From our May 13 edition
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25 YEARS AGO
(May 10, 1991)
THE official opening of the Dornoch Bridge on August 27 will be followed by a four day festival to mark the occasion.
Organisers the Dornoch Firth Festival Association plan to hold events in Dornoch, Brora, Edderton, Tain and surrounding villages.
It is hoped to feature a wide range of musical entertainment as well as a programme of sports and outdoor activity.
The cost of the festival has been estimated at more than £37,000 with artists’ fees expected to total £20,215. Finance is to come from ticket sales, public subsidy and sponsorship.
THE handsome but neglected Drummuie House at Golspie is likely to be offered for sale on the open market by owners Highland Regional Council.
Built in 1810 by Napoleonic War veteran Captain Robert Sutherland, the house has lain empty since the council took it over from Sutherland County Council in 1974.
It had previously been tenanted by the headmasters of Sutherland Technical School which stands close by.
A move to licence a handful of professional pearl fishers in Scottish rivers may be made by Lord Kimball of Altnaharra.
Opening and killing freshwater mussels for their pearls was banned under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act and this ruined a small, indigenous industry but also put an end to the indiscriminate collecting of mussels for their pearls by hamfisted poachers.
Lord Kimball suggested that local fishery boards could licence a small number of professional pearl fishers to ensure the future of the ancient Scottish pearl jewellery trade.
He said: "You only have a limited number of pearl fishers who have the skills to open the mussels, decide whether or not it is going to have a pearl – only one per cent of all mussels do – put it back in the river with a certain mark on it and come back seven or eight years later to take the pearl out of the mussel without killing it."
Lord Kimball is considering a Private Members’ Bill to licence the 16 or so genuine pearl fishers in Scotland who, if the legislation goes through, will have to wait almost until next century for their first crop of new pearls.
50 YEARS AGO
(May 13, 1966)
THE Labour Government, if they do not have second thoughts, are in danger of losing much of the good will which they engendered here by forming the Highland Development Board and deciding to site the new prototype fast reactor at Dounreay in Caithness.
When Mr Robert Maclennan, our Labour MP, meets his Sutherland supporters at a victory celebration in Golspie tonight, he may well be a very worried man for he knows just how fearfully his constituents are regarding the implications of the proposed selective employment tax and he himself has expressed these fears in the House of Commons.
Indeed, the consequences for a county like Sutherland, which is just holding its own so far as retaining its population is concerned, could be disastrous. Some have called the new tax "Callaghan’s Clearance". That could well prove to be a fitting name for it.
Mr Harold Wilson is reported to have said that the pay-roll tax was not just a temporary imposition and might well have infinite possibilities. It very well might in the Highlands, but not in the way in which Mr Wilson is thinking.
Indeed the payroll tax, if it goes through, could make nonsense of the Highland Development Board’s objectives. Mr John Rollo is alive to this and has described the tax as a "body blow to the Highlands".
ALTHOUGH no one was reported to have made a really great "strike," there was gold to the value of £3000 taken officially at Kildonan after the gold rush began in 1969.
The Government exacted a royalty of ten per cent on all gold found and, because of this, it can safely be assumed that all the gold was not declared. The estimate by Dr Joass of Golspie, a well known amateur geologist, that £12,000 was taken from the burn is more likely to be correct.
The largest nugget weighed more than 2oz. The gold is pale in colour with a slight tinge of green and an analysis shows nearly 20 per cent silver.
75 YEARS AGO
(May 15, 1941)
AT a meeting of Croick WVS, Marchioness Conyngham introduced Lady Brocke who praised the Croick workers for the very creditable consignments of work sent down monthly to Ardgay for the Red Cross and WVS and thanked them for their untiring efforts since September 1939. She also presented 11 WVS badges to Croick ladies. Over 300 articles have been made in the Croick district.
Lady Brooke brought up the question of whether the ladies were willing to form a war dressings class in Croick. The meeting was unanimously in favour of this proposal, the prime mover of which was Miss Craig who, along with Mrs MacIvor and Miss Clark, volunteered to prepare a suitable room in Croick Church Hall. The class hopes to begin early in May.
Lady Brooke then asked if any were desirous of forming a War Savings group and several responded enthusiastically.
A MEETING of the County of Sutherland Squadron of the Air Training Corps was held in the Sutherland Estate Office, Golspie, on Saturday last, with Mr John Ross, convener of the county, in the chair.
Mr Hugh A. Ross, director of education for the county, has been appointed commanding officer of the squadron. The headmasters of schools present at the meeting indicated their willingness to act as instructors and other gentlemen have expressed their intention to assist.
Any others willing to help should communicate with the commanding officer. Cadets will now be enrolled by the headmasters of schools.
TUESDAY marked the first birthday of the Home Guard, formed in response to a broadcast by Mr Eden, then Secretary for War. In 12 months it has grown to such an extent that it is one of the largest national organisations, as widespread as the Post Office, with more branches than any of the great multiple shops in the country.
Its organisation has become closer to enable orders to be given, stores to be issued and allowances paid. At the end of its first year, the Home Guard is trained and training for the tasks of modern war in which it may yet engage.
100 YEARS AGO
(May 11, 1916)
SUTHERLAND Appeal Tribunal – Our boys in the trenches speak in plain terms about young men who are trying to shirk their duty to the country but their talks could not be more direct than the blunt words of the Military Representative at Dornoch on Monday when, after a stiff cross-examination, he told an applicant to his face that he was a slacker and a coward.
And that, be it noted, was after Mr John Murray of Balloan had put the case before the tribunal with his accustomed zest. Everything that could be said in the applicant’s favour was said.
It may be mentioned that it was the applicant’s fourth appearance. He was twice at the local tribunal at Dornoch and this was his second appearance at the appeal tribunal.
A new feature was introduced into the proceedings of the Sutherland Appeal Tribunal on Monday. The evidence was heard in public and after five or six cases were sifted, the members of the tribunal retired to consider their verdict and, after returning to the courtroom, intimated their decisions.
Hugh Macdonald (20), ploughman-shepherd, Melvich, was appealed for by his father, who was blacksmith for half of the parish. The local tribunal refused the appeal on the ground that no serious hardship would ensue. The father was a comparatively young man and quite able to work the croft himself. Refused.
James Macrae, engine man, Gordonbush, Brora, was the youngest of three brothers. One died of wounds and the other was serving at the present time. Before the war his employer said to him that if he left, his father would have to leave to. The appeal was refused.
Alexander Mackay (37), Clerkhill, Bettyhill, crofter and fisherman, claimed to be the sole support of a sister and he was not physically strong. The local tribunal granted temporary exemption to 28th May.
Kenneth Campbell, Kirktomy, Bettyhill, 39 years and eight months, stated that his parents were not able to work the crofts. The local tribunal pointed out that he had a brother over military age at home. Refused.
