§ SIR M. STEWART (Kirkcudbright)I beg to ask the Lord Advocate if his attention has been called to a case recently decided by Sheriff Fyfe at Lanark, and reported in the "Glasgow Herald" of 1st instant, as follows: A girl, the servant of an adjoining fanner, was sent by her employer gratuitously to assist his neighbour at a day's threshing by a portable steam mill. Contrary to orders, she moved from her place, was entangled in the machinery, and badly injured; and whether, seeing that Sheriff Fyfe held that a travelling threshing mill was a factory under the Workmen's Compensation Act, and gave damages and maintenance, the Government will be prepared to bring in a Bill to define a factory and a threshing mill?
MR. GRAHAM MURRAYMy honourable Friend invites me to criticise the decision of the Sheriff. I have no power 1328 to review his judgment, even if I disagreed with it; and I have always, as he is aware, refused to give purely legal opinions in answer to Questions in this House. I am afraid I cannot depart from my usual practice.