asked the Solicitor-General for Scotland whether he is aware that the recording of a simple transfer of a cottage in the General Register of Sasines in Edinburgh involves a delay of four or five months and of the great inconvenience thereby occasioned; and if he intends to take any and, if so, what steps to expedite recording?

My Noble Friend is aware that the work in connection with the registration of writs in the General Register of Sasines is in arrear. Arrangements have recently been made with a view to the more effective co-ordination of the work of the staff, and an addition to the number of typists has been sanctioned. It is hoped that these steps may enable the arrears of work to be overtaken in the near future.

asked the Under-Secretary to the Scottish Board of Health whether, having regard to the experiments carried out under the direction of the Minister of Agriculture in the months of October and November, 1921, and March, 1923, off the east and south coasts of England for the purpose of locating shoals of fish by observation from aeroplanes, and the statement of the Minister of Agriculture that further experimental flights are in contemplation, it can be arranged that these further flights be made during the summer herring-fishing season off the north coasts of Scotland and the Shetland Isles?

The possibility of making arrangements for such experimental flights off the coast of Scotland during the coming summer is at present under discussion with the Air Ministry. My Noble Friend will communicate with the hon. Member as soon as further information is available.

asked the Under-Secretary to the Scottish Board of Health whether he has held any inquiry since the publication of the remedial measures for agriculture which has led him to suppose that the establishment of conciliation committees is still undesired by the agricultural community in Scotland: and, if not, will he institute an inquiry before finally deciding not to adopt that recommendation of the Agricultural Tribunal?

No special inquiry has been recently made or is considered necessary, seeing that it is open to the Scottish Farm Servants' Union or to the National Farmers' Union of Scotland at any time to approach the Board of Agriculture if they decide to modify the attitude which they have hitherto adopted as to the formation of conciliation committees. I would remind the hon. and gallant Member that the Agricultural Tribunal excepted Scotland from their recommendation regarding the establishment of wages boards.

May I ask whether, in the hon. and gallant Gentleman's opinion, Scotland should be excluded?

Is the Conciliation Committee not a wages board?

The point is that neither the employers nor the employés requested that these arrangements should be made. If they have changed their opinion and now wish such arrangements to be made, it is open to them at any time to approach the Board and intimate their change of opinion.

Is it not a fact that the tribunal suggested certain remedial measures for agriculture, and, at the same time, suggested that the agricultural labourer should participate through the conciliation boards?

If the agricultural labourers in Scotland consider that they would obtain better terms by direct negotiation, it is obviously not the duty of the Board of Agriculture to interfere.

asked the Under-Secretary to the Scottish Board of Health whether he is aware that the refusal of the Board of Agriculture for Scotland to supply seed oats and seed potatoes, in view of last year's bad harvest, has occasioned hardship and distress to numbers of smallholders, especially those round the coasts of Caithness and Sunderland; in what respect their case differs from similar cases in previous seasons when, after bad harvests, assistance has been granted by the Board of Agriculture; and whether any money has been set aside in the Estimates of the Scottish Office for the current year in case another bad harvest should occur and the need arise for making grants under Section 4 (b) of the Congested Districts (Scotland) Act, 1897?

My Noble Friend has no evidence to show that the scarcity of seed is greater in parts of Caithness and Sutherland than in other outlying parts of the congested districts, and he is not aware that any hardship or distress can reasonably be attributed to the refusal of the Board to give financial aid towards the purchase of seeds. The Board are not in a position to grant assistance for this purpose from their limited resources unless the need is exceptionally great, and the circumstances of the present year did not justify expenditure for the purpose. No money has been specifically earmarked for this purpose to meet the possibility of an exceptional emergency next year, but consideration of the question would not be precluded if necessity arose.

Is the hon. and gallant Gentleman aware that the difficulty we are up against is that we are told there is no money when fishermen or crofters are in distress? Is it not, best to earmark some of this money before the distress actually arises?

I understood the hon. and gallant Member's position to be that distress had arisen in these cases.

Certainly, but may I draw attention to the last part of the question, asking the hon. and gallant Gentleman to set aside some money in case of a bad harvest this year?

If we set aside money for this purpose and it was not expended, it would have to be returned to the Treasury and Scotland would lose the money.

asked the Under-Secretary to the Scottish Board of Health what sum of money out of the grants made by Parliament to the Board of Agriculture was distributed by them during the year ending 31st March, 1923, in terms of Section 4 (e) of the Congested Districts (Scotland) Act of 1897, in aiding the fishing industry during the present depression, and in what way it was spent; and what sum of money will be spent with the same object during the year ending 31st March, 1924?

The total amount of the Board's expenditure and commitments in terms of Section 4 (1) (e) of the Act of 1897 during the year ended the 31st March, 1923, was £4,252, most of which was in respect of loans for the erection of fishermen's dwellings. It is not possible at the present time to state what will be the amount of the corresponding expenditure and commitments during the year ending the 31st March, 1924.

Would it not be possible to make some payment out of this fund in order to help fishermen to replace their lost and damaged gear?

The position in regard to security is very different in the case of a loan upon a building, and in the case of a loan upon nets and gear, and there is a very difficult legal position.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he proposes to take steps to alter the Law to enable parents, resident in Scotland, who have invested in War Stock on behalf of their children, to negotiate such stock in order to meet liabilities incurred in connection with expenditure on the education of the children; and whether the difficulties experienced by Scottish holders of War Stock will be removed, thus placing them in a similar position to that held by holders of stock resident in England?

The hon. Member is under a misapprehension: Scottish holders of War Stock are in this respect in exactly the same position as other holders, which is that stock in the sole name of an infant cannot be dealt with until the holder attains the age of 21.

If I submit a case of this kind to the right hon. Gentleman, will he give it his consideration?

I shall be pleased to look into any case submitted to me.

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Overseas Trade Department whether his attention has been called to the description in the Press of the departure from Stornoway of 320 emigrants to Canada, 300 men and 20 women, after being examined by the Board of Trade's medical officer; and whether arrangements can be made to send a more equal number of men and women?

My attention has been called to the departure of migrants from Stornoway, and I am aware that in this, as in many other cases, the number of male migrants largely exceeded the number of female migrants. I invite my hon. and gallant Friend's attention to the Report of the Oversea Settlement Committee for 1922, Command 1804—especially pages 13 and 14 from which he will see that the Committee are fully alive to the importance of female migration, but that special difficulties attach to it. I can assure him that every effort has been and will be made to increase the number of women migrants.

Is it fair to send 300 of the best men from the Highlands, and leave behind all the girls forlorn?

The hon. and gallant Gentleman is as good a judge as anyone of that.

In view of the official statement in the Canadian Parliament that from 15 to 20 per cent. of the Canadian farmers went out of business owing to failure during 1922, will the hon. and gallant Gentleman consider reducing the number of male emigrants to equalise with the females?

That does not arise out of the question.

May I ask the hon. and gallant Gentleman whether the Government will give any indication that should there be any of these women who desire to go to Canada in order to marry these emigrants when they are established, that the Government will give them their first consideration in regard to passage money?

Oh, certainly!