FROM NORTH OF TWEED

Otago Witness, Issue 4063, 26 January 1932, Page 63

FROM NORTH OF TWEED

A LETTER TO OVERSEAS SCOTS

By

Robert S. Angus.

EDINBURGH, December 3. From various parts of the country reports continue to come that the local people are expecting a trade revival. Most of it seems to be still in the realm of expectation, but even the hopefulness which is thereby induced is a useful factor, tending to bring about its own fulfilment. One small but solid fact is that during October the orders lor new ships to be built on the Clyde, though not large, exceeded the number of launches and, in spite of the French restriction, the export trade in coal is a little brighter. Falkirk, which may be called the Birmingham area of Scotland, has had a number of inquiries from America, Germany and Holland in regard to factories or factory sites, and I am told that at least two firms of silk manufacturers are looking for suitable premises in Dunfermline where one was successfully established a few years ago. The inclusion of made-up linen goods and of jute carpets in the schedule of the Abnormal Imports Act has been hailed with great satisfaction in Dundee, Montrose, and Dunfermline, all of which should benefit substantially. Sir John Gilmour’s statement of the Government scheme for the restriction of flower, fruit and vagetable imports has given some encouragement to our potato growers, for, though they cannot come into the market so soon as their rivals in the South, the postponement of the arrival of new potatoes from abroad will prolong the demand for the main crop. On the other hand our farmers are disappointed that nothing is to be done for oats and barley analogous to the wheat quota. I was surprised to learn from Lord Dalkeith the other day that we have so much as 55,000 acres under wheat, the counties which grow most being, in the order named, Angus, Perth, Fife, and the Lothians. More remarkable still is the fact that the aver age yield per acre is higher in Angus j than anywhere else in the world. The I Scottish farmers must console themselves meanwhile with the reflection that what ! benefits one part of the agricultural industry must in the end be good for the whole.

THE TOURIST INDUSTRY. I was told the other day that in some of the Highland resorts the hotels, which are usually closed for the winter, have had the whole of their accommodation booked for the Christmas and New Year weeks, presumably by persons who hope to get ski-ing and skating. Elaborate arrangements are being made by the proprietors to amuse their guests in the all-too-probable event of their being unable to get either snow or ice, which in the ordinary year do not arrive till later. I hear, too, of an unexpected demand for shooting lodges, which usually are tenantless during the winter. One owner was candid enough to warn an applicant, a lady, that she had better take three months* provisions with her, to which she cheerfully replied that the local authorities would keep the roads open with snow ploughs. She did not realise that the road to her proposed temporary home is little better than a mountain track. The movement, however, is all to the good So authoritative a .person as Professor F. W. Ogilvie, who occupies the chair of political economy in Edinburgh, estimates that the tourist traffic is worth at least £10,000,000 a year to this country, apart from the indirect stimulus to trade in many directions. If we can seize the present opportunity to increase our share, the benefit should be substantial. Much will depend on making a good start, and no doubt that is realised by the hotel-keepers and others concerned. YOUTH HOSTELS.

In this connection I may mention the success of the youth hostels movement. Though the association was formed so recently as last March nine hostels have already been opened, five in the Edinburgh district, two near. Glasgow, one in the south, and another in the north, and seven of them are to remain open during the winter. All this has been done for the extremely modest outlay ot £l3OO. Lord Salvesen, who retains a boyish enthusiasm at the age of 74. is the head of the movement, and I gather he is as determined to make it as much of a success as he did in the case of the Scottish Zoo.

SCOTTISH ART. Professor Herbert Read, who was recently appointed to the chair of fine arts, promises to be a great acquisition to the public life, of Edinburgh, following in that respect the excellent example of his predecessor, Dr Baldwin Brown. The other night he delivered a broadcast address on the exhibition of the Society of Scottish ■ Artists, and made the encouraging suggestion that Scotland might establish a movement in art comparable to the great Continental movements of the last 50 years. In particular, he notes signs of a renaissance of church art in Scotland —probably a legacy from Sir Robert Lorimer —to which a special section of the exhibition is devoted. If that comes, it will be welcome, for many of our churches suggest that the designers regarded religion and ugliness as closely related. Another interesting proposal in this sphere is that Edinburgh should have a municipal art gallery. No doubt we should have had one long ago like every other self-respecting town of any size, but for the existence

of the National Gallery, with its small but admirable representation of masterpieces. The Lord Provost suggests that one of the large west-end mansions, now a drug in the market, should be acquired in order to house examples of modern Scottish art. Unhappily, the times are not propitious for raising the money, but any citizen who desires to provide a permenent memorial to himself might consider the proposal.

