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11. Complaints against Parish Council Officials.-During the year a special inquiry was made into certain charges brought against the medical officer of a highland parish. The medical officer had also acted as medical officer of a medical club in the parish, and he had an agreement under the Highlands and Islands (Medical Service) Scheme and received a grant under that scheme. Differences had arisen between the parish council and their medical officer in connection with the medical club system which prevailed in the parish. The medical officer was dissatisfied with the manner in which the club system was operated in the parish, and attempts by the Board to bring the parties to terms finally broke down. Ultimately the medical officer was dismissed from the post of medical officer of the club and another doctor was appointed to that post. The parish council thereupon applied for sanction to the termination of the engagement of the parish medical officer. The only reason for suggesting that course, however, was that he had ceased to act for the medical club, and therefore sanction was not given.

Later a number of charges were made against the medical officer of professional incompetency and of neglect of duty. In view of these charges and of the general unsatisfactory position a Special Commissioner was appointed in terms of Section 11 of the Poor Law (Scotland) Act, 1845, to inquire into the situation. The inquiry occupied five days, and thirty-eight witnesses were examined. The findings of the Commissioner on the evidence heard by him were (1) that the charges made against the medical officer of professional incompetency and neglect of duty had entirely failed; (2) that those charges ought not to have been made; and (3) that no other grounds existed that would justify the termination of the medical officer's appointment as parish medical officer. After careful consideration of the Commissioner's report, the Board entirely concurred in his findings. The Commissioner expressed the opinion that an attempt should be made to adjust an arrangement that would be satisfactory to all parties, and his suggestions for achieving that object were communicated to the parish council.

12. Formation of a County Association of Parish Council Officials. During the year the Argyllshire Association of Inspectors of Poor and other Poor Law Officials was formed. The constitution and objects of the association followed those of similar associations in other parts of the country. In view of the peculiar geographical formation of the county of Argyll and the difficulties of communication within the county, necessitating in some instances, whatever centre might be chosen for meetings of the association, long and expensive journeys and somewhat lengthy periods of absence from their parishes on the part of inspectors and others who attended meetings, the Board requested that the meetings of the association should be restricted to two per annum, and this was agreed to.

13. Audit of Accounts.In the course of the statutory audit

of accounts for the financial year ended 15th May, 1926, seven interim reports were submitted by auditors.

The following payments were declared during the year to be illegal :

Payment by a parish council to the husband of a member of the parish council for goods supplied to the council.

Excessive subsistence allowances paid to members of the parish council and to the clerk of the council in respect of their attendance at meetings of the Association of Parish Councils and the Association for Mental Welfare.

Legal expenses incurred by a parish council in an action relative to the right of the public to the use of certain ground.

14. The Rating (Scotland) Act, 1926, as affecting Parish Councils.-Important changes in the law relating to rating in Scotland have been incorporated in the Rating (Scotland) Act, 1926, which received the Royal Assent in December, 1926, and which comes into operation on 16th May, 1927. Briefly stated, the Act is designed to simplify the machinery for the imposition and collection of the various rates leviable in Scotland and to reduce the number of separate rating authorities in the country. As from May, 1927, parish councils will cease to be rating authorities, and the funds required for the purposes of carrying out their statutory duties, so far as those funds fall to be met out of assessments, will be obtained on requisition from the town or county councils, according as the area administered by the individual parish council is burghal or landward. Further, the collection of the education tate, which has devolved upon parish councils, will now be the duty of the town or county council.

Another important amendment under the Act is the repeal of Section 37 of the Poor Law (Scotland) Act, 1845, in terms of which the rates hitherto collected by parish councils were levied on a net annual value calculated by making certain deductions from the gross valuation of the subjects on the valuation roll in respect of repairs, insurance and other expenses of maintenance. The operation of that section has in the past been the source of much difficulty to parish councils and has resulted in a lack of uniformity of treatment in the various parishes, and, in recent years, to claims by the owners of certain important and valuable subjects on the assessment rolls of some parishes to complete or practically complete exemption from payment of parish rates. In future the rates collected by the rating authorities will be levied on an annual value calculated in accordance with a scale of percentage deductions, specified in a schedule appended to the Act, from the gross valuation of the various individual subjects on the valuation roll.

A further departure from previous practice is effected by the abolition of certain exemptions from payment of local rates. Owners' and occupiers' rates will, in future, be exigible on all burial grounds whether such ground belongs to a local authority or to a company or persons selling the exclusive right of burial

in lairs therein or trading as cemetery owners for profit. The exemption from payment of poor rates hitherto enjoyed by parish ministers in respect of their manses and glebes will also cease.

A change is also made in the temporary borrowing powers of parish councils who may find that, before any money is available or due from the rating authority, they have not the necessary funds to defray current expenditure. To meet that contingency it is provided that a parish council may borrow on temporary loan or overdraft on the security of the appropriate rate for the year then current. This provision supersedes that contained in Section 89 of the Poor Law (Scotland) Act, 1845, and the restriction in that section that the amount borrowed must not exceed one-half of the assessments levied but not collected is withdrawn.

