§ Mr. KEIR HARDIEasked the Lord Advocate whether he was aware that 4,000 emigrants, many of them farm hands, sailed from the Clyde for Canada and the United States on Saturday last, and that an almost weekly number have been emigrating weekly for many months past; whether he could say what proportion of these were under thirty-five years of age; whether the Government was aiding or encouraging this constant flow of the youth of Scotland to other lands; and, if not, what action they proposed taking in order to check it?
§ Mr. UREI am informed that 3,059 passengers recorded as British subjects sailed from Glasgow for Canada and the United States on Saturday, April 1st, that the average number of such outward passengers on the four Saturdays in March was 1,351, and that in January and February the numbers were much smaller than in March. Of the 3,059 passengers sailing on 1st April, 1,942 were males of twelve years of age and upwards, and 249 of these were stated to be over thirty-five years of age. The number described as farmers, ploughmen, shepherds or farm labourers was 89. The answer to the second portion of the question is in the negative, but I may add that the question of emigration is one of the subjects to be considered at the forthcoming Imperial Conference.
§ Mr. KEIR HARDIEIs it not the case that certain agricultural districts in Scotland are being practically depopulated through lack of opportunity to acquire land?