§ MR. KEAY (Elgin and Nairn)I beg to ask the Lord Advocate whether, in the matter of the recent Census in Scotland, the registrar of the parish had the duty of dividing it into sections corresponding to the number of the enumerators; whether this duty was performed subject to confirmation by the Registrar General; did the Registrar General issue any rules as to the number of miles required to be traversed by the respective enumerators; what check exists on the number of miles charged for by the enumerators; and how is such charged certified as correct, and what official is responsible for so doing?
§ *MR. J. P. B. ROBERTSONThe procedure followed in taking the recent Census in Scotland was as follows:—Each parish, or registration district, was divided into enumeration districts for the purpose of taking the Census. The old plan of division of 1881 was taken as the basis. With this before him, the Registrar wrote out a new plan of division and transmitted it to the Sheriff Clerk for revisal and approval by the Sheriff. An enumerator was then appointed to each enumeration district in the new plan revised and approved by the Sheriff. The Registrar General, with the approval of the Secretary for Scotland, framed regulations under which the above duties were performed, and exercised a general superintendence over the whole proceedings. The regulations contain a general direction as to the proper size of an enumeration district, but the Sheriffs and the Registrars were necessarily left to exercise a pretty wide discretion in settling the size of enumeration districts according to local circumstances. The mileage charges of the enumerators are adjusted in the first instance between themselves and the Registrars, and are then checked by the Sheriff Clerk and the Sheriff, who thereafter certifies them to the Registrar General for payment.