FROM NORTH OF TWEED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22792, 30 January 1936, Page 6

FROM NORTH OF TWEED

A LETTER TO OVERSEAS SCOTS Written for the Otago Daily Times.

By Robert S. Angus.

EDINBURGH, December 19. If the clouds which cause uneasiness about international and industrial peace were dissipated, Scotland could look back on 1935 with satisfaction, and forward to 1936 with reasonable hope. The danger of disturbance in either sphere is probably not as great as it seems, but It is sufficient to discourage the confidence which is essential. Happily the prospects of avoiding a stoppage in the coal trade are good. The Scottish owners since they depend mainly on the export trade, cannot offer as large an increase as some of the other districts, but they are prepared to offer something, and neither side is in a mood to quarrel. Shipbuilding orders arc still coining to hand, and it is of pleasant significance that the Lanarkshire steel works have decided to reduce the New Year holiday to a minimum. The Earl of Mar and Kellie, addressing the hundred and twenty-fifth annual meeting of the Commercial Bank, of which he is governor, reported a steady improvement in trading conditions at home. As a sight of the bank's progress he mentioned the presence of a shareholder who had attended almost every meeting for 53 years and had thus seen the balance sheet total grow from 12 to nearly 52 millions. The directors decided to distribute a special bonus to the staff in celebration of the anniversary. ABERDEEN'S SAVINGS.

First among the trustees savings banks (■o make its annual report, the Aberdeen institution records that its deposits have increased during the year by £617,500, and now stand at oyer £11,000,000. As the bank operates over a considerable part of the north-east it is impossible to say how much that represents per head of the population, but it is indicative of its saving habits that over 12,000 new accounts were opened during the year. That figure is the more significant when one remembers that neither agriculture nor fishing, the two chief industries of the district, is flourishing. I expect that the other savings banks will have much the same tale to tell. CRIME INCREASE. A less welcome sign of returning prosperity is an increase during 1934, for the first time in 13 years, in the number of crimes, particularly those in which strong drink plays a part. These, with road offences and petty contraventions, provide four-fifths of the total number of prosecutions. Betting prosecutions, for instance, increased from 3402 to 4381. Serious crimes showed no great variation and it is .particularly satisfactory that, contrary to experience elsewhere, juvenile offences show a tendency to diminish, partly owing to the growth in the practice of placing young offenders on probation. But the figures as a whole are & long way below those which were regarded as normal in pre-war years. ST. ANDREW SOCIETY. I am as keen as the next man to resent any failure to recognise Scotland's national position, and agree with the protest the St. Andrew Society have sent in to the .Scottish Secretary against the use of the word "England" when Britain is meant. But some of the society's grievances about national flags, heraldry, and so forth seem scarcely worth troubling about. They are irritating, but not important, and it serves no purpose to make a fuss about them. In these days it is far more urgent to see that we get fair play in material affairs, and though the Scottish Nationalists hotly dispute the suggestion, we are not badly off in that respect. LORD CLERK REGISTER. What the duties of the Lord Clerk Register are I have no idea, but I know that the position is highly coveted. It was held by the late Duke of Buccleuch, who succeeded the Duke of Montrose, and I hear that it will now be conferred on the Earl of Mar and Kellie, who is Scotland's premier viscount, Chancellor of the Order of the Thistle, Hereditary Keeper of Stirling Castle, and a personal friend of the King, whom he represented at the jubilee thanksgiving service in St. Giles Cathedral. SIR HECTOR MUNRO. By the death of Sir Hector Munro, Lord Lieutenant of Ross and Cromarty, the Highlands have lost almost their oldest chieftain. He was 86 years of age, and for over CO years he had managed the Foulis estates, of which he was the twenty-ninth holder. Unlike too many of his class, he was content to find his whole interest in living among and working for his own people, administering his property with knowledge and sympathy, and taking a leading part in local government. One of the Munro charters, granted by Robert the Second, requires the owners to present the King with a snowball at mid-summer, not as onerous a condition as it seems, since Ben Wyvis is within easy reach. A Munro was killed at the battle of Pinkie, another fought under Gustavus Adolphus, a third under Marlborough, one gained distinction at Fontenoy, and one fell at the battle of Falkirk lighting for the Hanoverians against the Jacobites. Unfortunately, the title and the estates will now be separated. The heir to the baronetcy is a retired clerk in London, and the estates go to a grandson, Lieutenant Patrick Gascoigne, the son of one of Sir Hector's daughters. Sir Hector's son was killed in the European War. " HEART OF MIDLOTHIAN " MS. The National Library of Scotland has come into possession of a literary treasure of the first importance—the manuscript, complete except for five pages, of Scott's " Heart of Midlothian." It has been presented by Miss J. G. Topham, of Middleham House, Yorkshire, the great-grand-daughter of Alexander Cowan, who was trustee under the bankruptcy of Archibald Constable and Co., who received the manuscript from the creditors in recognition of his services. It was generally supposed to have disappeared, but scholars were well aware

that it was in safe keeping and that it would ultimately come into the ownership of the Scottish public. It is in contemporary binding and, except for the blank already mentioned, in excellent condition. It discloses the interesting fact that David Deans was originally to have been named Andrew and that Reuben Butler was to have had the surname of Tawse, Perhaps Scott thought that that name had a slightly comic suggestion inappropriate to the character as he ultimately developed in the author's hands. CHARTERIS CENTENARY The Church of Scotland has done well to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Professor A. H. Charteris. He was ,a leader of the movement which stim.l its dry bones during the latter part of the nineteenth century and brought iU influence to bear more intimately on the life of the people. The son of the village schoolmaster in the Dumfriesshire village of" Wamphray—which produced three moderators of the church—he became professor of biblical criticism in Edinburgh University at the age of 33 and for 30 years he was not merely a" potent influence on the students who passed through his class, but a pioneer in many forms of social work, especially among the young, and he was the founder of the Holly Tree in the slums of Edinburgh to demonstrate his belief that a public-house could deserve that name although it sold no alcohol. Long before it seemed practical Dr Charteris was an advocate of the reunion of Scottish Presbyterianism and contributed to the fulfilment of an ideal which was not attained until after his time. His work was all the more remarkable in view of his long struggle against ill-health. DR COWAN'S BEQUESTS. Under the will of Dr Thomas Cowan, the Leith ship owner, Edinburgh University is to receive £IO,OOO for the enlargement and improvement of the hostel which bears his name, the Royal Infismary £2500 in addition to the £IO,OOO he gave to the extension scheme, Leith Hospital £2500, and eight other institutions £SOO each. A RAILWAY MANAGER. Mr Donald A. Matheson, x whose name was long familiar to the Scottish public as manager of the Caledonian Railway, died this week after nearly 10 years spent in retirement. He entered the railway service as an engineer and in that capacity was responsible for the Glasgow underground railway, the reconstruction of the Central Station in that city, the building of *Gleheagles Hotel, and many other important' enterprises. During the war, especially in his year as chairman of the Railway Managers' Conference, he played a responsible part in the organisation of the country's transport services. His work left him little time for other activities, but he was specially interested in the Glasgow Royal Infirmary.