§ MR. C. E. PRICE (Edinburgh, Central)I beg to ask the Secretary for Scotland 76 what difficulties there are in the way of granting a Return of the number of persons in receipt of poor relief in Scotland, similar to the one made for England and Wales in March, 1904.
§ THE SECRETARY FOR SCOTLAND (Mr. SINCLAIR,) ForfarshireI shall be glad to confer further with my hon. friend in regard to the Return which he proposes. The inspectors of poor have already been obliged this year to devote and are devoting much time to the preparation of a census of pauperism, as at March 31st, which has been called for by the Royal Commission on Poor Laws. That Return will contain a good deal of the information now desired. The whole subject will be very fully considered by the Commission, and I suggest that it would be premature and unnecessary to incur the additional trouble involved by the preparation of the Return now proposed by my hon. friend.