§ MR. WEIRI beg to ask the Lord Advocate whether the Secretary for Scotland is aware that in the parish of Lochs, Lewis (population 4,676), nearly the whole of the electors have no vote for the election of school board candidates by reason of their rentals being less than £4; has his attention been called to the fact that owing to the scarcity of persons qualified to vote, considerable difficulty was experienced at a recent school board election in finding persons qualified to sign the nomination papers, and that on this account only five candidates for the Board were nominated instead of seven; and will the demand, which has been forwarded from the parish of Lochs to the Scottish Education Department for a fresh election, be acceded to; and, in view of the dissatisfaction which the condition of the school board electorate causes in the parish of Lochs, as elsewhere in the Highlands, will he state what steps he proposes to take to remedy the grievance.
§ *MR. A. GRAHAM MURRAYThe question of the school board franchise has formed the subject of several replies to the hon. Member, who has already been informed that we are not prepared at present to propose legislation on the subject. I am aware that the recent election in the parish of Lochs has broken down owing to an informality in the nominations, but I am not prepared to say that this arose from an insufficient number of electors. The Department proposes to issue an order for a new election.