1921. Negotiations were proceeding at the close of the year for the acquisition of a small additional area in and around the townships of Gretna and Eascriggs. The settlement, when completed, will accommodate about 120 holders, and the holdings will include all types from small market gardens and plots to mixed arable, dairying, and stock-feeding holdings. Twentyseven holders have already obtained entry, and others will be settled as rapidly as possible during the spring of 1922, when the bulk of the works of adaptation and equipment will be undertaken.

Scorrybreck (Skye).-This farm extends to 16,000 acres. The Board took entry at Whitsunday 1921, when they acquired the sheep stock from the outgoing tenant. Meantime the Board are managing the farm until arrangements can be completed for the transfer of the sheep to the new settlers, but such management will not extend beyond Whitsunday 1922, when it is expected that the farm will be handed over to 35 new holders and 108 existing holders who will receive enlargements. It is hoped, also, to provide accommodation ground for about 30 of the inhabitants of Portree.

Balranald (North Uist).-This estate was raided in the course of the year 1920, and several of the raiders were interdicted. When compliance with the law had finally been secured, the Board resumed negotiations for the purchase of the property. The negotiations were protracted and in the end a settlement was reached only by a reference to an arbiter. The estate extends to 2,512 acres, and the Board obtained vacant possession at Martinmas 1921, with the exception of 246 acres let to the former proprietor. The scheme of sub division is under preparation and it is expected that 16 new holdings and 35 enlargements of existing holdings will be formed in the spring of 1922.

Stove (Orkney).-This farm, extending to 1,024 acres, was acquired by the Board at Martinmas 1921. The present tenant will remove at Martinmas 1922, when nine new holdings and five enlargements of existing holdings will be formed.

East Pilmore (Perthshire).- Entry to this farm, comprising 157 acres, was obtained at Martinmas 1921, and eight holders have been settled. Works of adaptation and equipment will be carried out during 1922, and meantime the holdings are being managed from the existing buildings on the farm.

Keoldale (Sutherland). This pastoral farm on the north coast of Sutherland was acquired at Whitsunday 1921. It extends to 30,000 acres and carries a large sheep stock. The farm will provide one new holding and 50 enlargements of existing holdings in a district where congestion is acute and the demand for land insistent. The high prices ruling for sheep at Whitsunday and the expectation of a fall made the proposed holders hesitate to take over the stock. The matter is being adjusted with the proposed holders on lines agreed to by the Treasury as explained at p. 15 of this Report, and it is

expected that the settlement will be effected during the spring of 1922.

Knockvolegan (Mull).-Three holders were settled on this pastoral farm by agreement with the owner at Martinmas 1919, on the condition that if the Board obtained the powers proposed in the Bill of 1919, they would take a feu of the land. The Bill ultimately received Royal Assent and the feu has now been arranged. The area of the farm is 3,118 acres.

Estates acquired prior to 1921.

Reference to the statistics given in Appendices No. 3 and No. 4 and a comparison with the corresponding Appendices in the Board's Report for the year 1920 will show the progress that has been made in the settlement of holders on these estates. Works of adaptation and equipment, viz., adaptation and extension of existing buildings, the provision of new buildings, fences, roads and water supplies, are proceeding as rapidly as possible.

SETTLEMENTS UNDER PART II. OF THE LAND SETTLEMENT

(SCOTLAND) ACT, 1919.

While, generally speaking, the Board have directed their efforts mainly to the subdivision and settlement of lands acquired by purchase, they have at the same time promoted a number of schemes under the Small Landholders (Scotland) Act, 1911, as amended by Part II. of the Land Settlement (Scotland) Act, 1919, for the constitution of new holdings and enlargements of existing holdings on the estates of private owners. This has been especially the case in Lewis, where Lord Leverhuime, in the spring of 1921, agreed to make available for settlement the farms of Reef, Carnish and Ardroil, Maelistra, Timisgarry, Dalebeg and Dalemore, and Croir, all situated on the western side of the island. As at Whitsunday 1921, new holdings and enlargements to the number of 67 and 166 respectively were established on the land then made available. Later in the year similar arrangements were made regarding the farms of Coll, Gress, Tolsta, and Orinsay, on the eastern side of the island. Schemes for the subdivision of these farms will be put into operation as early as possible in the spring of 1922, and it is expected that 129 new holdings can be formed.

AGRARIAN UNREST.

Agrarian unrest in the Hebrides furnished and still furnishes occasion for regret and anxiety. Mention has already been made of the concessions made by Lord Leverhulme in regard to land settlement in Lewis. It is hoped that the situation in that area will be relieved by the settlements now formed and in process of formation. In North Uist the acquisition of the estate of Balranald will enable the Board to offer a number of holdings and enlargements in the spring of 1922. In South Uist raiders have entered on parts of the farms of Grogary,

Drimore, and Drimsdale. The owner and tenant have offered facilities for a scheme here, and negotiations are in progress.

The case of Raasay vividly illustrates the complications of the problem of land settlement in the Highlands and Islands. Raiders from the neighbouring island of Rona, descendants of crofters who were removed some generations ago from the island of Raasay, left Rona, erected houses on Raasay, and took possession of and cultivated land there. The miserable conditions under which they lived in Rona are described in the Report of the Scottish Land Court for the year 1920. The Land Court's account of the circumstances concludes with the following words :

66

"The Court have great difficulty in fixing Fair Rents for 'holdings such as are occupied by the applicants, and which are "situated on an Island entirely unsuited for a settlement of "small holders. In the opinion of the Court, the Island is "suitable for nothing else than as a grazing for a very limited "number of sheep."

