FROM NORTH OF TWEED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22098, 31 October 1933, Page 2

FROM NORTH OF TWEED

LETTER TO OVERSEAS SCOTS \ _____. Written for the Otago Daily Time# By Robert S. Angus. EDINBURGH, August Hi. Not for several years has the official report on harvest prospects been better than that which is just published. It shows that while the abnormally dry weather has made the straw short, the grain crops are well above the average, especially in the case of wheat, which is making good prices. That is not a staple crop on this side of the Tweed, although I believe that in Angus the yield per acre is higher than anywhere else in the world. Hay has done surprisingly well in spite of the drought and has been harvested in perfect condition. Roots have suffered less than might have been expected, but the small-fruit crop, so important to some parts of Perthshire, has been disappointing, a fact not without its compensations, since it has helped to keep up the prices to about three times the level of two years ago. Live stock has suffered through shortness of pasture, but some recent raiu has been helpful. On the whole, therefore, the outlook for farmers is less discouraging than it has been for some years. DEMAND FOR DISTILLERIES. It will be better still for the barleygrowers if the many current rumours as to the acquisition of Highland distilleries by American syndicates prove to be well founded. The large combines which have been well able to take care of themselves during the recent slump will not he affected; they arc not in a mood to sell; but the smaller establishments, many of which have been producing far below their capacity, will stand to gain. A distillery does not require many workmen, but the employment of even these few makes a great difference to the economy of a Highland glen or a Hebridean island. The important factor is the demand created for barley, on which farmers in districts like Banffshire and Morayshire to a large extent depend. The transactions foreshadowed include the purchase of the large matured stocks in hand, worth in one case I have heard of over £IOO,OOO. It is a pity to see distilleries which have been in the ownership of the same family for generations passing into foreign ownership, but it is at least better than seeing them standing idle. Another incidental effect is the increase which is created in the demand for coal. One distillery the other day placed an order for 10,000 tons, which will provide welcome traffic for some of the semi-deserted railway lines. HERRING TRADE HUSTLE. That the herring trade is capable of rising to an emergency is shown by an incident which occurred the other day. A steam drifter landed 175 crans at Fraserburgh late in the afternoon, and the catch was conveyed by motor lorries a distance of about 50 miles to Buckie, where, by the aid of electric light, the whole of it was cured before midnight. The importance of having the fish cured by that time lay in the fact that had it been after that hour it would have been regarded as “ overdays ” and therefore not entitled to the Fishery Board’s brand. With the signs of improved de- ! mnnd in the Baltic markets, though • these are still far short of the pre-war j level, the industry is in a better condi- j tion than it lias been for some time. | But it gave me a shock to read the; other day in the catalogue of a well- j known London store the entry “ Herrings , in oil (French).” If our curers wcVe a little more resourceful it should have been “ Scottish.” MUNICIPAL FINANCE.

As was foreseen, the Budget of Glasgow Corporation submitted this week was a gloomy document, showing a deficit of nearly £130,000 on the year’s operations and entailing an addition of practically a shilling to the rates. The shortage was mainly due to increased expenditure on housing and public assistance. On the latter there is no sign of a check in the expansion, which on the contrary is bound to be hastened by the addition to the burden of the rates on industry. It is s all the niore remarkable that the corporation should still v e able to borrow all the money it needs at 3 per cent. Dundee, on the other hand, not greatly dissimilar in its industrial character, showed a surplus of £15,000, cleared its “ common good ” fund of debt for the first time for nearly 40 years, and avoided an increase in the rates. The jute industry, on which the city is mainly dependent, has been assured of a steady market by the recent trade agreements with the Scandinavian countries and Argentina. POLICE EFFICIENCY. General R. M. Dudgeon, H.M. Inspector of Constabulary for Scotland, is eulogistic in his annual report on the condition of the force, but points out that it must bring its methods up to date by increased use of niotor vehicles and wireless. He suggests that the smaller forces should send the best of tbeir young men to the Police Recruits’ Training School in Glasgow, and if he does not refer on this occasion to the need for the amalgamation of many of these forces it is probably because that question is at present under the examination of a committee. We have too many police forces, but every suggestion that a small town should merge its_ constabulary with that of the adjoining 1 county is strongly resisted. The possession of its own police seems to be cherished by every small burgh as a proof of its independence. General Dudgeon pays a just tribute to the tact with which industrial disturbances have been handled, as well as. the still more troublesome rows arising out of sectarian fends in some of the west country towns. MINERS’ WAGES. At present the Scottish miners are working on an agreement liable to termination at one month’s notice, and their National Union has asked the owners for an early meeting to discuss wages. These are now fixed at a minimum of 8s a day for underground workers, but many of the surfacemen it is alleged receive only 31s fid for a full week’s work, and even that figure is subject to deductions. No one will regard that ns a satisfactory figure, but it is equally true that the industry is barely paying its way. Mr Andrew B. Clarke, the men’s president, is a shrewd and sensible fellow and may be assumed to mean what he says when he disclaims any desire to “ precipitate dislocation.’ The Scottish mine owners have not been remarkable for their tact in handling their men in the past; indeed, if they had been as skilful in dealing with the personal as with the material difficulties of their industry we should have been spared many of our troubles.

QUEENSFERRY “ BURRY MAN.” South Queensferry was the scene this week of one of those ancient ceremonies which have survived in the smaller towns long after their origin has been forgotten. Every house in the burgh was visited by the “ Burry man,” a local resident wearing an elaborate headdress of flowers supplied from the gardens of householders and supported by two attendants carrying staves surmounted by bouquets. He was made welcome wherever he went, for it is believed that to refuse largesse to the “ Burry man ” is to court misfortune for the rest of the year. One theory as to the origin of this custom, which is unique in Scotland, is that the “ Burry man ” is the personification of some Naturegod worshipped by primitive man during the harvest months. EDUCATIONAL METHODS. We have tended in recent years to lose the “gnid conceit” which we formerly had of our educational methods, and perhaps self-depreciation in that respect has now been carried too far. In any ease, it is pleasing to hear from Air Frank Roscoe, secretary of the Royal Society of Teachers, the testimony that lie once taught a duke’s son who had had hundreds of pounds spent on his education at Eton and elsewhere, and who declared that he learned more during a short period he attended the elementary school near his father’s seat in Scotland than he did at any of the other schools. Without attaching too much weight to an individual case, I think it is true that our Scottish “ nobility and gentry ” —to use the old phrase—make a mistake in sending their sons and daughters to English public schools for practically the whole of their education. The practice tends to widen the breach between the social classes in the country. One of our M.P.’s, the heir to a peerage, had no schooling except what ho received in the local village, and he is far from being the least useful of our representatives at Westminster. He is, besides, one of our most expert students of bird life, and when he comes into possession of his estates the chances are that he will manage them better than if he had been otherwise educated.