FROM NORTH OF TWEED

Otago Witness, Issue 3672, 29 July 1924, Page 25

FROM NORTH OF TWEED

A LETTER TO SCOTS OVERSEAS. Bt Robert S. Angus. EDINBURGH, June 15. I recently mentioned that the Lord Provost’s Committee of Edinburgh Town Council had decided to recommend that the honorary freedom of the city should be conferred on the Prime Minister. l'he proposal, however, was met with a good deal of opposition, and at the Council meeting was carried by only 30 votes to 20, with nine members abstaining. Lt was urged that in view of Mr MacDonald’s precarious tenure of the Premiership and liis attitude during the war —especially as his name would appear on the burgess roll next to that of Burgomaster Max of Brussels—the suggestion should be deferred. I gather that Mr MacDonald is taking the advice of his friends as to whether, m the circumstances, he should accept the honour, which would lose more than half ts value if it were to be the subject ot controversy. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister is having a good holiday in ms native Lossiemouth, marred only by the fact that, being still precluded from playing golf on the local links, he has to go to Spey Bay, which in the swollen state of the rivers, involves a detour of some 25 miles. HEALTHY EDINBURGH. Our Medical Officer of Health is able to report that in spite of the inclusion of densely-populated Leith within the municipal area, the year 1923 was the healthiest on record, the death-rate being down to 13.8 per thousand. That it is capable of being still further lowered is shown oy the fact that in the suburban areas it was as low as 10.6 as compared with 16.8 in St. Giles Ward, where the infantile mortality was oO per cent, higher than in the more favoured districts. The progressive decline in tuberculosis, in which Edinburgh has been a pioneer during the last 70 years, still continues, but Dr Robertson confesses that medical treatment alone cannot carry it much farther, until it is backed by better housing, more open spaces, and better food. INFANTILE MORTALITY. How fallacious short term statistics can be is shown by the present experience of Glasgow. It will be remembered that a year ago some of the local Socialist members of the House of Commons got themselves suspended because they treated a rise in the infant death-rate as a reason for calling some of their Parliamentary colleagues “murderers” and attributed the conditions to a reduction in the amount of free meals to school children. This year, under a Socialist administration, the child death-rate has been 50 per cent, higher than it was last year. The explanation is that there has been an epidemic of measles, which, though generally regarded as no serious matter, is, my doctor friends tell me, the cause of more deaths than any other fever. i expect that when Parliament meets again occasion will be taken to remind Ministers publicly of the facts now disclosed. TRAINING OF TEACHERS. Behind the scenes a hot controversy nas been in progress in regard to the new regulations for the training of teachers. The Department proposes that while lien should continue to undergo a four years’ course, women should be regarded as qualified in two years,—an arrangement which Dr MacDonald declares to be necessary if the supply is to be maintained sufficiently to fill the vacancies. The teachers protest that this discrimination between the sexes is indefensible, and this lowering of the standard is deplorable, especially at a time when tne aim should be to raise the status of the profession. They contend that this is a favourable time for making the conditions stiffer, as, owing to the war, the school population is, and will remain for some years, lower than it was in 1914. All they have been able to secure from the department, however, is a promise that m admission to the training colleges preference will be given to students who are prepared to undertake the four years' course, and that nothing will be done to make it difficult for a student to combine a university degree with the teacher’s certificate. AT FORESTATION. It has long been assumed that the area of land available for afforestation is greater in Scotland than in any other part of the Kingdom. It has been discovered, however, that much of the land which looks suitable is covered with peat, and no means have yet been discovered of making trees grow satisfactorily on a peat sub-soil. Lord Lovat and his colleagues on the Forrestry Commission are working hard at the problem, but do not pretend to see a solution yet. I gather they are a little uneasy at the Prime Minister's references to forestry as a remedy for unemployment. Indirectly it may be, since it tends to prevent men from drifting into the towns, but to suggest that the skilled and semi-skilled craftsmen of the shipyards and the steel works of Lanarkshire can be drafted to the moors ol Invernessshire and Perthshire to plant trees is merely to arouse false hopes. Still, the Forestry Commission has done great work, not merely in increasing the area planted directly, but in the encouragement and assistance it has given to private owners to re-afforest their property. HIGHLAND PIERS. The Secretary for Scotland tells me he is to introduce a Bill dealing with what may seem a small problem, but is one of utmost importance to the localities concerned. All along the west coast and on the islands there are piers belonging to the local landowners who find that they are unable to put or keep them in a proper state of repair, especially as the ourrent revenue does not meet the normal