The Board had opened negotiations in the year 1919 for a scheme of land settlement in Raasay, but the state of their finances at the time caused them to hesitate to press matters to an issue, while subsequently inability to agree with the owners as to price prevented progress. When the raid took place the Board suspended their negotiations with the estate. estate. The raiders were interdicted, aud, refusing to obey the order of the Court, were imprisoned. The imprisoned men, persisting in their refusal, served the full term of the sentences imposed on them; appeals were made to the Board to intervene, but this was impossible without appearing to condone raiding in other parts where applicants might with equal reason plead that necessity compelled them to take forcible possession of land.

Further, only a minority of the applicants for land in Raasay, and only one of the imprisoned raiders, were ex-service men. The frequent repetition of these breaches of the law and the determined refusal of the Raasay raiders to abandon their illegal action, although informed that such action was a bar to progress, made it necessary, in the interests of all applicants for land, to lay down a general principle. The Board were eventually instructed by the Secretary for Scotland to deal with the matter on the footing that no person in illegal occupation of ground was to be considered for a holding on any of the Board's land settlement schemes, and that all persons who might take part in any future raid would be debarred from obtaining holdings under the Board's schemes. The present position in Raasay is that the owners of the island have offered vacant houses to the raiders so that the Board and the owners will be free to resume negotiations for the sale of the property. It is hoped that the raiders will not continue to obstruct the proposed scheme.

The Board feel that the illegal action of the raiders, in this and other cases, cannot be too strongly condemned. Apart from the fact that raiding is a oreach of the law, its immediate effect on the Board's operations is to disorganise and retard the work of land settlement. Each raid that takes place calls for enquiry and report, thus diverting the energy of the Board and their staff from the normal work of settlement. Pressure is put upon the Board to legalise the position by establishing the raiders as holders. To adopt that course would be to condone raiding and inflict injustice or law-abiding applicants whose circumstances are in many cases more necessitous than those of the raiders. The criticism frequently directed against the Board that they induce raiding by their failure to proceed with schemes in the disaffected districts is based on inadequate knowledge of the facts, which is perhaps inevitable. The Board, as the authority charged with the administration of the statutes dealing with the country as a whole, have to take into account many considerations that escape applicants or others concerned only with their immediate problem. These considerations involve among other things the fair apportionment of the limited funds available for the whole of Scotland and discrimination as to the relative argency of the demand for settlement throughout the country. The case of Raasay is a striking illustration. It was recognised that the circumstances of the applicants were necessitous and had it been possible to provide for them at a reasonable cost a scheme would long ago have been in operation; but to proceed with a scheme under the compulsory powers of Part II. of the Land Settlement (Scotland) Act, 1919, was impossible except at prohibitive cost, and might have been prevented by a claim, which it would have been difficult to dispute, that the proposal was outwith the provisions of the Act. There remained the alternative of proceeding with a scheme under Part I. of the Act. The terms on which the Board can now acquire the land, although considerably more favourable than those which it was possible to arrange at any previous stage in the negotiations, are still such that they can be justified only by the exceptional circumstances of the case. It similar terms had to be arranged generally in schemes of land settlement the funds available for the settlement of ex-service men woud fall far short of meeting the demand.

V. LOANS.

LOANS TO EXISTING LANDHOLDERS UNDER SECTION 9 OF THE ACT OF 1911.

During the year the Board approved 348 loans to landholders, the total sum granted being £43,305. 13s. 4d. These loans were made for the erection of 170 new dwelling-houses, the improvement of 131 existing dwelling-houses, the erection of 25 new steadings, and the improvement of 34 existing steadings. In 12

of these cases, loans were made for repair of both dwelling-houses and steadings.

Ninety-four applications for loans were refused, most of them on the ground of incompetency or of the existence of heavy arrears of rent.

The stores which were established by the Board for the sale of building materials to landholders proved of real advantage as is shown by the following statement which gives details of the sales during the year under review :

£8,311 8 0 £5,380.11 1 £13,691 19 1

As in 1920, most of the applications for financial assistance for the improvement of housing conditions came from Skye and the Outer Hebrides.

Owing to the higher cost of erection, the Board found it necessary to increase the average amounts of loan granted. For the erection of new dwelling-houses, the average loan granted was £150 to £200, and for the improvement of existing dwellinghorses 100 to £150.

So far as new dwelling-houses were concerned, the increased costs were largely due to the operation of the joint loan and subsidy scheme to which reference was made in the Board's Ninth Report. Under this scheme, which required a higher standard of accommodation than was customary for the average crofter house, the Scottish Board of Health authorised the payment of subsidies of £100, £110, and £130 for the erection of three, four, and five-roomed houses, respectively.

To qualify for the subsidy it was prescribed inter alia that the house should be built before 23rd June 1923, and that each type of house should be provided with a scullery, larder (or outside meat safe), a wholesome water supply in the house (if reasonably practicable), adequate press accommodation in the living room and bedrooms, and a water closet, or an earth closet in a suitable piace where adequate water and drainage facilities were not available.