§ CAPTAIN T. HOPE (Linlithgow)I beg to ask the Secretary for Scotland whether the Local Government Board 885 for Scotland have withheld their sanction for the allocation of Parish Councillors in the combined parish of Dalmeny and South Queensferry on the ground that the larger proportion of Councillors is assigned to the landward part of the parish which has a smaller population than the burghal area; whether he is aware that the circumstances of the combined parish are as follows:—landward portion, population 1,328, valuation £44,308, area 5,890 acres; burghal portion, population 1,531, valuation £9,975, area 100 acres; and that of every £1 paid in rates in the new parish 16s. 3d. will be paid by the landward portion and 3s. 9d. by the burghal portion; and that, acting in accordance with the terms of Section 9, (1), (d) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1894, the County and Town Councils agreed, on the suggestion of the Town Council of Queens-ferry, to allocate five Councillors to the landward and four to the burghal portion of the parish, and that the Sub-section referred to provides only for the intervention of the Board failing agreement; if he will explain the reasons for a decision which ignores the agreement between the two local authorities concerned; arid whether, before arriving at this decision, the special wants and circumstances of the landward portion of the parish were fully considered?
§ SIR G. O. TREVELYANThe figures given in the hon. Member's question are approximately right. The Local Government Act of 1894, in Section 9, requires the approval of the Board for the number and proportion of Parish Councillors, whether there is agreement or not between the landward and burghal authorities. In this case it was proposed to give five members to the minority and four members to the majority. I cannot think that it would be right to give a majority of Councillors to an actual minority of population.