FROM NORTH OF TWEED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21978, 13 June 1933, Page 7

FROM NORTH OF TWEED

A LETTER TO OVERSEAS SCOTS Written for the Otago Daily Times. By Robebt S. Angus. EDINBURGH, March 29. Scotland is growing smaller in the sense that improved travelling facilities are bringing the fringes nearer the centre. Another step in a process which has been continuous for over a century is foreshadowed by the registration of Highland Airways, Ltd., which, with what eeems a totally inadequate capital of £3500, is to piovide an air service between Inverness and the Orkneys, with an extension to the Shetland Islands in view as a possible subsequent development. By this means a commercial traveller will be a})le to make his journeys to Wick and Kirkwall and return to Inverness the same evening, instead of having to occupy at least three days, even if he is lucky and being spared the discomfort of the voyage across the Pentland r irtn. Whether the enterprise will be a commercial success only experience will show. An extension of the service to Stornoway was contemplated, but it has not yet been possible to find a suitable landing place, and that part of the scheme is deferred for the present. The venture is an interesting reminder ot how modern science has brought us closer together. One of the arguments used in favour of Scottish Home Rule is that London is too remote from Edinburgh, but it is nearer to-day in point of time than Dumfries or Perth was to the Scottish capital a century ago, to say nothing of the facilities of the telephone and the telegraph. It may well be argued that the of travel has its disadvantages, since it has increased the centripetal tendencies which many regard with so much uneasiness. But that is another matter. UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM.

Lanarkshire local authorities, which have been hit with exceptional seventy by the industrial depression, passed a resolution the other day that the maintenance of the able-bodied unemployed should be a national and not a local charge. They decided to lay that view before the Secretary ‘for Scotland, and to press him for a more generous Government policy in regard to grants for works of public utility. Failing satisfaction they propose to summon a conference of all the Scottish local authorities to arrange a deputation to the Cabinet. The unanimity which marked the smaller gathering will not be maintained when .representatives pi more fortunate areas are brought into consultation. It is easy, however, to understand and sympathise with the desperate frame of mind which has developed in the depressed areas. How far public utility schemes can be carried and how long they will provide any substantial relief are questions to which a confident answer is difficult. I see that Mr Henderson Stewart, the new member for East Fife, is urging again the construction of road bridges across the Forth and Tay. If expense were no consideration these schemes would have much to be said for them, but I am unable to see that the community can derive permanent benefit by providing itself with a collection of white elephants. ; ( '; HOUSING SCHEME ABUSE.

I am glad that the Corporation of Glawgow is applying itself to a flagrant abuse of State-subsidised houses. These were intended for “ persons of the working classes,” but some of them are occupied by tenants who run their motor cars into the garden ground attached to their houses and leave them there without troubling to find a garage. How anyone who can afford a ear has the nerve to occupy a house which he knows is provided for him partly at the expense of his poorer or more frugal neighbours passes my comprehension, and the corporation will have firm public support in insisting that such tenants must either pay an economic rent or move elsewhere. SCOTLAND AND THE ARTS, A famous man once said that it is “ impossible to indict a nation.” It is almost as difficult to characterise it, and I am therefore suspicious of such efforts as were made in a Scottish Arts Club debate to answer the question, “Has Scotland contributed\ her fair share to the arts?” It is so easy to cite facts ,on either side that a brief and precise conclusion can be of little value. My friend Mr J. W. Herries, who supported the affirmative, cited ' the fact that at a recent exhibition the. works of 600 Scottish writers were on view, and he could have mentioned such names as Burns, Scott, Carlyle, Byron, and a host of men of slightly lower rank, including Macaulay and the two greatest of biographers, Boswell and Lockhart, to show that in literature our output for a small and poor nation is worthy of respect. In painting he based his claims on Raeburn, Wilkie, and (in modern times) the members of the Glasgow SchooL It must be admitted that in the fine arts generally our record is not distinguished, and that in music and the drama we have been backward. How far that is due to John Knox and his immediate successors, and later to the Puritanical,outlook of the Scottish churches during the nineteenth century are questions of history and controversy. But in all directions, notably in our church architecture and adornment, most of the old inhibitions are weakening, and they would disappear altogether if any of the artistic careers offered better material rewards, either present or prospective. ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE.

• My Parliament House friends gave a rather tepid welcome to the Administration of Justice Bill, which is designed to make litigation in the Court of Session cheaper and speedier. In particular they doubt the wisdom of shortening the vacation. They point out that at present about 90 per cent, of the work at the bar is done by half a dozen men, and if the sessions were longer they would absorb a still larger proportion. It is part of the etiquette of the profession that every advocate who is in active practice must attend the court whether he has a brief or not, and it a junior were to be seen with a bag of golf clubs on his shoulder on a day when the court was sitting, it would be fatal to his career. All the same, it does seem ridiculous that the court should have risen last week not to resume again till the beginning of May .while litigants are waiting to have their cases heard. One result has been an increasing tend-, ency to resort to arbitration, with consequent loss of work for members of the bar. NATIONAL LIBRARY. There has recently been completed a card-index of the books added to the National Library during the 00 years from 1872 to 1931. It contains about half a million items and the work has occupied over 12 months at a cost of £3500. The amount’ had to be found by private subscriptions, a reflection oil the niggardliness with which the Treasury treats the library. The index along with the printed catalogue gives a virtually complete guide to the contents of the library, and as the now additions—at least 10,000 volumes a year-—will be catalogued as they are received the efficiency of the institution will be greatly enhanced. GOVERNMENT OFFICES.

No sooner lias it been announced that the Governments are again considering the erection of a building to bouse dll tin; State departments which are spattered over Edinburgh than controversy has been revived as to the site. Edinburgh is notorious for its inability to agree about sites—the Usher Hall was

a, scandalous case in point—and now the protagonists of the Calton Hill nt-3, formerly occupied by the gaol and of St. James's square are metaphorically flying at each other's throats. I have the highest authority for saying that while the Government is anxious to go ahead with the scheme at once it will not be parties to any local squabble, and unless a reasonable amount of agreement can be obtained it will again drop the whole busiiGLASGOW SUBWAY. ' Those of trs who are old enough to remember the high hopes with which the Glasgow subway was opened—the first 'tube' outside London—read.with a grim smile the various schemes which are being discussed for putting it to effective use. It was killed as a commercial sue* cess by the fact that its opening synchronised with, the development of Glasgow's wonderful service of electric tramways under, the management of the corporation, which eventually bought the subway for an old song. It was doomed to failure from the first by the fact that cable haulage, noisy, expensive and liable to break down, was adopted, j Experiments are now being made with an electrification scheme which will cost about £IOO,OOO, reduce the time required for the 6* miles circuit from 38 minutes to 23 minutes and make a saving of £28,000 a year in running expenses. On the basis of these figures it should be possible to make the subway pay, especially as it affords the readiest means of transit between the two sides of the Clyde.