From the Northern Times 25, 50 and 100 years ago
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25 YEARS AGO
From the newspaper of December 18, 1998
The Highland Council is to press on with the development of electronic fish auctions at council-run ports on the west coast, including Lochinver and Kinlochbervie. As part of the work, the council will take a delegation of fishermen and fish merchants to Zeebrugge in Belgium to see an electronic auction in operation.
Angry members of Brora Harbour Users Group this week called in police in a bid to find out who is responsible for a large quantity of cut whins and bushes littering their village beaches and harbour waters. The bushes have been chucked into the River Brora upstream and drifted down to the river mouth, before being distributed by the tide onto surrounding beaches.
The new Church of Scotland minister for the parish of Durness and Kinlochbervie, the Rev John Mann and his wife Julia have now moved into the manse at KLB from his last charge at Kenmore in Perthshire. The couple are no strangers to the parish, Mr Mann having previously served as locum minister.
50 YEARS AGO
From the newspaper of December 14, 1973
As part of the national effort to conserve power supplies, work was started yesterday afternoon to put out of action nearly 50% of the 200 lights on the trunk road, involving the villages of Helmsdale, Portgower, Brora, Golspie, Clashmore and Bonar Bridge. But adequate lighting will be maintained in danger areas such as busy road junctions and school entrances.
It was believed that a feldspar-quartz product acceptable to the ceramic and glass industries could be produced in the parish of Durness, the Highland Development Board announced this week. If the trial product was acceptable, then the aim would be to sell an initial output of 10,000 tons as markets developed.
It was announced on Wednesday that there were plans for a £100 million oil refinery at Nigg, on the Cromarty Firth. The request for planning permission has been submitted. The implications are so vast that it is probable that there will be a public inquiry before Government consent.
100 YEARS AGO
From the newspaper of December 13, 1923
Robert Gillies, school teacher, Oldshoremore, parish of Eddrachilles was charged with a contravention of the Dogs Act, 1871, section 2, in that he was the owner of a dangerous dog and did not keep it under proper control with the result that it had bitten one of the school pupils on 8th November last.
At Dornoch Sheriff Court, Mr J. H. Arthur, solicitor, appeared on behalf of the offending teacher and tendered a plea of guilty. Mr Arthur said the dog was of a frolicsome nature and was roaming about the playground and in playing with the pupils had caught a boy by the leg.
The Depute Fiscal said the dog was a nuisance in the district, had bitten several people and was not being kept under proper control. Sheriff James Wright Forbes said if the dog was as vicious as the Depute Fiscal’s information led him to believe, it was a very stupid thing for a schoolmaster to keep such a dog – it might get him into serious trouble.
The sheriff then pronounced an order on Mr Gillies to keep the dog under control.
