Hawake's Bay Herald. MONDAY, JUNe 15, 1565. THE SCOTCH CROFTERS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7189, 15 June 1885, Page 2

Hawake's Bay Herald. MONDAY, JUNe 15, 1565. THE SCOTCH CROFTERS.

Among the many accounts descriptive of the condition of the Scotch crofters that have appeared in the English Press, a paper by Mr John Rae in a recent number of the Contemporary Sevieto possesses special merit for the candour with which both sides of the case are stated. At ihts distance from the scene there is nahuvilly great difficulty in arriving at a correct understanding of the true position of affairs, the various accounts differing so much that while at times one is apt to conclude that the crofters are dreadfully ill-used, at others a doubt arises whether, after all, they are not as much sinners as they are sinned against. Of course, as is generally the case in matters of dispute, there is much truth on either side, though evidently enough whatever sins of commission may be alleged against the poor crofters are due to their wretched circumstances, and to the absence of any endeavor on the part of the landowners to ameliorate the condition of their tenants. This is pointedly put in the report of the emigration commissioners, which Mr Eae quote 3. " The crofter belongs," say the commissioners, " to that class of tenants who have received the smallest share of proprietary favor or benefaction, and who are, by virtue of power, position, or covenants, least protected against inconsiderate treatment." Naturally enough, the croftera are not profitable agriculturists, and the letting value of sheep farms in the neighborhood of crofters is continually deteriorating, while still more so is ifc the case with sporting moors. The crofters will persist in trespassing and disturbing game, and their sheep stray and infect the large farmers' sheep with scab. Of course sins such as these cannot be tolerated, so the erring orofters are put out of the way— not killed, but evicted, or " emigrated." Where this is not done they are not allowed to keep sheep at all. A very pleasant condition, certainly, to be in ! We can imagine tenants in any of these colonies being interdicted from keeping sheep on their holdings on pain of being sent out to — where shall we say P — the Highlands of Scotland. One would think that removal from the domination of Scottish landlords would not be regarded as a very dreadful punishment, yet so wedded are the poor croftera to the soil that the fear of eviction will make them submit to any conditions that may be imposed by the landowners' factors. "It is the hangman's whip by which the factors rule," remarks Mr Rae. " One of their most common resources seems to be to add a pound to the rent for any infraction of the factors' behests, but by far their truetiest weapon is a notice of removal. . . , In all questions about game and trespass, about keeping sheep, or horses, or dogs, or harboring persons of objectionable opinions, or about any other vexatious restrictions which the estate management chooses to impose, the threat of eviction is always relied upon as the most effective of discipline. . . . A discipline of this sort, continued day after day and year after year, might very wsll be capable of producing that change in the character of the people which is described by a very competent witness, Mr Macdonnell of Morar, who states that they have lost the spirit and independence that characterised their grandfathers, and entertain a ' fear and awe of their proprietora which no previous generation exhibited.' " The factors plead that it is necessary to retain the power of eviction so as to drill the crofters into good husbandry, but the facts aeem all the other way. The crofters liable to eviction at any moment continue to be bad agriculturists, while those who obtain fixity of tenure improve their holdings. Mr Eae says : "There was a great mass of evidence taken before the commission on this subject, and the evidence is really overwhelming that the crofters would more generally improve their dwellings if they felt themselves secure against eviction. Whenever sufficient assurance to that effect has been given them — or, what is tantamount to the same thing, assurance of adequate compensation in case of disturbance — they are seeu setting themselves very promptly and generally to the erection of more decent and habitable dwellings. For want of this simple security, which would practically cost; the landlords nothing but a slight restraint on their absolute power of eviction, most part of the Celtic peasantry of Scotland are housed in hovels that no stranger looks on without a thought of shame." In another part of his article Mr Eae says, "While no class of independent fishermen has grown up, the old. class of independent peasants, needing no resource but their farms, has more and more completely vanished. Eviction and deprivation of pasture have done their work, and what they have left undone the fear of eviction is fast completing. . . Their husbandry has gone from bad to worse, and is now heartless, slovenly, unskilful, and unproductive to the last degree. There are districts in the island of Skye that often give back only a third of the seed, and where mills have gone out of use becauso for years the people have had no corn of their own growing that was worth turning into meal. Their fields are ill-drained and ill-fenced ; they jbaerve no proper rotation of crops, they do not use enough of manure, and in a climate where early Bowing is im* ,

perative if crops are to ripen they saw later than ever." It cannot be denied that such a state of things demands the interference of the British Parliament, but unfortunately the parties concerned on one side — the lords of the soil — are for the most part hereditary lawmakers, and of a class who regard any interference with the absolute rights of property as nothing leas than a convulsion. It may be, however, that this, with other things that need amendment, will be set right when the new Parliament, elected on a wider basis of representation, shall be returned. Let us hope bo.

