OUR HIGHWAYS. 29 



out of the rate. £3 10s.. Id. had been paid in this 

 instance, together with a sum of 12s. for fees, but 

 what these were was not explained. The number of 

 sparrows slaughtered for this sum appeared to be 

 1,383, and of these 765 fell to the share of the men 

 and boys in the village. 



A different class of persons were the mole-catchers, 

 whose remuneration for many years was charged upon 

 the highway-rate in frequent instances. In one of 

 these cases the persons surcharged appealed to the 

 Local Government Board, stating, in support of their 

 appeal, that, having no other available source from 

 which to pay a sum of £6 for two years' mole- 

 catching, they paid it from the surveyor's account. 

 The mole-catcher in another case was paid yearly 

 £1 15s. to keep the land clear of moles. This was 

 a fixed sum, and did not vary whether the moles 

 killed were few or many. 



In a parish where it had been the custom for 

 twenty years to take a penny in the pound from the 

 highway -rate once in two or three years, to pay the 

 expense of destroying moles and sparrows, the sur- 

 veyor stated that they engaged a man to pay for the 

 sparrows. He took them from the children, by whom 

 they were principally caught, and paid for them at 

 the rate of a penny for two old ones and young ones, 

 and a penny for eight eggs. 



