FROM NORTH OF TWEED.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20310, 19 January 1928, Page 13

FROM NORTH OF TWEED.

A LETTER TO OVERSEAS SCOTS. Written for the Otago Daily Times. By Robest S. Angus. EDINBURGH, December 8. A friend who came south from Rossshire the other day tells me that there is still some com to be seen lying in the fields covered with snow. What that means to the growers, most of them small farmers or crofters, needs no elaboration. It seems to confirm the view Lord Bledisloe expressed the other day that British agriculture must be directed towards more stock raising and ess grain growing, even though that means, as it does, a decline in the number of men employed. That is certainly true as far as the North of Scotland is concerned. The annual fat stock show held in Edinburgh this week proves that, in providing the butcher with his wares, Scottish farmers grow more enterprising and successful. The premier award this year was won by Sir John Findlay, of Aberlour, Banffshire, with an Aberdeen-Angus heifer, which afterwards went on to London, and there gained the premier award for the breed and was second in the competition for the best animal shown. Industrially, the outlook is fairly good, except in regard to coal. During last month shipping amounting to over 70.000 tons in the aggregate was launched, and although the orders booked during the period are not up to that abnormal level they are regarded as satisfactory. WEST HIGHLAND-.TRANSPORT.

The Scottish Secretary is again negotiating new arrangements for the steamer services to the Western Islands. Messrs Macßrayne, who have had a virtual monopoly for about two generations, have agreed to build two new steamers, and possibly a third with a 12£ per cent, reduction in freights, and Sir John Gilmour evidently regards that as the best that can be got. But some of the M.P.’s interested in the district think otherwise, and are urging an approach to the railway companies to see if a competitive offer cannot be secured. I wish them success, but the truth is that to some of the islands during the whole year and to all of them during part of it, the traffic does not pay, with the consequence that freights have to be high and—apart from difficulties about piers and the depth of the channels—larger steamers cannot be afforded. In this connection 1 may add that Sir Henry Maybury, of the Minis-, try of Transport, has been in consultation with those interested in the new Glencoe road, and has given an indication that, though details may be modified, the scheme is likely to go forward. A MARITIME VETERAN. Messrs Macßrayne, as I have indicated, have long been derided for the age of their steamers, and the humorists will no doubt find fresh material in the fact that the firm has just discarded a vessel which was built 83 years ago. It. is claimed to have been the oldest steamer in the world, and the fact that it has given reasonably efficient service up to the last is a tribute to the Glasgow builders. Originally named the Edinburgh Castle and noted alike for her size and her graceful lines, she carried over 600 passengers, first on the Clyde, then on the Royal route to the Highlands, and latterly on the Caledonian Canal-Loch Ness trip.' In her old age the vessel was renamed Glengarry. She is now being broken up at Inverness. BRITISH ASSOCIATION.

After an interval of 26 years the British Association is holding its next meeting in Glasgow, and the University has placed its buildings at its disposal, so that all the sections will be able to meet under one roof—a rare experience. It is remarkable that of the three secretaries appointed to the local committee responsible for the arrangements two acted in the same capacity when the association visited Glasgow in 1901—Sir John Samuel, who is the Lord Provost’s secretary, and Professor Magnus Maclean. According to the secretary of the association its meetings in Scotland attract a larger attendance than elsewhere, and the expenses are correspondingly heavy. But Glasgow has never, been known to fail when “ siller would do it.” SCHOOL INSPECTOR’S RETIREMENT.

