Kilt Comes in, Whisky Goes from Highlands

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 566, 19 January 1929, Page 6

Kilt Comes in, Whisky Goes from Highlands

Scotland Changed by Modern Innovations "GIRLS SHINGLED AND BOBBED” : Whisky drinking is giving place to tea. \ Many crofters on Skye are ex-Glasgow policemen. Short skirts have caused a vogue of kilt-wearing among women. _ ; Gaelic speakers are fewer, but Gaelic ; readers are more numerous. Porridge is still the staple breakfast. Crofters hear the United States by wireless. Those are among the lighter details in a picture that may be drawn of the Highlands to-day, says a correspondent in the “Daily Mail.” Government small-holdings and forestry-workers’ holdings under the Forestry Commission are to some extent checking the desertion of the Highlands that has been proceeding for a century, but the current southwards and abroad flows steadily. Seventeen counties have fewer people than 50 years ago. During that period deer forests have almost doubled, totalling to-day 3,432,385 acres, but employing only 900 to 1,200 men, according to season. The question to what degree the land could be better employed is controversial. Some writers claim that 1,500,000 acres could be used more profitably, and certainly larger stocks of cattle and sheep could be grazed, but Mr. J. F. Duncan, secretary of the Scottish Farm Servants’ Union, said to me: "Certain parts could no doubt be put to better use, but nothing like the area many people say. There is a good deal of loose talk generally abput the number of men who could he settled. In the outer Highlands especially the settlement is practically as complete as it can be.” One whose knowledge of the Highlands is not easily rivalled said to me: “Where holdings are forsaken, It is only, as a rule, because they simply will not maintain the family. Often the younger folk come south as policemen, soldiers, or school teachers, and when their time of pension arrives they return. That is why you find crofters in Skye who are ex-Glasgow policemen. . , . “Communal grazing of stocks ot sheep is common in the glens. Sometimes shepherds are appointed by the glen committee. That happens, I believe, in Durness, where 60 or 80 crofters join, but at lambing time the crofter takes his own ewes, keen competition exists. When lambing is over, the whole glen watches each man’s sheep going off to the hills, and cries go up: “Dugald Mac Kay made a fine job o’ that,” or James Fraser didna do that oer weel. the result is a very high percentage of “These Highland communities have developed and changed vastly in my lifetime. Girls have shingled and bobbed each other, and during the past two years the kilt has had a great vogue and revival among them, due no doubt to the fashionable short S “Whisky drinking is declining. When I was a iioy, rent payment, sheep or cattle selling, and keeping the Old Mew Year (January 12) were occasions for a spree, for getting very ‘ fou sometimes it lasted two or three days. That has nearly vanished. Grandfather drank three times as much as his grandson does. Nearly every vi - lage has its hall, where dancing, concerts, singing (mostly Scottish songs), and the playing of draughts (a great favourite) and dominos and carpet b °^Ofte S n The 8 local doctor has a valve wireless set, and keeps something like open house with it. I have picked up the United States in Stornoway and Thurso. Most communities can boast some good fiddlers. Fewer speak Gaelic, though Gaelic songs are popula “Porridge ig still the staple breakfast taken with a bowl of milk (no sugar), and followed by a very strong cup of tea, with bread and butter, and an egg or bacon if times are good. Oat cake is going out.” .. The settling of men on small hold ings continues and there is no lack of demand from tenants when the Government’s purchases become known. Since 1912, 3,591 new holdings and enlargements have been created m the “Crofting counties.” The enlargement of existing crofts is more popular I am told, than the creation of new holdings. . . . The Forestry Commission is experimenting with forestry-workers holdings as distinct small holdings, guaranteeing holders six months’ work In the forests leaving them six months to devote to their holdings. About 135 holdings have been completed in two years and bO others are in progress, some as small as two acres (usually devoted to poultry), others 10 to 15 acres of arable and grazing. A few out-of-work Lanarkshire miners are being accepted. , „ The Commission employs more than 1 100 men and 200 juveniles and women. During the past ten years 37,400 acres have been planted and this year’s programme is 7,500 acres. Trees are conifers, larch, Scots pme, firs, spruce, etc., about half of them on forest land cleared during the war. Only land is desired that is not suitable for cultivation. Over 100,000 acres of deer forest have been taken over. ... Tests are to be made, I gather, with home-grown pit props as against foreign ones.