house proofs of his nationality and his patriotism, and that the representative of the sheriff envied him in his possession of these things, that he decided to seize property instead of stock on the land? Did he think that these portraits and property would be saleable commodities at a sheriff's sale. At any rate, whatever the cause, he was evidently bent on offering all the indignities possible to this particular gentleman. He had been offered cattle and other stock as well as the pigs, but would not take them. His forces remained in possession of this gentleman's premises and lands for 14 or 15 hours. During that time no attempt was made to seize anything. It was not until long after midnight that any intimation was given that there was to be a seizure. It was two minutes past two o'clock in the morning when the representative of the sheriff laid his hands on Colonel Fraher's furniture to remove it. A neighbouring farmer—Captain Morkell, a brother officer of Colonel Fraher, who was present—said: "I am hanged if I am going to stand by and see your property seized and such an indignity offered to yourself, your wife and your family," and he paid the amount.
What, I ask, was the object of having this midnight occupation of a farmer's premises? There was no necessity for it in this particular case. There was no resistance and no semblance of resistance offered by the tenant. The sheriff's officer could have seized on the 6th or on the following day, the 7th, and if there had been a seizure of the stock there was no difficulty with regard to putting them in a pound. We had a long debate to-day on a Bill in connection with pounds. Within two and a half miles of Colonel Fraher's land there is the only decent pound in County Limerick, one in which cattle are properly cared for and treated. His cattle and other stock could have been safely sent to that pound, but that did not suit the representatives of the Crown or the Government.