THE EARL of CAMPERDOWNMy Lords, I desire to ask when the Report of the Crofters Commission for 1911 will be presented to Parliament. On May 15 last I was informed that this Report was in a forward state of preparation. On October 7 I was told that it was waiting for signature. It is true that the Report of the Congested Districts Board was at last laid on the Table, but up to the present the Report of the Crofters Commission has not been presented.
§ LORD WILLINGDONMy Lords, I have first to express the regret of the Scottish Office that this Report has not yet been presented, but I hope I shall be able to give the noble Earl two fairly satisfactory reasons for the delay. In the first place, the Report includes the first three months of the current year, making fifteen months instead of twelve, owing to the fact that the Crofters Commission came to an end on March 31 last. But the main reason for the delay arises from the fact that the whole of the staff of the Crofters Commission has been taken over by the Scottish Land Court, and there has necessarily been a great deal of heavy work in the construction and organisation of that Court. I am glad, however, to inform the noble Earl that the Report is in type, and the Scottish Office hope that it will be presented at the end of this month.
§ House adjourned at a quarter past Six o'clock, to Monday next, Twelve o'clock.