FROM NORTH OF TWEED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21772, 11 October 1932, Page 11

FROM NORTH OF TWEED

A LETTER TO OVERSEAS SCOTS Written for the Otago Daily Times. By Robeut S. Angus. EDINBURGH, July 14, Has the industrial tide turned at last? To say “ Yes ” would be rash, but there arc encouraging signs. During June the number of unemployed in Scotland dropped by nearly 6000, a remarkable figure in view of the fact that the coal trade showed a further decline and the shipbuilding figures sank to the lowest point recorded for half a century. Had these two industries, which affect so many others; been near normal, the improvement would have been striking. The statistics must mean that our secondary industries, including textiles, are in a slightly better state, a conclusion corroborated by the Board of Trade returns for the month. On the other side of the account is the imposition of an import duty on Irish foodstuffs from the Irish Free State in order to recover the amount of the land annuities. For at least two generations Glasgow has carried on a lucrative entrepot trade in Irish eggs, bacon and butter; the trade has been largely in the hands of Irishmen, and they will naturally ask whether the handicap on their business is not an excessive price to pay for Mr' da Valera’s political whims. It remains to be seen what the Scottish farmers will say when they find that they have to pay £1 or 30s a head more for their store cattle, which to the extent of about 40 per cent, are brought from the Irish Free State. But by that time the quarrel may have been settled. FORTUNATE FINANCE.

Fifers are almost proverbial for their shrewdness in money matters, and it would seem that, though the Carnegie trustees for the Scottish Universities do not all belong to that county, they have some share of its far-sightedness. Mr Carnegie’s gift, nearly 30 years ago, amounted to two millions. During the war Sir William M'Cormick, the secretary to the trust, went to London one night with a dispatch case containing its whole capital in American securities and came home the following night with 5 per cent, war loan representing £400,000 more. The trustees foresaw that if they retained their investment the revenue would decline when conversion came, and they have gradually sold out, with the result that the present conversion scheme entails them in no annual loss, while the capital value of their 3J per cent, stock, not redeemable till 1961, has increased by £900,000. Thus in spite of the largj sums spent every year, the capital value of the tfust is now over three and n-qfiav ter millions and the revenue is £30,000 more than it would have been if the war loan had been retained till the conversion date. So far as can be gathered, the scheme is being well supported and practically all our banks, insurance companies, and trust companies have decided to support it with the whole of their available stock.

ART TEACHING IN EDINBURGH. Edinburgh College of Arts is fortunate above all institutions of the same kind in having come into possession of the bequest of Mr Andrew Grant, a Leith merchant, to the amount of about a quarter of a million, yielding an annual revenue of about £12,000 for scholarships. The result will, no doubt, be to attract many students from elsewhere, but the Management Committee arc determined that their funds shall not be used merely for , the .encouragement of mediocrity. They recognise also that “art” does not mean only the painting of pictures and the carving _of statues, and that it is still more important to encourage the development of craftsmanship. That Edinburgh has the nucleus necessary is shown by the work on the National War Memorial. Stringent conditions have been laid down for the scholarships, making them tenable for only one year with their continuance dependent on efficiency and industry on the part of the holders. In succession to Mr Gerald Moira, the committee have appointed as principal Mr Hubert L. Wellington, registrar of the Royal College of Art, London —a native of Gloucester, who studied in Birmingham, London, and Paris, a contemporary of Mr Augustus John and the late Sir William Orpen, himself an accomplished artist, a fluent writer, and a successful administrator. He is assured of a warm welcome when he takes up his duties in September, and his record gives promise that he will make good use of his unique opportunity.