On the fourth page will be found j articles entitled "Educated Seals" and " King Mankoroane aad bis Kraal." There was no business at the Resident Magistrate's Court on Saturday. The racehorses Erebus and Jim arrived by the JJotomahana from South on SaturJay, and King, Ngata, and Maocaroni by the Waihora from Auckland yesterday. The second fifteen of the Napier Football Club played the High School m Saturday afternoon on the Recreation Ground. The Napier club team ■won by a try to nil. The Napier Volunteer' companies displayed commendible promptitude in making their arraugements for the procession yesterday, as they did not receive any intimation of the order of the proceedings till half-past 11 o'clock. Mr A. T. Little, for some time past counter-clerk at the Napier telegraph office, left yesterday by the Waihora for Wellington. Mr Little received very short notice, being ordered to proceed to Wellington yesterday by a telegraphic message received on Saturday. Our Hastings correspondent writes under Saturday's date : — Yesterday Constable Lawliss was presented by Mr Green with an address from the inhabi tants of Hastings, in testimony of their appreciation of his efficient services and high character. The address was accompanied by a souvenir for Mrs Lawliss, consisting oE a handsome gold chain and a pendant made by Mr Cooper. The constable left to-day for Gisborne, and carries with him the good wishes of all whose good wishes are worth having. Mrs Leavitt's address on Saturday was especially to young men, for whom the front seats in the theatre had been reserved. There was a good attendance, though not so large as at some of the previous meetings. Yesterday at 3 p.m. the lecture was specially addressed to young women, and the theatre was well filled. Last night, at 8.30, Mrs Leavitt delivered a long and able lecture on the subject of "God in government," the Rev. J. G-. Paterson in the chair. The theatre was crowded in every part with a most attentive audience. The total number of pledges taken in Napier in conneotion with the eight days' mission has reached 734 — a result altogether without precedent in this town, and no small testimony to the powerful influence exercised by Mrs Leavitt. The financial result of the work, so far, will not more than cover the unavoidable expenses. It is probable that a farewell concert will be given before Mrs Leavitt's departure for Sydney by this week's boat. Meantime, she spends a few days in the country, lecturing at Waipawa on Thursday night. The Port Ahuriri School Committee met on Friday evening. PresentMessrs M'Carthy (chairman), Mabbett, Eiddell, Creagh, Setter, and Watson. The monthly report was received from Mr Goulding, the head-master. He reported a marked increase in the last month's attendance, consequent on the committee having issued summonses to the parents of absentees, and to the energy with which Constable Harvey supported the action taken by the committee. The very bare and unsheltered state ;°of the playground was brought forward, and a committee consisting of Messrs M'Carthy, Riddell, and Mabbett were appointed to plant a belt of shelter trees around the ground. It was stated that no funds were on hand for the purpose, but it was confidently expected that some friends would be found to provide the trees. It was pointed out that the stove in the master's residence was quite worn out and useless, and the secretary was inifcructed to write to the Education Board making urgent application for a new one. Sundry accounts were passed for payment and the oommittee adjourned. The Sun asserts th»4 General Grant's disease is not cancer, and that his entire recovery is possible. It further charges the doctors with the entire responsibility for creating the contrary opinion. The stones of old Temple Bar, which have been oarefully stowed away, will shortly be brought to light, and Temple Bar will be again set up in King's Bench Walk. Thus it will be almost within a stone's throw from its old site. The London Solicitors 7 Journal mentions that since the death of Lord Oairns there is now not a single law lord in Great Britain in receipt of a pension as an ex-Lord Chancellor, a state of things which is unprecedented for nearly 60 years. The Northern Wairoa Gazette hears on good authority, that at the next general election, or should Mr Mitohelson resign his seat in the meantime, Mr Allan M'Donald, late member for the East Coast electorate, will seek the representation of the Marsden electors Mr M'Donald has recently purchased an extensive property near Whangarei, where he now resides. The Lyttelton Times says : — Mr Beetham, the Resident Magistrate, in deciding a case against two disorderly women, expressed alarm at the serious effects which had followed the withdrawal of the operation of the Contagious Diseases Act in Ohristohurch. Instances had been brought under hig notice by parents, where girls under 15 years of age had taken to evil practioes, and he expressed the opinion that the sooner the provisions of the Act were again made operative here the better. Afc a fancy dress ball recently given in Paris there were one or two exceedingly novel coatumes. One gentleman appeared as a missionary about to be cooked by savages, with a large slice lof bacon each side of him, and a silver spit through his body. Another came in a dress suit only partially finished, covered all over with tailors' white stitohes and chalk marks ; and a third as an habitual drunkard, with a nose of the most fiery red, which occasionally glowed as though burning— an ! ingenious effect produced by the aid of a small incandescent lamp and an elecj trio battery carried in his waistcoat pocket. Much comment is being made on the fact that by the death of Earl Cairns, ! Lord Garnioyle will, on his return to England, take his seat in the House of Lords as a hereditary legislator. It is I needless to say that there is a concensus | of opinion that the noble lord is not well fitted to act in that, capacity. But the sedate atmosphere of the Upper House seems to have a moat beneficial effect upon irregular eldest sons. The Duke of Marlborough, who had such an unenviable record as Lord Blandford, seems- since his elevation to the Upper House to be quite reformed, and to be settling down into a steady, hard-work-ing, respectable peer. In Russia, says a writer in the Melbourne Argus, the gross earnings of

