IN LIGHTER VEIN

Southland Times, Issue 21848, 27 October 1932, Page 6

IN LIGHTER VEIN

MEMBER FOR MATAURA SINGS “BONNIE PRINCE CHARLIE” SCOTLAND DEFAMED (From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) Wellington, October 26. Interest in the Financial debate was quickened to an amazing degree in the House of Representatives this evening by the advent of the Member for Mataura into the lists with the wealth of his customary Scottish humour and the addition of a song. He told members frankly what he thought of affairs in New Zealand and what he had thought of affairs in Scotland before he left and declared that he thanked his Maker morning, noon and night because he was in the Dominion. The member for Grey Lynn had given members some history of Scotland on the previous evening, Mr McDougall said, and what he had said was very interesting and very correct. Mr Lee had referred to the McLeans and the McLeods—in fact, to all of the clans except the McDougalls (laughter) and when he was sparking on all four plugs Mr McDougall had expected him to sing the song of Prince Charlie. Mr F. Langstone: Sing it. Mr McDougall promptly did so and later said that as the member for Grey Lynn had given a song he would sing a second one. “I want to tell you something of the slums of Glasgow,” he said, “because I came from there and I want to say that the boy who grew up there and was able to shun what was evil and select what was good deserves credit. Members: Hear, hear. On the south bank of the Clyde there were hundreds ■of workmen’s cottages, Mr McDougall continued, and the one he had rented was owned by a Mr McLean and the McLeans were just as hard as Mr Langstone and the McLeods (Laughter.) Mr McDougall: He was a racketeer and I was glad to get away from him and like the member for Temuka I have always praised my Maker morning, noon and night because I came to New Zealand. I heard mothers plead with their sons not to leave home, but they knew what Scotland was and they went, and to come out here 60 years ago was very different from what it is now. We had to travel in a windjammer and live on fat pork and pea soup and it was that strong it could climb up four flights of stairs. (Laughter.) Continuing, Mr McDougall said that one of his wife’s brothers had quarrelled with the laird or the factor as they called him and to do that was a heinous crime in Scotland. The police were sent to arrest him, but he got on board the boat at Glasgow and sailed to America and because they could not get the son they turned his mother out on to the road. “Can you blame any man or woman for wanting to get away from a country like that?” he asked. “I got away and I’m glad I did because if I had stopped there I would have been dancing on the end of the rope long ago.” (Laughter.) After quoting from Burns’s poems Mr McDougall asked: “Where would any working man be without any independence who would shed a tear at leaving a country like that.”