BANNOCKBURN SITE. Though all the money required has not yet been obtained, the acquisition of the field of Bannockburn has, as I recently mentioned, been effected, the amount in hand being £4452. The list of subscribers is interesting. The largest sum, £514, came from a New York Committee formed for the purpose, and the other contributions come from places ’so far apart as Trinidad, Toronto, St Louis, Victoria (8.C.), Quebec, Winnipeg,’ Valpariso, Calcutta, Capetown, -Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, Bengal. Regina, Ballarat, Adelaide, and New Zealand. The subscription list is still open, and its treasurer, is Mr Joseph Jardine, solicitor, 80 Port street, Stirling. SCOTTISH HISTORY SOCIETY. An outstanding incident of the Scottish History Society's year is the fact that Queen Mary has become one of its 631 subscribing members, a pleasing sign of the interest she has long taken In the past of the Scottish kingdom. The society’s two publications for the year will consist of another instalment of the Warrender Papers and a collection of “ Diplomatic Papers Illustrative of the Flodden Period ’’—titles which indicate the good value the society gives for its modest annual subscription. The president, Mr John Buchan, is to address th» annual meetini on Saturday on “ The Difficulties of a Contemporary Historian,” a subject on which he speaks with personal knowledge. CARSTARES MONUMENT. It is interesting to find that, more than 200 years after his death, there should still be descendants of William Carstares sufficiently interested in his memory to restore his monument in Greyfriars Churchyard, Carstares, who died in 1715, was principal of Edinburgh University, minister of the High Church, and chaplain to William of Orange, Queen Anne, and George 1. Macaulay declared that William had one Scottish adviser “ who deserved and possessed more influence than any of the ostensible Ministers. This was William Carstares, one of the most remarkable men of that age.” In bis early days he was arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the Rye House Plot and was tortured to extract a confession, one of his judges being " Bluidy Mackenzie,” who lies near him in the same churchyard. The monument, on rhe west vail, near the Covenanters' Prison, is an example of the bold architectural monuments of period. It was restored in 1876, but the stonework had again become decayed and the inscription was almost illegible; the work now done has retained as far as possible its characteristic features.

A FORTUNATE FACTOR. Mr Joseph Murray, who died this week, was for nearly 40 years factor to the late Earl of Camperdown, who, on his death in 1918, bequeat’ cd to him the Lundie estate, consisting of about a dozen pleasant farms in the bend of the Sidlaw Hills. No one grudged Mr Murray his good fortune, for he was esteemed alike by the tenantry in whose affairs he took a sympathetic personal interest, and ~by his colleagues on the many public bodies of which he was a member. He was succeeded as factor on the Camperdown estates by his son, Mr T. P. Douglas Murray. These passed under an entail to the Countess of Buckinghamshire, a distant kinswoman. ST. ANDREWS DAY.

Not so long ago St. Andrews Day was allowed to pass almost unobserved by Scotsmen at home, and the principal celebration was the annual festival of the Royal Scottish Corporation in London. That gathering was presided over this year by Lord Macmillan, who, though late in his migration to the south, stepped ar once into the professional and public recognition which his gifts justified. The corporation, in spite of stringency of funds, continues its admirable work of caring for poor and aged Scots in London. It is a sign of growing national conscious ness that year by year the recognition of

St. Andrews Day increases in Scotland, and on Monday, apart from the scoal gatherings, many of the churches held special services. EDINBURGH INFIRMARY APPEAL. The governors of Edinburgh Royal In firmary are not yet halfway to the goal which they set for themselves a year ago. when they set out to raise half a million for much-needed extensions. But, con sidering the adverse circumstances, they are not dissatisfied with their achievement. An appeal to Edinburgh medical graduates has evoked subscriptions from all over the world, but it is felt that that field has not yet been exhausted; there must be many doctors who feel that they owe a debt to the institution in which they received their professional training and have not yet taken the opportunity to discharge part of it. As Lady Findlay, chairman of the board of managers, pointed out, the extension which is contemplated will entail an additional expenditure of £15,000 a year* for maintenance, but that is a burden which will be cheerfully shouldered when it is. real ised that at this moment over 2000 persons are in need of treatment which they

cannot be given because no room is available for them. It is not pleasant to think of the needless suffering which that figure represents.