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THE SUFFERERS OF SKYE. (From the "Times" April 8.)

Some days since we attempted to enlist the sympathies of the public in favour of the unfortunate inhabitants of the Island of Skyc. _ We had then before us a specific scheme, by which it was proposed to remove four hundred families, amounting to upwards of two thousand persons, from the starvation and misery of Skye to the plenty and comfort of Australia. The main expense of this emigration is to be defrayed by

the land fund of the Australian colony, nnd the biibseription which the benevolent persons whom wo alluded to are raising is merely to defray certain incidental expenses not covered by the money to be advanced by the Land and Emigration Commissioners. We never considered this plan asacomplete measure of relief for the miseries of the island. The removal of less than an eleventh of the present superabundant population isbuta slight and inconsiderable palliative,muiwc thank our correspondent " Scotiis " for reminding; us of the utter incompatibility of the present state of Skye with the wants and demands of the existing state of society. Our correspondent is at issue with us as to the causes of that undoubted fact — the insolvency of the two largest proprietors of the island. At any rate about the fact itself there can be no dispute. Trustees and mortgagees aro in possession of the two principal estates, and the poor have nothing to hope from the generosity of those who are unfortunately not in a position to be just. Lord Macdonald, whose letter we print to-day, may prote&t as loudly as he pleases as to the purity of his motives and the honesty of his intentions. With these we have nothing to do. It may also be true that during the last three years many thousand pounds of rent have been remitted to the starving inhabitants of Skye, but little credit ought to be taken for the remission of that which it would have been obviously impossible to enforce. A man cannot he at once prodigal and just, liberal to over-rented tenants and fair to unpaid creditors. T ho man who affects to be generous to his dependents before he nays his deots is really giving- away that which is not his own. We commend the alternative to Lord Macdonalds consideration. But according to "Scotus" it is not to the large proprietors, but to the operation of free trade that the present destitute state of Skye is to be attributed. Oats and potatoes were their favourite crops. Sometimes the one failed, sometimes tno other; but the dearness of that which succeeded compensated for the loss on that which failed. Now, unhappily, the failure of' a crop no longer produces famine ; the oats of other countries fill up the vacuum, and the peasant of Skye cannot prosper upon scarcity. A second grievance, according to our correspondent, is that Kelp has been superseded by barilla — the better and cheaper article has driven out the dearer and worse, both have been superseded by something better still, and the island is doubly ruined. Skye wants a good price for oats and barley, and as "Scotus" can see nobody hut the Manchester men, the spinners of cotton twist, who profit hy their cheapness, he concludes that Skye is sacrificed to Manchester, and the Gael to the Saxon. With f s much justice might Rob Roy or Evan Dhu have complained that the Highlands were ruined by Lowland tyranny, when the strong arm of thelaw was employed to put down the levying of black mail or the practice of cattle-lifting. "Scotus" evidently thinks that it is the previlege of the Western Celt to live on a tribute extorted from the rest of the empire, and feels aggrieved that Parliament declines to continue those supplies which were once yielded to the dirk and the claymore. Our correspondent deplores in pathetic language the coming expatriation of a people who have lived for a thousand years in Sfeye, who love its rocks and desolation, and who venerate the graves of their progenitors ; and assures us that Skye landlords think more of their ancient clansmen than of mere money. What Skye landlords think about mere money, unfortunately, matters very little, since all their thoughts will not prevent their clansmen from starving on their estates, or give one loaf of bread to protract the existence of their hereditary vassals. The memories of a thousand years — we suppose we must say, of glory and civilization — ancl the continual prospect of rocks and desolation might have been preserved to the people of Skye, if her destinies had fallen into the hands of persons less tinctured with the absurd feeling of obsoleto feudality, and more possessed by the spirit of calculation than the folly of clanship. Little as we lind to agree with in the letter of our correspondent, it yet suggests an important question, to which we in our former remarks have given no answer. It is quite clear that the bone and sinew of Skye, on which " Scotus" so complacently dwells, is utterly unable to maintain, itself in these puling days of peace, in which the retrograde course of civilisation compels the strong to respect the property of the weak. It is equally clear that the people of England entirely decline to pay a tribute in the shape of a tax on oats, barley, or kelp for the benefit of the clans, either of Macdonald or Macleod, and certain that without some such subvention the island must be depopulated by lingering famine. From the great proprietors nothing is to be obtained ; they have anticipated the resources of their estates, and have put it out of their power to relieve tha misery they have fostered. Is there, then, no other remedy than to apply to the Imperial revenue to clear the estates of the living load which presses upon them ? Must Parliament bo called in to perform for the proprietors of Skye, or their creditors, that process of clearing and expatriating which the Duke of Sutherland and other great Highland proprietors have found it expedient to carry on for themselves? We apprehend that there is yet one other resource — the land itself. It seems now 1o be admitted as an axiom of political ethics, that whatever be the charges and encumbrances on land, the first charge must always be the maintenance of the peoplo reared and cradled on its bosom. The mother can no more cast away her offspring to perish than land can be permitted to yield its resources for the benefit of a few, while it leaves tlie many to starve. This is the principle of the English, poor law. Our society exists for the preservation of property, but only under the tacit condition that the superfluity of the few shall not be enjoyed till provision has been made for the existence of the many. It has been in| the power of the present proprietors of Skye to anticipate and forestall their own beneficial ownership in the soil, but the imprescriptible and inalienable rights of the poor are fortunately beyond their reach. The rights of the mortgagee or of the trustee under a commission of bankruptcy are subject to this paramount and primary right. In whatever hands the land may be, whether of the high-born chief ov plebian creditor, the right of the poor which is no respecter of persons, must have its course. The income at present yielded by tho Island of Skye is about twenty-two thousand a"ear, and it is not to be tolerated that such a sum should bo received while the inhabitants are left to perish of famine. To levy a rate on property merely for the purpose of supporting thousands who are obviously unable to find remunerative labour in the island would be to roll the stone of Sisyphus, or fill the vessel of the Danaides. It i 9 in the removal of the people to a land where there is need of their bone and sinew that the only remedy is to be found. The forests of Canada or the boundless plains of Australia offer that refuge to the starving Celt which his native lakes and mountains deny him. We leave it to sentimentalists to weep over such a change ; for our own part, we profess the belief tl at a leg of mutton would possess more solid attractions in the eyes of a famished gillie than the graves of his ancestors, or the romantic legends of the Lords of the Isles. Skye can only be really relieved by emigration, and that emigration might fairly be supported by a rate assessed upon her land.

Remarkable Accidint. — A most reinarkabl* accident has occurred on the Forth »ad Clyde candl. A heavilyladen scow, proceeding from Glasgow down the canal, came in collision with a schooner, and was capsized. Tbe men on board got to land, but in thn cabin were a woman and child ; the boat bad been turned completely over, and the water did not enter th» cabin. For half-an-hour the woman's screens were beard. The men liHstened to cut a hole in the bottom of the boat, but thuir well meant zeal w a? fatal; no sooner was a hole made than the nir escaped from the cabin, and the water rushing in from below to supply its place, both mother i) child penabed.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZ18520922.2.14

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 672, 22 September 1852, Page 3

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,563

THE SUFFERERS OF SKYE. (From the "Times" April 8.) New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 672, 22 September 1852, Page 3

THE SUFFERERS OF SKYE. (From the "Times" April 8.) New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 672, 22 September 1852, Page 3

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