§ MR. CALDWELLI beg to ask the Lord Advocate, whether he is aware that the District Committee of the Middle Ward of the county of Lanark have issued a memorandum requiring all requisitions presented to them under Section 44 of the Local Government 515 (Scotland) Act, 1894, by parish councils and parish electors, to be accompanied by certain information and ordnance maps expensive to obtain, not required by the Act, but within the knowledge and possession of County Councils, and for the obtaining of which information and maps no provision is made for repayment of the same to the requisitionists out of the local rates; and, whether he or the Secretary for Scotland will see to the removal of such preliminaries in the matter of such requisitions.
§ *THE LORD ADVOCATEI cannot presume to determine the precise amount of information which a District Committee is justified in demanding from those who requisition for a special district under Section 44. The information must be such as to enable the District Committee at their next meeting to judge of the propriety of forming the special district. It does not appear to me that the requirements referred to in the question are unduly burdensome. The Local Government Board have recently issued a circular on the subject, and I understand that the memorandum referred to in the Question was issued prior to the date of that circular.