§ MR. JOHN DEWARI beg to ask the Secretary for Scotland if he is aware that the ratepayers in the parish of Barra have refused to pay the parish rates amounting to 17s. 11d. in the pound; that the school board requisition has not been handed over, and that the clerk to the parish council has had to give his personal guarantee to the bank for certain necessary expenditure; whether he is aware that the whole parish council has resigned; and what he proposes to do to meet this deadlock and to relieve a parish where the rates are 17s. 11d. in the pound.
§ MR. SINCLAIRI understand the facts are as stated. Although several attempts have been made to recover the rates aud the collector has made a door to door visit, the ratepayers refuse to pay, and prosecutions have, I understand, 284 been ordered. The parish council, with two exceptions, have now resigned and the Local Government Board are considering the terms of an Order which they propose to issue under the powers conferred upon them by Section 18 of the Act of 1894.