§ MR. A. SUTHERLAND (Sutherland)asked the Lord Advocate, Whether his 364 attention has been called to the delay and inconvenience caused by the want of an official shorthand writer in the Sheriff's Court at Dornoch; whether it is the fact that recently one of the parties to a case before the said Court complained that, under the present system, words were being put into the mouth of a witness which he had never used; and, whether, in the interests of justice, and for the convenience of the Judge, the services of a shorthand writer will be secured for the future?
§ THE LORD ADVOCATE (Mr. J. H. A. MACDONALD) (Edinburgh and St. Andrew's Universities), in reply, said, he had not had time to inquire into the alleged inconvenience; but he would point out that the shorthand writers were paid by fees, and it was impossible to get an efficient shorthand writer to reside in Dornoch.