FROM NORTH OF TWEED.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20586, 8 December 1928, Page 2

FROM NORTH OF TWEED.

A LETTER TO OVERSEAS SCOTS. Written for the Otago Daily Times. By Robert S. Angus. EDINBURGH, October 25. It has been an interesting week in more ways than one, but more especially, I think, by the evidence of a new tendency to assess our own merits, and to get back some of that “ guid conceit ” for which Scotsmen have long been famous. For some months we heard nothing but strictures on our shortcomings. We have been led to expect that from the churches, whose business it may be to keep us modest and make us regard ourselves as sinners, but statesmen, educationists, and pressmen seemed also : to have joined in the conspiracy to detract from our qualities and bemoan our frailties. Now the pendulum appears to have swung the | other way, and even the churches, per--1 haps under the influence of an increasing number of divinity students, have joined in the chorus of praise. Mrs Aimee Macpherson, the “ hot gospeller ,! from America, has had to bow down before us, and confess that she has nothing to teach Scotland, but much to learn from it. The politicians, with an eye to the general election next year, have been telling us what a sturdy race we are. And municipal candidates have been urging the maintenance, of our high standards. There never has been such flattery.

. MORE MINISTERS. On the church side the Very Rev. Professor George Milligan, glowing in the presence of a greater number of candidates for the ministry at Glasgow University, expressed the hope that the greater spiritual life thus evinced will be increased by the union .of the churches and lead to an even larger number of brethren offering themselves for the ministry. But having attained the numbers, he proceeded to the question of qualifications, and resisted the demand in various quarters for a shortening of the curriculum. He admits that there are individual cases where the present curriculum lays too great a burden, especially on men of riper years, and that a man may he an excellent minister or missionary without a profound knowledge of Hebrew or Greek, But, he says, we must not forget that in Scotland we have always prided ourselves, not only upon an educated, but a learned ministry, and he warns the country against any lowering of the standard. SCOTTISH AND ENGLISH EDUCATION.

Educationists have also been patting themselves on the hack. A suggestion that England, which formerly lagged behind Scotland In scholastic provision, has now reduced the margin of difference, and that we in the north should henceforth take guidance from the south, has been keenly resented. It is pointed out that, 'as against the ample. Scottish provision of free secondary education for every pupil capable of taking advantage of it, there is in England a competitive scramble for a few free places. In England they arc trying 1 to improve matters on the recommendations of a committee presided over by Sir W. H. Hodlow, and, as a weapon to resist the invasion of English methods here, much use is being made of a statement in the committee’s report that, after, studying developments in the United States, Austria, and Prussia it discovered that “ the most instructive 1 example' of a systematic attempt to develop post-primary education, pursued with much care, practical insight, and popular support over many years, is to be found in Scotland.” No wonder Bailie P. H. Allan, chairman of the Edinburgh Education Authority, in laying, the foundation stone of the new Leith Academy Secondary School, should call o; the rector to follow the example of a predecessor, of whom records show that in July, 1521, “the master of the gramar smile of jjeitli callet Scliirellcgit and said that biddertillis he was redy at all tymes after his power till resist againis the Inglismen.” RECTORIAL ELECTION. , Yet for all the expressions of local patriotism, it is interesting to note that the two most popular candidates in the Glasgow University Rectorial election are Mr Baldwin, the English Prime Minister, and Sir Herbert Samuel, the English Jew, who is chairman of the Liberal Party’s organisation. It is true that Mr Baldwin’s mother was a Scotswoman, and Sir Robert Horne tells us that we shall find through the Prime Minister’s writings and speeches that touch of Celtic imaginatioE that gives colour and tone to all he says. No special claim to Scottish connection has been made on behalf of Sir Herbert Samuel, except his allegiance to political principles that wen once tenaciously held by Scotsmen, but which I am afraid have no longer the same hold. The other candidates are Mr Rosslyn Mitchell, the Socialist M.P. for Paisley, and Mr Cunningham Grahame, the writer and traveller. The latter was formerly a Liberal member of Parliament, but now stands as the representative of that new political party, the Nationalists, who. are out for Scottish Home Rule. There are still three working days before the election, and the students are having a hectic time plotting and counter-plotting with the almost sinister threat of a final war in which no quarter shall be asked or given until the last rotten egg has been thrown. The only thing banned on this occasion is kidnapping. A “ HOT GOSPELLER.” In spite of the sensational reports cabled to America, the Glasgow’ students . were, aft. their way, quite kind to Mrs Macpherson, the evangelist. She was in her . wrong atmosphere in Scotland, where an evangelist who appears m a beautiful white silk dress under a magnificent black coat, who ha- tiers of carefully attended curls, and who spends an hour a day in a beauty parlour, is regarded with suspicion. Her theatrical methods were denounced as bringing religion into ridicule. The churches boycotted her, and if, for her public meeting, she had a large audience, it was only because people were curious, as they would be about any much-advertised character. Her father and her grandfather were Scots, and instinct wisely led her to declare that she had not come to Scotland with any idea of saving the people. In London she spoke about tracking the devil to hell, but here she made no search for him. The students invited her to their union, where they mocked her' in various ways, but did her no more than intellectual harm. EARL JELLICOE. Earl Jellicoe has been telling up what a fine people we are. He was in Edin burgh in furtherance of his work on be half of the British Legion, of which he is president in succession to the late Earl Haig, and he conceded it was an unfortunate fact that his birth had taken place on the wrong side of the Border But he had endeavoured to remedy that error by coming to Scotland for a wife Ho based the Grand Fleet on Scotland and, to commemorate that fact, he had the temerity to adopt the Scottish territorial title—“ of Scapa,” I may say that Edinburgh was very pleased to see him, and that everywhere he went admirers surged round him. The methods of the legion differ somewhat from those in England, Here we decentralise more, the funds collected in the various centres going to relief in those centres. In England they centralise more, and distribute more widely. At one time there was an attempt to' make our system conform to that in vtigue in England, but the project had to be abandoned in face of strong local opposition. Lord Jellicoe recognises that each system has its special merits.

MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS. Apart from these tributes to ourselves, we have been mainly agitated about the forthcoming municipal elections. A

gradual change ia coining over these elections in the bigger towns. In former years great importance was attached to ward meetings, where / all parties had a “look in” on the same platform, and hecklers had lively, but invariably goodnatured, exchanges with their representatives.' To-day, thanks to Socialist rowdies, vard meetings have so frequently degenerated into mere Donnybrooks, that several moderate representatives, tired of being baited, have abandoned the ward meeting proper and decided to hold only their own campaign meetings, where the rowdy element obtains much less latitude. Time brings some curious revenges, and it is interesting to note that the Socialist representatives, who regarded the breaking-up of their opponents’ meetings with comparative complacency, are now in their turn being made the target of disgru—let opponents, chiefly from their own ranks and those of the Communists. MOTOR-DRIVEN LIFEBOAT FLEET. Big strides have now been made towards realising the ambition of the Scottish Council of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution —to convert half the lifeboat fleet into motor-driven boats. Two years ago there were only 11 such boats out of a total of 43. They were stationed at Aberdeen, Fraserburgh, Peterhead, Montrose, .Brought? Ferry, Longhope, Port Patrick, Campbelltown, Wick, Buckie, and St. Abbs. Since then the institution has completed, and sent to her station at' Stromness, a motor lifeboat of the most powerful type to. replace the famous “ John A. Hay,” one of the first motor lifeboats built by the institution, and now withdrawn after 20 years’ distinguished service. Besides. the new Stromness boat, the institution j has placed at Kirkcudbright a motor lifeboat of a special type designed for those places where, owing to the conditions of the foreshore, only a motor lifeboat of moderate weight and light draught could be stationed. ■ Another has just been completed for Cromarty, and a third will be-placed at Whitehills (Banff and Macduff). In addition, motor boats are under construction for Thurso, Stornoway, and Troon. CHAMPION CHEESE. What is popularly known as the “ Kil- . marnock Cheese Show,” the great event for the chcesemakers of Scotland,, has , been held this week, and about 30 tons i of cheese were on view. Having regard \ to the cold and wet season, the quality of the cheese was very good, though in the majority of the exhibits there was an openness of texture which manifested itself in the flavour. Wigtownshire cheeaemakers came well to the front, and carried off not only the championchampionship and the reserve championship, but the bulk of the prize money. Kirkcudbrightshire, which was first last year, came second, with Ayrshire third. Argyllshire and Dumfriesshire were a long way behind. VETERINARY COLLEGES.

The big grumble his week has come from Glasgow, where the Governors of the Veterinary ‘College, in appealing for £20,000 to enable ■ them to secure the continuance and improvement of the college, complain of the remarkable disparity of generosity on the part of the Government,. From 1909 the Royal (Dick) College, Edinburgh, has received from the Government no less than £71,400, of which nearly two-thirds wa,s for capital and a third for maintenance. During the same periol the Glasgow College has received only £16,000. The Government is accused of following the principle of having only one veterinary college for the whole of the country, and the Duke of Montrose, taking part in the attdek, points to the other policy of the Government —that agriculturists should ignore the cultivation of cereals and take up animal husbandry—and asks how animal husbandry can be carried on without an up-to-date veterinary service. “It will be a public scandal,” says Sir Robert Wilson, the chairman of the Glasgow Education Authority, “ if the college has to shut its doors for want of money.”

FORFARSHIRE’S NEW NAME; Though it was in May last that the Forfarshire County Council passed a resolution that the county should resume its historical name of Angus, it has been left to the Admiralty to make the first official recognition of the change outside this country. It is now announced in Admiralty Fleet Orders that in future “ Angus " should be officially recognised and used for all ordnance survey maps and publications. In making the change, the county. council followed a practice not uncommon in recent years. Morayshire was formerly called Elginshire, West Lothian was Linlithgowshire, and East Lothian was Haddingtonshire.