the people are in the ratio of £9 18s per head per annum, as against £43 8s in Australia, £35 4s in the United Kingdom, £27 4s in the United States, and £26 18s in Canada ; and where nearly four per cent, of the national earnings is absorbed in the military expenditure, as against two and a quarter per cent, in Great Britain. And to make matters worse, the finances o£ the Russian empire exhibit a yearly deficit,, and it can only maintain its credit by raising fresh loana and by the emission of unconvertible paper money, of which forged issues are put into circulation to a literally enormous extent. People — ladies especially — often ' wonder (says an exchange) now it is that Her Majesty has an apparently inexhaustible supply of Indian shawls. Some thought that they had solved the mystery when the name of an Indian shawl maker appeared in the list of "tradesmen by appointment" to the Queen. But it is not so. The explanation given is that in 1846 a large tract of territory was ceded to G-holab Singh, Maharajah of Juranoo, who, in consideration of the grant, bound himself to pay to his Suzerain 75 lavs of rupees and an annual tribnte of three pairs of Cashmere shawls and. twelve perfect shawl goats. As this treaty is still in force, the number of Indian shawls at the disposal of Her Majesty is accounted for. The qualifications of a teacher must be varied if he hopes to obtain an appointment in our State schools. Acting under this idea, a recent applicant wrote as follows to the Wellington Education Board : — I am quite conscious that in my present habiliments, and those I am accustomed to wear under present circumstances, I do not look like, or : lave the appearance of a teacher, but I have got a proper " rig out" jet, and will use it when I get a situation. A few years ago, in Victoria, I used to "sport a fashionable suit of clothes, and a watch and gold watcbchain from Hamburg, until the Melbourne thieves stole them from my residence." Evidently this applicant thought that one essential qualification for a teacher was to weur a fashionable suit. It is needless to say that his application did not meet with success. I am rejoiced (writes " Atlas " in the World) that Lord Wolseley has 'been able lo contradict the reports as to his eye-trouble; he can afford opthalmia less than most men, as ever since the Crimea he has had the sight of but one eye. When he was doing duty in the trenches before Sobastapol, a shell exploded in a gabion full of gravel, in moving which he and two sappers were engaged. They were both killed outright ; Wolseley got so severe a peppering with the gravel that he was literally "stuck full of stones from head to foot." There was not a square inch of his face that had not a gravel-pellet embedded in it ; part of his shin-bone was blown away, and his eye-sight was in so great danger that for weeks he was kept in the gloom of a ~ cave near Balaclava, and so missed being present at the fall of Sebastapol. Writing on the question, why the lives of would-be suicides are so rarely saved on the Thames a correspondent of one of the London dailies says : — " There is a reward paid by the various parochial authorities for the recovery of dead bodies, but there is no reward for the prevention of death. It is a sad reflection, but the following facts speaks for itself. Not long ago, at a seaside watering-place, a boat was upset, and its occupants were thrown into the sea. Some boatmen made a gallant attempt to save life, and succeeded in saving several of the party. The following morning the men were found grumbling over the job — they had been paid for the dead bodies recovered, but not a sixpence for the lires saved. *If they were dead-uns, you see, sir, we gets five ehilluns ; but if they are live-uus, we gets nothin.' So no more live-uns for me.' "