MR. CATHCART WASONI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Office of Woods, if he will state the average amount of feu duties or casualty duties derived from the bishopric lands in Orkney; and whether, in view of the difficulty that such feu and casualty duties place in the way of any scheme of law reform, he will consider on what terms he would be prepared to release the land from this burden.
§ MR. MCKENNAThe receipts by the Crown from feu, etc., duties of lands 876 within the former Bishopric of Orkney amount, on the average of the past five years, to £617 per annum, and the casualties of superiority in respect of lands in the islands, including the bishopric, to £46. The feu, etc., duties can be redeemed at rates varying from twenty-five to thirty-three years purchase, according to circumstances; and the casualties on the terms fixed by the Conveyancing (Scotland) Act, 1874, i.e., on payment of one-and-a-half times the amount of the highest casualty.