FROM NORTH OF TWEED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22005, 14 July 1933, Page 11

FROM NORTH OF TWEED

LETTER TO OVERSEAS SCOTS Written for the Otago Daily Times B.y Robert S. Angus. EDINBURGH, May 3. This has been an uneventful week. Edinburgh and Aberdeen have had their streets enlivened by carnivals of students, engaged in their annual self-assumed task of collecting funds for the local hospitals, but the excellence of their object does not prevent the growth of doubt as to whether the result is proportionate to the effort, the dislocation of traffic and the dissipation of time and interest that ought to be devoted to study. The I.L.P. and the Communists had their annual May Day demonstration, and in Glasgow there was the usual scuffle with the police in which, of course, Mr M'Goverii, M.P., played a part. But it was not serious. The Scottish Trades Union Congress held its annual meeting and dissipated the customary amount of “ hot air” without attracting much attention outside its own ranks. In the industrial world the House of Commons discussion on the German trade agreement has been followed with interest, for while we are unmoved by the proposal to reduce the tariffs on musical instruments and cheap jewellery, We are closely concerned in the prospect of Germany taking an additional million tons of coal annually, most of which will be supplied from the Scottish and English north-eastern areas. The president of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce mentions the interesting fact that for the first time in three years the shipping under construction in British yards shows an increase over the preceding month, and though the aggregate is still painfully low, the Clyde has increased its percentage share. He points out also that internal trade is improving slightly and that the smaller companies arc generally showing improved results. MINERS’ WELFARE. An indication of the depression in the coal trade is given by the fact that the income of the Miners’ Welfare Fund—which is raised by a levy of one penny per ton—has dropped in the central area from £84,000 to £50,000 a year. That is unfortunate for its own sake and also for the consequent curtailment of the work to which the money is devoted. Life in many of our mining villages has been transformed by the provision of recreational institutes, playing fields and other amenities, including pithead baths, of which another installation was opened this week at Lumphinnans in West Fife. Personally I should give baths precedence over all other objects. The conservatism of the miner, and especially the Scottish miner, in regard to his personal habits is notorious, and because his father and his grandfather washed in a big tub in front of the kitchen fire he is difficult to persuade that any other arrangement can be right. The extra labour imposed on the housewife, and the inconvenience to the rest of the family by that primitive method, it needs no imagination to realise. A Mussolini or a Hitler would decree that every pit should have a bath installation and that it should be used. Happily the younger miners appreciate the advantage of going and coming from their work in clean, dry clothes and leaving their dirt behind them. POOR LAW REFORM. Mr Noel Skelton, the Scottish Undersecretary, addressing the annual gathering of public assistance officers, propounded—without directly answeringthroe questions which cut deep into our poor law administration. Has the time not come when we should got rid of the complicated law of settlement, pursuing the history of the person receiving relief to the parish of his origin? Should there not be greater uniformity in the scales of relief? Ought wo not to introduce the principle of setting the ablebodied to work ns a condition of receiving assistance? The first of these points has been the subject of endless and highly expensive litigation and some acute injustice, A man may spend the whole of his working life without acquiring a place of legal settlement and at the end of it the responsibility for his maintenance may be saddled on the. rural parish in which ho was born although ho has not lived in it since his childhood. The second question almost answers itself. The establishment of “ tost work ” and its corollary the. casual ward would bo a serious but perhaps justifiable departure. Until the war Scotland made no provision except the poorhonse for the able-bodied unemployed, a harsh system admittedly, but in normal times salutary in its effect. The departure from it, expensive as it lias boon, was probably unavoidable. NEW GLASGOW BRIDGE. That dull times have not killed the spirit of enterprise in Glasgow is shown by the decision of the corporation to spend a million in the construction of a bridge across the Clyde at Finniostou. The scheme is essential for linking together the two sides of the river whore in normal times industry is most concentrated, ami if we assume, as we must, that prosperity will return some day, the project will be justified. RADIO EDUCATION. Steps were taken at a Glasgow conference of educational authorities for the formation of discussion circles as an adjunct to the education talks for adults which are being broadcast by wireless. We are not hampered, as they are in tho United States, by the heavy expense

of hiring “ time on the air,” and the 8.8. C. is anxious, some people think unduly anxious, to develop wireless as an educational medium. Nor it is conceivable that we should have repeated in -this country the advice given by the Federal Bureau of Education in America: “Present your specialty on the level of 13-year-olds, and don’t over-rate the intelligence of your listeners.” A year or two ago visiting a school in a Highland glen, I was interested to find the children — about a dozen all told—listening to a delightful lecture on music by Dr Walford Davies, and the mistress told me that she made the fullest use of the wireless educational hour so that her children were provided with knowledge which she could not have imparted herself. MUSIC IN SCHOOL. I am glad to learn from the annual proceedings of the Scottish School Music Association that the subject in which it is interested has made “ wonderful progress in the last 10 years.” It is now actively encouraged by the Education Department and recognised as a higher subject in the leaving certificate examination. Mr W. \V. M'Kechnle, secretary of that department, gave an assurance that tho progress during the next 10 years will be greater still. In my school days our singing master used to come twice a week. He put the evening paper on the harmonium and proceeded to read it with great interest while strumming an accompaniment to our perfun-':ory singing of doggerel words to commonplace tunes which were familiar to the point of nausea. Ido not say that as a result I missed the chance of being a Caruso —though that is of course possible —but I do say that I should have been taught how to use my voice and to appreciate good music when I hear it. I learned neither. Tile more enlightened view now prevalent has been greatly stimulated by the annual musical festivals which are now a feature of every district. SHETLAND CENSUS. By far the largest decrease of population ever recorded is shown in the annual census for the County of Shetland, or, as it is officially termed, Zetland. That is in part due to the fact that the figures 10 years ago were swollen by the temporary presence of the herring fishing fleet, which, it is estimated, may account for about one-fourth of the decline of 4099. Even so, the decrease is serious. The county can claim to have the highest age-average in Scotland—-it is 37.5 as compared with 35.2 in 1921—but that is probably due to migration of the young able-bodied as much as to improvement in health. The population of the islands, 21,421, is rather less than it was in 1801, and the decline has been continuous since 1801. HARRIS TWEED. During 1932 the Highland Home Industries Association paid to the workers a sum of £13,702, a valuable supplement, higher by nearly £IOOO than in the previous year, in a district where ready money is scarce. Most of it was paid for home-woven tweed, but other home crafts are also encouraged. Handwoven vegetable-dyed fabrics of every sort are growing in popularity all over the world, but Harris tweeds are suffering from the competition of imitations. It is essential therefore that_ buyers should protect themselves by seeing that their purchase hears the stamp of the association. YOUTH HOSTELS. With the opening of two new establishments —at Tomintoul and Aviemore —the chain of youth hostels in the Cairngorms region will be complete, and in each of the four valleys—the Dee, the Don, the Avon, and the Spey—young walkers will be sure of shelter for the night. Later in the month a wooden hostel is to be erected in Glen Clova, on a site granted by the Earl of Airlie, forming a suitable place for those who are walking across the Grampians from or to Ballater. It is pleasant to learn that the shilling a , night which is charged for accommodation is proving sufficient not only to meet current expenses hut to provide something lor maintenance. A Highland holiday, once proverbial for its expensiveness, should now be one of the cheapest, at least for young people who have learned to walk.