While these are the broad principles of change so far as parish councils are concerned, the Act is of considerable length and detail, and provision is made, inter alia, for the preparation of the valuation roll, the procedure of parish councils in requisitioning funds, and the method of payment by the rating authorities of the amounts requisitioned by other local authorities, the disposal of Government grants in aid of rates, the transfer to the service of the rating authorities of certain officers employed by parish councils as collectors of rates, and the payment of compensation to other officers hitherto engaged in the collection of parish rates who suffer direct pecuniary loss by abolition of office or by diminution of emoluments.

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OLD AGE PENSIONS, WELFARE OF THE BLIND, ETC.

1. Appeals under the Old Age Pensions Acts, 1908-1924.During the year ended 31st December, 1926, 1,610 appeals were received against decisions of Pension Committees and SubCommittees as compared with 1,758 in the previous year.

Of the 1,610 appeals received, 1,493 were decided by 31st December. Including the 161 cases outstanding at 31st December, 1925, the total number of appeals decided during the year was 1,654. These comprised 792 appeals by claimants and 862 by Pension Officers. Of the former, 335 were sustained, 445 were dismissed, 10 were withdrawn, and in 2 cases it was unnecessary to issue decisions on the ground of means, the applicants being found to be qualified for a pension by virtue of the Widows', Orphans' and Old Age Contributory Pensions Act, 1925. Of Pension Officers' appeals 375 were sustained, 474 were dismissed, 8 were withdrawn, in 4 cases the claimants withdrew their claims, and in one case the claimant was found to be qualified for a pension by virtue of the Widows', Orphans' and Old Age Contributory Pensions Act, 1925, and no decision on the ground of means was issued.

The total number of appeals received since the Old Age Pensions Act, 1908, came into force up to 31st December, 1926, was 41,384, including 1,751 appeals in respect of blind persons.

2. Number of Old Age Pensions.-According to information supplied by the Board of Customs and Excise, the number of noncontributory Old Age Pensions payable in Scotland on 31st December, 1926, was 114,792, comprising 38,839 to men and 75,953 to women. Of these, 113,101 or 98.5 per cent. were payable at the maximum rate of 10s. per week. These numbers include 2,476 pensions to blind persons. The corresponding figures for 1925 were total pensions payable 116,270, comprising 41,369 to men and 74,901 to women; the number payable at the maximum rate 113,948, or 98 per cent.; the number of blind pensions 2,219.

According to the Census Returns for 1921 the number of persons of 70 years of age and over in Scotland was 168,703. The number of Old Age Pensions at 31st December, 1926, including those awarded by virtue of the Widows', Orphans' and Old Age Contributory Pensions Act, 1925, was 127,456, or 756 per cent. of the total number of persons of 70 years of age and over. Details of the Old Age Pensions awarded by virtue of the Widows', Orphans' and Old Age Contributory Pensions Act, 1925, are contained in chapter XIV.

WELFARE OF THE BLIND.

3. Scottish Advisory Committee on the Welfare of the Blind. -The present Advisory Committee, which was appointed in 1925 to advise the Board on all matters relating to the care and supervision of the blind, includes representatives of public authorities concerned in the welfare of the blind, of voluntary agencies, and of the blind themselves. The report of the proceedings of the Committee from the date of their appointment to July, 1926, has been printed and placed on sale. It deals with practically every important question affecting the interests of blind persons, and is in effect a review of the problems involved in the care of the blind in Scotland.

4. Blind Persons Act, 1920.-Local authorities are gradually becoming more interested in the arrangements for promoting the welfare of blind persons. In the administration of their schemes under the Act they are making the fullest use of the voluntary institutions and of societies. Increasing grants are being made by them to voluntary agencies, and in some areas the work of the agencies has received a decided impetus through the measure of assistance thus afforded to them. The combination of local authorities for the South-West of Scotland area, which several years ago took over direct control of the Royal Glasgow Asylum for the Blind, have made considerable extensions to its buildings and have utilised the available accommodation to its utmost capacity. The increasing demands for further accommodation and the necessity for relieving the congestion in their present buildings have resulted in the purchase, with the approval of the Department, of a large factory which, when reconstructed, will afford workshop or training accommodation for about 250 blind persons.

The extensions made by voluntary institutions consequent on the assistance now given to them is reflected in the increase in the number of blind persons employed in them, from 732 in 1920 to 925 in 1926.

5. Education and Technical Training.-The co-operation that exists between the Board and the Scottish Education Department with regard to educable blind children and to adult blind persons capable of benefiting by a course of technical education has had gratifying results. There are now practically no educable blind children for whom education is not being provided, except where there are sufficient reasons for non-attendance at school, and the number of adult blind persons who have. stated that they are capable of training is gradually being reduced either by their admission to the training departments of institutions or by their elimination from this group on the ground of incapacity. There were on 1st April, 1926, however, according to the Central Register kept by the Board, 117 capable blind persons desirous of undergoing training for whom accommodation had not been found in institutions. This figure shews

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