PROFESSORIAL CHANGES. After 22 years tenure of the Glasgow University Chair of Biblical Criticism the Rev. Professor George Milligan has decided to resign. His father was professor of the earne subject in Aberdeen University and one of the best-known leaders of the Church of Scotland during the third quarter of the nineteenth century. Dr Milligan’s first, charge was St. Matthew’s, Morningside, Edinburgh, then newly founded, but after seven years he transferred to the quiet country parish of Oaputh, Perthshire, where he had more leisure to follow his scholarly pursuits. The many works he produced while there led to his appointment to the Glasgow Chair. That he is something more than a mere scholar is shown by his appointment as moderator of the General Assembly in 1923. Mr Andrew Meikle Bryan, who learned the practical side of mining in Lanarkshire, and has been chief Government inspector 1 of mines in the Northern Division of England, has been appointed to the Chairs of Mining in Glasgow University and Royal Technical College, in which he graduated with high distinction some 15 years ago. On the other hand, as if by way of exchange, Dr Ernest M. Dunlop, clinical pathologist at Glasgow Western Infirmary, has been appointed professor of bacteriology in the Durham University College of Medicine at Newcastle. He was the most distinguished student of his year, and his success as a teacher has been marked. ' LORD ASHMORE. Four years ago Mr John Wilson, whose judicial title was Lord Ashmore, retired from the Court of Session Bench owing to increasing deafness, and he has now died at Radlett in Hertfordshire. I met him first about 1896 when he was fighting a forlorn hope as Unionist candidate for the Montrose Burghs in opposition to Mr John Morley. In that capacity he showed the cheerfulness, courage, good humour, and pertinacity which were characteristic of him. Apart from that and one other attempt in the Leith Burghs, equally hopeless, his energies were devoted to his profession. I am told that he was not a profound lawyer, but his knowledge of precedents was almost unique, and those who engaged him as counsel or appeared before him as litigants knew that he would spare no effort to attain justice. As the son of a former town clerk of Falkirk he had a good start at the Bar, and he never neglected his opportunities. He was much engaged in private bill work, which required common sense as much as law, and his professional career was marked by a steady progress which made his appointment to the Bench inevitable. Perhaps the most famous case in which he was concerned was the Ardlamont murder trial, in which he was junior to Mr Comrie Thomson for the defence. SCOTTISH BISHOP FOR PALESTINE. Dr George Francis Graham Brown, an Edinburgh man who is about to take up his duties as' Anglican bishop in Jerusalem, was entertained in his native city this week by a gathering equally representative of the Presbytterian and the Episcopalian communions. Professor A. R. S, Kennedy was in the chair, and the Bishop of Edinburgh was among the speakers. Dr Graham Brown served during the war as an officer in the King’s Own Scottish Borderers, and, on being demobilised, went to Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, where he was noted alike for his scholarship and for his influence over his fellow-students. His enthusiasm and organising ability induced the college authorities to allow him to take parties to Jerusalem in three successive years for purposes of study. His post gives him a unique opportunity to assuage the bitterness of feeling which prevails between the communions in Jerusalem, and his friends are confident that he will make use of it. THE HEIR OF LOVAT. Great preparations are being made on the Lovat estates to celebrate the coming of ago of Simon Christopher Joseph Fraser, the Master of Lovat. The first bearer of his courtesy title was killed at Flodden, and all through the ages the family has borne a prominent part in Scottish history. The eleventh Lord Lovat whose tortuous career in 1745 ended on the scaffold at Tower Hill was not an ancestor of the present peer. He is descended from the fourth Lord Lovat, and sits in the House of Lords in virtue of a British peerage bestowed on his grandfather in 1837, though the attainder on the Scottish title was removed in 1857, and he is now its fourteenth holder. But his popularity in the Highlands does not depend on his long and distinguished pedigree; it is the result of personal qualities and high public service, both local and national. The Lovats have remained faithful adherents of the

Roman Catholic Church, and many of their dependents have followed their example. ELCHO SHIELD SUCCESS, I never cease to marvel at the success which the Scottish marksmen attain in the international competition for the Elcho Shield, presented 70 years, ago by the late Earl of Wemyss for the encouragement of shooting with the match rifle. Wo have now no range long enough for practice, and the men who use the weapon, little more than a score in number, have to depend on the few days they get at the Bisley meeting. Yet on Friday they' scored their eighth victory since the war, and did so with the highest score—l7l7—ever made under the . present regulations. They lost five points through Major Ranken putting a shot on the wrong target, but that slip will be readily forgiven him, for it is mainly due. to his dauntless enthusiasm that the sport has survived on this side of the Tweed. As it was, the score was good enough to beat England by 18 points. ■