FROM NORTH OF TWEED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22505, 25 February 1935, Page 18

FROM NORTH OF TWEED

LETTER TO OVERSEAS SCOTS I Written for the Otago Daily Times. By Robert S. Angus. EDINBURGH, January 10. The New Year has made a good start. The best proof is that the holiday of the Clyde shipyard workers was shortened to meet the pressure of work, and the steel works and coal mines cheerfully followed suit. To the work in hand will shortly be added two large cargo-passenger steamers which the Blythswood Shipbuilding Company has contracted to build at-Scotstoun for the Furness-Rcd Cross Line. It is significant that the vessels are to burn oil fuel, but confidence in the future of coal is indicated by the decision of the Fife Coal Company to open a new colliery at Comrie, in the parish ,of Carnock, near Dunfermline. It is estimated that within the next four years some 800 men will be employed there, and that the number will ultimately be doubled. The West of Scotland stands to gain substantially from the coal-cattle agreement with the Irish Free. State, the east will continue to benefit from the trade agreements with Continental countries. The Export Credits Department has opened an office in Glasgow, and it is hoped that Scottish traders will .take greater advantage of its facilities than they have hitherto done. During the second half of 1934 Clyde Trust revenue increased by £55.000, and altogether the outlook is more cheerful than it has been for some years. POST OFFICE DEVELOPMENTS. Sir Kingsley Wood, the Postmastergeneral, paid a surprise visit to Glasgow the other day' to announce that his department, already enjoying the fruits of better times, is anxious to make its contribution to economic recovery.' He gave figures to show that his forward policy has elicited an encouraging; response. For instance, the number ot telephone calls made in Glasgow during the week before Christmas was 150,000 greater than in the corresponding week of 1933. The success of cheap calls at night has surpassed all expectation, and cheaper rents have sent up the number of subscribers at an unprecedented rate. During 1934 they increased by 3550 in Glasgow alone. Sir Kingsley announced several impending changes in the personnel of his Scottish staff. Mr F. G. Milne, the first Scotsman for a hundred years to be Secretary of the Post Office m Scotland, is to be succeeded on retirement by Colonel F. N. Westbury, at present postmaster-surveyor in Glasgow. He is to be followed by Mr T. H. Boyd, at present assistant-controller of the London postal and Mr A. Cameron, a Highlander, who is at present postmaster of Middlesbrough, is to be controller or posts and telegraphs in the Edinburgh area. MILK MARKETING. There is still no settlement of the dispute between the East of Scotland farmers and the Milk Marketing Board. The improved terms offered by the board, accompanied by an immediate inquiry into the whole system, has been rejected, and the dreary tale of actions in the courts still continues. ■ I cannot help thinking that the farmers have been badly advised. They want the benefits of control without any of its disadvantages, and they have been so long accustomed to manage their business in their own way that they resent interference, although they admit that without it their position would have been still more. grievous. . >' .INFIRMARY APPEAL. Edinburgh Royal Infirmary managers have decided to attempt the raising ot another £IOO,OOO towards the fund of half a million which they need for extension of their buildings. They launched their scheme at the very worst of the industrial depression, and did remarkably well to get nearly £300,000. Sir Thomas Whitson, who was Lord Provost when the effort was started, complains that, while the workers contribute weekly by deductions from their wages and a few of the wealthy give large sums, the response made by the mjddle class is inadequate. That is scarcely surprising, seeing that they get little direct beneht from the infirmary. When they have illness in their families it is either treated at home or the patient, is removed to an expensive nursing home. There is, therefore, much force in their appeal that the infirmary should provide paying beds, available at moderate fees" which would still leave a slight profit to the institution; but a scheme with that object raised such an outcry that it seems to have beeri abandoned. SIR ALFRED EWING.

Edinburgh University graduates all over the world will regret to learn of the death of their former principal, Sir Alfred Ewing. Few men have had a more varied or a more useful career. In peace, he made valuable contributions to practical science;, in war,' hie skill in cipher-reading was an important factor in the victory of the Allies. Here we remember him best for his great work in the development of the University. During the 13 years he was its head he founded no fewer than 13 new chairs, as well as many lectureships, and secured the erection of new buildings for the science departments. Indeed, if his policy was open to criticism, it committed the University to an increase in annual expenditure which it ha s had difficulty in meeting. His geniality and ready wit endeared "Alfy" to his students. When he capped Eric Liddell, the famous" sprinter, he remarked that the examiners were the only men who could pass him. After his retirement he made nis home in Cambridge, where he had formerly been a professor, but he came frequently to see us, and was always welcome. DAME LOUISA LUMSDEN. Another education pioneer has passed away this week in the person of Dame Louisa Lumsden, who died at her Edinburgh home in her ninety-fifth year. Her early education was of the scrappy type which was considered good enough for women 80 years ago, but she was included in the first batch of students at Girton College, Cambridge (one of the only two women who ever passed the classical tripos), lectured there and at Cheltenham, founded the famous St. Leonards School for girls at St. Andrews, and was the first warden of the women's hall at St. Andrews. After her retirement at the age of 71 she took an active part in the suffrage movement, assisted recruiting during the war, helped in the foundation of Women's Rural Institutes, spoke against cruelty to animals, addressed political meetings—altogether an amazing record for a women who all her life had to struggle against ill-health. Her appointment as a Dame of the Order of the British Empire and her degiee of LL.D. from St. Andrews University were among the official recognitions of her great work. OLD EDINBURGH. »'

Acheson House, in Bakehouse Close, off the Canongate, a fine specimen of a seventeenth century mansion, is to be saved from destruction after it seemed to be doomed. The Corporation of Edinburgh had bought it in order to demolish it as part of a slum clearance scheme. It has now been acquired by an anonymous citizen who proposes to restore it as nearly as possible to its original condition, externally and internally, and preserve it to show how our ancestors lived at the time of the Union of the Crowns. On the other hand, the demolition of Potters" Eow is now in progress. Tradition states that General Monk once lived there, and it is certain that in old days it was inhabited by dukes and earls, to say nothing of Mrs Maclehose, the " Clarinda" of Robert Burns or of Thomas Campbell, the poet. It has long since degenerated into a slum street, too narrow to justify any attempt to preserve its buildings, and bearing few traces of its former greatness POLLOK ESTATE.

Rural scenery is no more immune than urban buildings of historical associations from the needs of modern times. GlasCorporation has given notice of its intention to acquire some 700 acres of the Pollok estate, between Pollokshaws and Crookstone, on the southern outskirts of the city, and the most beautiful tract of land within easy reach. Sir John Stirling-Maxwell, the owner, is anxious that its beauties should be preserved, and towards that end suggests that development of the site should be entrusted to private architects. The corporation profess the same object, but object to the extra cost which would bs involved. They propose to erect 7000 houses at a cost of about two millions sterling, and they will apply for compulsory powers of acquisition if an agree-

meni cannot ue icatucu. on ouim 10 reputed to have an income of £40,000 a year from feu duties on his Glasgow property, but he ha s always taken an enlightened view of his duties as a land owner.