The Daily Telegraph. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1888.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 5154, 25 February 1888, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1888.

Tuk Imperial Government can sco no remcdj r for tho amelioration of the condition of the crofters in tho Island of Lewis other than emigration. From an English paper wo loam that at tho commencement of the present century tho inhabitants of Lewis wore contented"and well-to-do. Tho arable land was cultivated on what is known as the run-rig system, and tho pasture and moorland hold in common. The cultivation of their crofts, the rearing of sheep and cattle, and the produce of the fishings, combined to make the crofters prosperous. Not only wero they at liberty to fish either in the streams or in the sea, but the deer of the forest was free to them. They also manufactured large quantities of whiskey and homo-browed alo, which they sold in Stornowny. This statement, as to the condition of tho Lewis crofters in tho early part of this century, which we received from a gentleman resident in Stornowny, who has given a great amount of study to this question, is borne out by an extract we stumbled across in on old "Topographical Dictionary of Scotland and the Islands in the British Seas," published in ISI3. Referring to the necessity for certain roads, it says, " One great lino of road, most necessary of all, remains yet to be opened, and this is a road from Storuoway to Loch Roag. . . By opening up this proposed line of road the following objects, amongst others, would bo attained. First, it would enable the tenants of tho west and south- [ west divisions of Lewis to carry to the Stornowny market those necessaries of life of which they havo a superabundance, and of which the inhabitants of Stornoway are almost always in want, viz., com, fish, beef, meat, potatbos, cheese, butter, kc. ; secondly, on the other hand, it would enable the inhabitants of Storuoway to carry overland to Loch Roag, &c., salt, nets, lines, casks, fishing boats, and other goods of different sorts for prosecuting the fisheries, and for the use of the people inhabiting that quarter of tho island." Thanks to landlordism, all this is changed. Instead of a road being necessary to enable the crofters to get rid of tho produce they cannot consume themselves, communication with Stornoway is required, in order that tho crofters may buy that which they formerly sold. In place of being able to export, about £50,000 is spent every year by tho crofter and cottar population for oatmeal and flour imported into tho island. In the parish of Lochs there has been a regidar famine. This miserable condition is in no way duo to indolence or any other fault on the part of tho people. ' Somo seventy or eighty years ago tho evictions commenced ; no less than thirty-six townships being dejiopulatod in Uig to make room for sheep farms, nnd the inhabitants crowded into other parishes. Iv the time of the late Sir James Mathcson many more evictions, or removals, as the landlords euphoniously term thorn, took place. In Park alone, in the parish of Lochs, twentysix townships were depopulated to make room for sheep farms. Some idea of the way in which the land has been stolen from the people, and this is also a reply to the assertions that all the evil is due to overpopulation, may be gathered from tho fact that tlie sheep run of Galston, a tract of seven miles long by eight broad, is tenanted by ono fanner. There are also many others, such as Tolsta, Gross, Coll Tongue, Melbost, Aigncsh, Holm, Dalbeg, and Dalinorc, with their great tracts of moor and pastoral land, all of which were formerly cultivated by the crofters. They are not allowed to fish or to kill the deer. In other words, in order that one or two proprietors may receive big rents from sportsmen and sheep farmers, and when the sheep farms turn unprofitable, the land is not restored to the crofters, but is turned into a deer forest. Mail}' thousands aro kept in squalor and misery. And now these landless men, rather thau see their wives and little children starve, have actually dared to kill tho deer belonging to . Ah ! that's where the difficulty comes in. It is a case of disputed ownership as to whom tho land and the deer belong. The proprietor of course maintains they are his ; tho people maintain thoy are theirs. They say these lands were tho lands of the clan, not tho chief. The clan elected the chief, and could also depose him, and history endorses tho contention. It was tho lawyers, not the will of the people, that transformed the cliiefs from being the heads of tho elan to landlords. But the people have never admitted the claim. In killing the deer they hold they are simply taking that which is their own. That justice is on their side is as sure as that law is against them, and though they are put down tho question will still be agitated, and disturbances may at any time bo expected. But our readers may say, "What do these people wantf Does not tho Crofter Act meet their case ?" The insufficiency of that Act has been fully dealt with in previous issues. It only grants fixity of tenure and " fair" routs. But fixity of tenure upon a. subdivided croft simply moans fixity of poverty. What the peoplo want is more land. The crofters on tlie West of Scotland do not require very largo crofts ; from six to fifteen ueies, with moor and pasture land, would ho quite sufficient, for tho sea yields an abundant harvest. Where there is no fishing the size of tho crofts would, of course, havo to be larger. Their wants aro well known and the solution is perfectly simple. We must reverse the plan upon which tho " proprietors" havo been acting. They think a sheep or a deer of far more value than a human being, and must be taught that the opposite is the case by the land now occupiod for sheep runs and deer forest* being restored to its rightful owners, tho crofter and cottar population.