§ MR. J. G. WEIR (Ross and Cromarty)I beg to ask the Secretary for Scotland, whether he has received resolutions from the landless people in various parts of the Island of Lewis, urging upon Her Majesty's Government the necessity for empowering the Crofters' Commission to apportion at fair rents the land there now lying waste and suitable for crofts; and, whether it is the intention of the Government to take any steps on the lines indicated?
§ THE SECRETARY FOR SCOTLAND (Sir GEORGE TREVELYAN,) Glasgow, BridgetonI have received the resolutions to which the hon. Member's question relates. In connection with the question, I may refer to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Invernesshire on Thursday, the 2nd instant. Under the Scottish Local Government Act of 1894 allotments may be granted to cotters and 789 others under conditions much wider and more generous than those of the English Act. For this reason, and because it is imprudent largely to increase the scope of the Bill, the Government have introduced it in its present shape. I may say that a very large extent of land in the Lewis has been scheduled as fit for the extension of crofters' holdings, which the Bill is framed to facilitate.