LIBERAL APPOINTMENTS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 475, 6 April 1909, Page 5

LIBERAL APPOINTMENTS.

IN SCOTLAND. (BT TII.EORAriI—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPTtIianT.) (Rec. April 6, 10.55 p.m.) London, April 5. Sir Stair Agnow, Registrar-General for Scotland, has resigned. He will bo succeeded by Mr. J. P. Macdougall, who has been Vice-president and Chairman of the Local Government Board for Scotland since 1004. Sir Geo. M'Crao (Liberal member of the Houso of Commons for Edinburgh East) will succeed Mr. J. P. Macdougall. Sir Geo. M'Crae, who succeeds •to the position of vice-president and chairman of the Local Government Board for Scotland, was elected for East Edinburgh in 1899, on tho death of Dr. Robert Wallace. " "Who tlio devil's this?" wns the question ascribed to Sir Michael Hicks Beach on hearing an unknown Radical member launch into an elaborate criticism of the current Finance Bill ivitii every symptom both of self-confidence and eruditiou. Inquiries showed that the intervener was a draper, who had been three times treasurer of the City of Edinburgh, and who enjoyed nothing better than to build up speeches with columns of figures. Sinco that time the House has always been willing to give Mr. M'Crao its ear, if not its vote, .upon subjects like tlio Sinking Fund and Consolidated Annuities. Mr. M'Crae was born in 1860, and educated at the Lancastrian School, Edinburgh, and is a county magistrate. He is a very "advanced" Liberal, for he believes in One Man One Vote, Taxation of Land Values, Homo , Rule all round, and Reform of the House of Lords. The new Registrar-General for Scotland, Mr. J. P. Macdougall, was born in 1849, and has had steady advancement at the Scottish Bar. In 1902 Ho was chairman of the Departmental Committee on Poor Law Medical Relief in Scotland, and in 1905 was a member of. the Royal■•• Commission on Poor Laws-and' , 'Relief of Distress. Sir Stair Agnow had been Keeper of Records in Scotland since 1881. He was born in IS3I, and in 185-4 rowed in tho Oxford-Cam-bridge boat race.