§ SIR J. JARDINEI beg to ask the Secretary for Scotland if he can state the average population per square mile in the rural districts of the County of Roxburgh, and also the percentage of increase or decrease in the last two> decades.
§ MR. SINCLAIRThe average population per square mile in the rural portion of the County of Roxburgh, i.e., the portion of the county outside the Burghs of Hawick, Jedburgh, Kelso and Melrose, at the time of the 1901 Census was 33.5. Owing to the fact that Melrose was a burgh at the time of that Census, but not at the time of the 1891 Census, a corresponding figure regarding the extra-burghal portion of the county at the time of the 1891 Census is not available. The average population per square mile of the portion of the county outside the three burghs of Hawick, Jedburgh, and Kelso, at the time of the 1901 Census, was 36.8, the figure corresponding to that at the time of the 1891 Census was 40.7, the comparison showing that the population per square mile of the county, as thus tested, decreased by 9.6 per cent. in the intercensal period.