§ MR. CATHCART WASON (Orkney and Shetland)To ask the Secretary for Scotland whether he will state what subsidies are paid by the Scottish Office, the Scottish Fishery Board, or by the Congested Districts Board, towards the carriage of mails or fish in the highlands and islands in Scotland; and if, in view of the difficulty Shetland experiences in getting winter fish to market, owing to the inadequacy of the mail service, assistance of a similar nature will be given there.
(Answered by Mr. Sinclair.) No such subsidies are paid towards the carriage of mails or fish. The question of a grant from the Congested Districts Board for the improvement of the Shetland mail service was proposed in 1903 and dismissed as impracticable. 866 charged from Portsmouth Dockyard during the present financial year is as follows:—
§ The Congested Districts Board have given a limited guarantee for a brief period, which expires in April, for the conveyance of fish from the west coast of Sutherland and Boss, as an experiment, but the wants and conditions of these districts are hardly comparable to those of Shetland.