This post may be a little long, but I hope it is of interest. Hilary Town Hall, Hull August 30, 1878 Right Honourable Sir Permit me to call your attention to the mode which appears to be adopted at this port by some owners of fishing smacks for obtaining apprentices, and which, if I am correctly informed, is sanctioned by "Act of Parliament" and the "Board of Trade." I can perhaps best bring the system under your notice by stating a case that I have become acquainted with during the last week. A woman named Ann DAWSON, whose husband left her 10 years ago with a family of four children, which, with a little parochial assistance and very hard work, she has been able to maintain. Her younger son, now 14 years of age, got acquainted with some fisher boys, and by them was introduced to the owner of a smack, named BEEDHAM, living in Hull, who, without the knowledge or consent of his mother, took him to the Shipping Office, and had him bound apprentice for five years. It is not known that the lad had ever before been on board a fishing smack, or had any knowledge of the duties. After the first voyage he was tired of the sea, and wanted to be liberated, but his new master and mistress went with a policeman to his mother's house, and the poor boy was again taken on board and sent to sea. I have seen Mr. CORLASS, the "superintendent of the Shipping Office" who states, "the transaction is a perfectly legal one, the boy could and did bind himself. Sometimes he (Mr CORLASS) inquires of boys if they have the consent of their parents, but this is not at all necessary." This mode of procedure certainly goes far to solve the problem why so many fisherman's apprentices are nearly half their time in prison. I consider it no better than a system of kidnapping, which must end disastrously to the boy. As chairman of the "Sculcoates Board of Guardians" I frequently sign indentures for boys to go to sea, but never until they have made one or two voyages, and within this last year we have passed a resolution "that a boy shall not be bound to sea before he has had three month's trial;" the result of this care on the part of the guardians is that our union boys rarely, if ever, appear before the magistrates for misconduct. The system that I have described is so utterly bad, and in every way un-English, that I have ventured to call your attention to it. I cannot believe that the Board of Trade would legalise English boys being thus entrapped. I should be glad if you would order the indentures in this case to be cancelled, if after inquiry you find my statements are substantiated. I would further most respectfully suggest for the consideration of your honourable bord that in future the consent of the parent or guardian of the boy be obtained, and become a party to the indenture; if this cannot be done, that under no circumstances should a boy be bound until he has made one or two voyages to sea. The case in question is creating a sensation in the neighbourhood. Very few people even in this shipping town had any idea that such a mode of securing apprentices was possible in this country. As the chief magistrate, I have thought it my duty to lay these facts before you. I have, &c. (Signed) Robert WALLER, Mayor To the Right Hon. Sir C. B. Addreley, M.P., K.C.M.G., President of the Board of Trade Whitehall, London, S. W.