expenses. The matter came to a head at Loehboisdale, where Lady Gordon Oathcart, finding herself in the position described, closed the pier and announced her readiness to hand it over to the- Government for nothing. But none of the State departments has power or funds for such a purpose, a [id even if they had, it was evident that if they took one pier, they would soon have scores of them on their hands. Mr Adamson now proposes to torm special local authorities, with power to impose rates on the district for the maintenance of the piers. Though they do not pay, the piers are essential to the life of these out of the way localities. BOY SCOUTS’ PUSH. Next week is to be devoted to a special movement to give the Boy Sc-out movement a distinct push forward in Scotland. Glasgow had the honour of originating the Boy’s Brigade organisation some 50 years ago, and though it - did, and is, doing great work, its younger and more open-air rival has made a larger appeal to youthful minds. It is right that Edinburgh should take an interest in the Boy Scouts, for it was at a meeting in the Synod Hall that General lladenPowell, in December, 1907, made the first public statement of his ideas in the training of boys to good citizenship through the attractive medium of scouting. Birkenhead, I believe, has a memorial tablet claiming to mark tlve birthplace of the movement, but that is dated January, 1908, so that Edinburgh has a clear priority. The secretary of the local Y.M.C.A., under whose auspices the meeting was held, at once undertook charge of the arrangements. GLENEAGLES. To the golfing world, Uleneagles has been a familiar name for a good many years, but only this week has the scheme as first contemplated, been completed oy the opening of a palatial hotel at that place. The building was begun at the same time as the construction of che course, but was held up during the war and was not resumed till 1922. Hitherto, the drawback to Gleneagles has been the lack of local accommodation, but that is now removed, —at any rate, for those to whom money is no object. Obviously, luxurious quarters of the kind offered cannot be cheap, especially when facilities for tennis, fishing, shooting and swimming are added, to say nothing of catering on the West End" of London standard. Whether the enterprise will he a commercial success remains to be tested. The promoters, I believe, were inspired by the lucrative success of the railway hotel at Turnberry on the Ayrshire coast. But there a 12-months’ season can be counted upon, whereas in the heart of Perthshire, they will be lucky if they get eight or nine months. The hotel has some aOU bedrooms. THE GOLF SEASON. The opening of the hotel coincides with the annual tournament on the links there, so that the enterprise is sure of a good send-off. That event has now come to oe almost the central feature of the golf-com-petition season, which is now in lu.l swing. Local clubs have taken advantage of the presence of all the leading professionals to secure their services for displays. James Braid and George Duncan met Arthur Havers the open champion, and Gordon Lockhart of Gleneagles in playing the opening round on a new course which has been made at Dunblane, in the ground of Colonel J. A. Stirling "on the banks of Allan Water,” and on the lower slopes of Shenifmuir — names which alone are enough to thrill any Scotsman. The course has been designed by Major C. K. Hutchison, with the assistance of Braid, and the promoters claim that for beauty of scenery now and for perfection of greens in the near future, it will not be second even to Gleneagles, its more famous neighbour. The enterprise has cost £4OOO, but all concerned are confident that it will be a good investment, not merely from the financial point of view.

Grantown, another course which lor beauty of setting was supposed to be preeminent till it was challenged by Gleneagles, has been remodelled, and Duncan (who belongs to Aberdeen) went with Mitchell to celebrate the occasion, which the latter did by setting up a new record of 66- Peter Robertson, the professional at the Braids, won the Scottish Professional Championship on the Burgh Course at North Berwick. He gained the honour threo years ago, and was runner-up last year. The Dispatch trophy, which brings out a keen rivalry between the Edinburgh amateurs and draws several thousand spectators to the Braid Hills for three or four Saturday afternoons, was won for the fourth time by Stewart’s College quartet by a fairly comfortable margin over the Commercial Bank team. The marvel is that the Braids, which probably carries more players than many other in the world- — not even excepting the St. Andrews courses —remains in such splendid condition. Yet I well remember the scepticism with which little more than 30 years ago, the suggestion of some friends of mine was received when they urged that the place could be made into a good golf course.