WHISKY TALLEY

Hokitika Guardian, 2 April 1921, Page 4

WHISKY TALLEY

(By W. Sellar Hay, in Daily Mail). Mow many of that great army which during the past few weeks lias been drinking zealous pledges know anything about the home of the Highland whisky which they find so palatable in times of good cheer and so serviceable in illness? Their number must be very few. Probably in the majority of cases a direct question on the subject would elicit some such answer as “Oh, somewhere in Scotland-,” Yet the plain fact is that on the northern slopes of the Grampians are towns which are wholly dependent on the distilleries for their daily bread. If “Pussyfoot” could suddenly shut off the manufacture of whisky, at least three thriving burghs would be turned into topsy-turvydom. Scarcely a man in them would be left with a livelihood, for all the other trades rely to a large extent on the distilleries. The great bulk ol Highland whisky is produced in the counties ol Banff, Moray, and Nairn. Narrowing down the radius, one may say that the real home of the distilleries lies in the fifteen miles—almost due north and south—of bill and river, burn and glen, that stretch between the upland town of Dufftown and lowland Elgin. Neither Dufftown, Aberlour, nor Bodies has any industry save the production of whisky, and all three of them are brisk little towns in possession of a full-fledged provost (mayor) of their own. The day of their decline and fall will be the day when the towering brick chimneys of their distilleries cease to belch forth pungent peat reck into the keen bill air. Somewhere not far off 11 so Duiltown Elgin line referred to are brewed such 1 well-known brands as the Glenlivet the right to the definite article was won in a costly Court of Session (Edinburgh High Court) action many years ago), Glentiddich, White Horse, Macallan. Glcnfarclas, Benrinnes, Glenspey, Glendullan, Pnrkmore, black and White, Glenelgin, Colcburn, Longmorn, ' Glenlossie, Kinkwood, Glenmorav, and Miltonduff. In fact, one cannot travel very far 1 along the banks of the Middle Spey without discovering here and there, ' peeping round the edge of a wood or over the brow of a hill, the substantial structure of some distillery whose product adorns the spirit shop windows of London, Manchester, and the Do--1 minions. Now it so happens that the present ' time is the most prosperous that dis--1 tilling Speyside lias ever known. Tn--1 deed, while work is growing daily more 1 scarce elsewhere, the Whisky V alley* has no unemployment nor even the • likelihood of any for many months to come. I All the distilleries are working night 1 and day and the staffs are at the maximum. For the most part the workmen are ‘ housed in trim dwellings built and own- ' ed by the companies. In their spare time they till their gardens, always ' with an eye to the annual prizes l'o'r the I best cultivated. Most of them, too, are anglers, and few workmen up and > down the country can have finer opportunities at their doors for indulging in * the gentle art.