HAPLESS CALEDONIA.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 11 February 1925, Page 4

HAPLESS CALEDONIA.

PASS IN G OF THE HIGHLANDS. LARGE ESTATES CUT UP FOR SALE. In a recent announcement no fewer than 23 large Scottish estates were advertised for sale, either wholly or divisible. For one who knows several ox them in the Highlands, this wholesale disposal of land is productive of many sad thoughts. Estates which only a couple of generations ago were sold by their owners, in whose families they had been for two or more centuries, have since changed hands more than once; and the purchasers, foreign to soil, its people, and traditions, now seek to pass them on to others, having lost interest in them, or being unable to maintain them under the altered conditions of society.

In the old days when the Highland Clans held the greater part of these large tracts of country, these lands were territorial possessions over which the proprietor chiefs exercised rights now nriknown; and the people who inhabited them were clansmen regarding their chiefs as kings who had- in many eases potvefs. of life and death over them, declares a correspondent of The Times.

-Not Id If years separate us from the ’7O Rebellion and the final battle of Ciilloden, when the Highland elans fought as one man under their respective chiefs. Now there seems to be no cohesion between any group of men except what self-interest or Governmental regulation enforces. Thus the ownership of land in the Highlands of Scotland represented far more then than it does now that land has apparently become merely the playground of the rich, who, as tenants for short periods, have not the least interest in the folk born and dwelling thereon. Reading through tfte advertisements one cannot but be struck by the prominence given to the “sporting” facilities and amenities of the properties offered for sale the number of stags likely to Ikj killed, the probable bags of grouse, the excellence of the fishing, and so on; but not a word is said about the people whose homes lie within the estates, their numbers, villages, or crofts, or, in fact, anything to indicate that human beings exist there as well as game. Thev seem no afore worthy of mention tlr’n the number of trees growing on the property, perhaps less, for in sonic cases it is stated that there is so much timber, of such a kind, and of so much Value. To c'v-h a slate have these vast wiki lands in the North come, lands + M the true Scotsman, and especially the Highlander. endeared by centuries of affec-

tion, of history and romance; How many of the old Highland families now remain upon estates which they held unbroken for generations after generations!-' Very few indeed, for even in a lifetime the diminutions has been rapid, for there have passed away families of .Scottish origin who, buying estates from their original impoverished owners, had tried to carry on the traditions to the best of their ability only to be forced to sell again. Those who since bought from them ‘ were aliens and generally seemed to take no interest in their acquisitions beyond the sport that could be got from them. Not' an acre now remains of all those extensive lands once ruled bv the chieftains of the second largest elan in Scotland. 'Flic break-up of so much that cannot and never will be replaced is grievous. It brings hardship upon those whose homes are sold as part and parcel of the land to strangers, in whose eyes their interests are of less importance than the wild creatures upon it, the possible slaughter of which is set forth the nrineipal inducement to purchase Were such newcomers even to en- 1 t'-e.ir money among these folk, o'- in the neighbouring towns and ••'■’'ages, much good might result ; but •• ’-on fbev rely upon London and even in provide them with the 1”'-.

.•-m, ghev deem indispensable, very benefit is gained by those among whom they have come.