§ MR. ANGUS SUTHERLAND (Sutherland)I beg to ask the Secretary for Scotland whether his attention has been called to the inconvenience, at the recent County Council Elections in Scotland, arising out of the lateness of the date fixed by the Local Government Act for these elections, and the consequent inclemency of the weather; whether he is aware that, in some outlying districts in the Highlands, owing to the state of the weather, these elections were carried out under circumstances of great difficulty and disadvantage to both officials and electors, while in one or two localities irregularities occurred from the same cause; whether there are any insuperable difficulties in the way of holding the County Council elections in Scotland on the first Tuesday of November, as in the case of the municipal elections, or even in October, instead of on the first Tuesday of December as at present; and whether, in proposing any amendment of "The Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1889," the Government will keep in view the desirability of fixing the date of the County Council elections in Scotland at a more suitable season than mid-winter as at present?
§ SIR G. TREVELYANThe difficulties attending the last elections for County Councils in the North of Scotland were brought to my notice at the time, and the alteration of their date in future is among the amendments to the Local Government of Scotland Act, which are now under consideration.