Dr J. M. Wattie, Senior Chief Inspector of Schools in Scotland, was entertained at luncheon the other day on the occasion of his retirement. His speech in reply touched a reminiscent chord in my mind. He told his hearers that on one occasion, visiting an Orkney school of twenty pupils, . e found them dissolved in tears of alarm at his approach. The incident recalled to me the terror with which, in a country school of about the same size, we used to look forward to the visit of the inspector, who seemed an Olympic figure, a man of wrath, with unknown but dreadful penalties for ignorant small children. Dr Wattie told the incident as an exceptional one, and in order to emphasise the fact that the greater part of his 40 years’ work had been spent among happy, smiling children. He enjoined all teachers to give innocent merriment the scope it deserved. Wit and humour were more than grateful and comforting; they were an exceedingly valuable mental stimulus. After reading words like these, who could fail to hope and expect for Dr Wattie many years of pleasant leisure? DAIRYING EDUCATION. A long and tangled controversy in regard to agricultural education in the West of Scotland seems at last on the way to settlement. Some years ago Mr John Hannah offered the mansion-house and grounds of Auchencruive, Ayrshire, for the purpose of agricultural education and research on condition that the West of Scotland College and the Kilmarnock Dairy School were transferred there. The offer was declined on the ground that the place *was too inaccessible. Then Mr Hannah volunteered to give £20,000 to aid in the purchase of another site, but the Scottish Secretary did not like Pollock, which the directors proposed to buy, and the directors were against moving to Houston, which he preferred as an alternative. Now the difficulty has been solved by the acceptance of Auchencruive, with some ground added by Mr Hannah, who has withdrawn the stipulation for the transference of the college, which will remain in Glasgow. The Development Commission has promised £36,000 so that Auchencruive should become an efficient centre for education and research in dairying, on which the agriculture of the district largely depends. CALTON GAOL. About a year ago the Government bought the Calton Gaol buildings when they were no longer required for their original purpose, and it was understood that the various State offices which arc now scattered in various parts of Edinburgh would be assembled there. But nothing has been done yet, and a local chronicler writes in a vein of mild irony on the fact that the place has become a large dovecot a process hastened by the breakage of some of the windows. The difficulty is that the structure is so solidly built that either adaptation or demolition will be exceedingly expensive. Public opinion would never tolerate the removal of a building hich is an astonishing example of nineteenth century baronial architecture on one of the most prominent sites in the city. I believe the Government architects are busy with the plans for adapting the building to civil service requirements. QUEEN ALEXANDRA MEMORIAL. I hear that the Queen Alexandra Memorial Fund in aid of the Jubilee Institute of Nurses has now reached a sum of £85,000 in Scotland, a remarkable figure when it is compared with the £120,000 which has been raised in all the rest of the British Empire. The result

is largely due to the organising ability of the Countess of Mar and Kellie and her committee. One sum of £IOOO was received, but most of it has been collected in small sums and by local efforts. Among those was the Scottish Historical p ageant at Craigmillar last summer, which yielded a profit of £6400. These figures 're worth quoting to those -who indulge in hoary witticisms about Scottish meanness. Of the 3700 performers at the pageant about 90 per cent, paid for their own costumes. STORNOWAY’S GOOD FORTUNE. Stornoway Town Council at its last meeting had some "leasant news. Mr John Bain, of Chicago (a brother of the provost), announced that he and Mr William M'Askill, another Stornoway native, also in Chicago, had decided to give £IOOO towards the rebuilding of the Town Hall, which was burned nine years ago. Learning that £2750 was still required to open the building free of debt Mr Bain added another £1750 to his gift, and undertook to be responsible for any further deficit up to a total of another £IOOO. Last year Mr T. B. Macaulay, of Montreal, who, though he has never seen Stornoway, is the son of a Lewis man, gave between £SOOO and £6OOO for the same purpose. He has agreed to perform the opening ceremony next year. Mr Bain has other schemes in mind for the benefit of the town, including the provision of a children’s playing ground at Bayhead embankment. A GREAT COUNTRY DOCTOR. Of all classes who deserve public esteem and gratitude no claims stand higher than those of the country doctors, and that ; s specially true of the Highlands, where patients have often to be reached by scores of miles of bad roads or across stormy waters, at all hours of the day and night and in all weathers. The doctors of Inverness-shire met this week to celebrate the jubilee as a general practitioner of Dr James Murray, their oldest colleague. In his reply he mentioned his good fortune in having been a student at the time when Pasteur and Lister were revolutionising the practice of medicine and surgery. Dr Murray was a prizeman in Lister’s class and in the old Royal Infirmary worked under Sir Patrick Heron Watson, where he had W. E. Henley among his patients. Mr Murray was the first' to introduce antiseptic methods in the Northern Infirmary a Inverness. He has been content to devote his talents to the welfare of a remote district, but he has had the good fortune to acquire his knowledge and skill at the fountain-head. Another old country doctor has passed awav in the person of Dr John Strachan, of Dollar, who became an assistant to his father there as long ago as 1865. Dr Strachan was 88 years of age. but remained physically and mentally active up to s’most the last. Even when he was over 70 he became piesident of the local cycling club, and joined in its runs. He was the founder of the Dollar Academy Club, and retained a lively interest in his old school.