BACK TO SCOTLAND

Taranaki Daily News, 27 January 1934, Page 21 (Supplement)

BACK TO SCOTLAND

A MOVEMENT PREDICTED. DANGERS OF DEPOPULATION. Concern at the depopulation of Scotland, which he said was due to emigration, was expressed by Mr. C. S. Thomas, president of the Canterbury Caledonian Society, when he spoke at the civic welcome to the Victorian Scottish delegation. He forecast that if it continued the ultimate- result would be that many of Scottish descent would return to Scotland,

“The wonderful national spirit of all Scotsmen is in evidence wherever the Union Jack flies,” said Mr. Thomas, “and I doubt if . there has ever been a people which has provided such great colonisers. The question whether emigration is being overdone is providing students of Scottish affairs with food for deliberation. The glens are becoming empty and the farms deserted. Scotland is becoming depopulated, I consider, and the great exodus will have to cease if Scotland is to hold its proud position and individuality. The limit in emigration has been reached. \lt is often said that a Scotsman will soon fill an empty place, but I think that the time will come when the tide will turn—and Scotland will be populated by that turn. The turning of the country into deer forest and game preserves will stop, and sons and daughters of Scotsmen and Scotswomen will build Scotland again.”

To support his contention Mr. Thomas gave instances from his experience when he visited Scotland approximately two years ago. On one occasion, he said, he spoke to a farmer in Scotland concerning some cattle of unusual conformation and colour. He mentioned that the type was unknown in the country in which he lived. “Where might that be?” the farmer had asked. When he replied: “New Zealand,” the farmer laughed and said: “Well, I come from Otago myself.” On another occasion he had visited a hotel and had there met a man who had once been a witness in a Court case in New Zealand in which the speaker had appeared as counsel. Mr. Thomas added that he found Scotland was standing best against the economic depression in the United Kingdom, and he was convinced that without Scotland there would not be a British Empire, so important a part had its people played. He attributed the Scotsman’s retention of his individuality to the fact that he was not an international and was not cosmopolitan.