From the Northern Times 25, 50 and 100 years ago
25 YEARS AGO
From the newspaper of October 29, 1999
The last auction mart sale of the season in Lairg last Thursday proved a disaster for local sheep producers as frustrated auctioneers struggled to entice any bids at all for the 4000 lower quality ewes, gimmers and lambs on offer. Crofters who had held back ewes last year were now forced to sell a double lot that nobody in the present climate wanted to buy - leading to whole batches going through the ring for a few pounds in total.
The timescale for a fresh review of services for the elderly in Sutherland, the outcome of which will determine the future of Migdale Hospital in Bonar Bridge, was agreed this week. A new steering group has been set up to examine the issues and make recommendations, “bearing in mind the challenges of the geography” by April next year.
Planning permission for the expansion and upgrade of Royal Dornoch Golf Club’s second course, the Struie, is being recommended for approval at next week’s meeting of Sutherland County Committee.
50 YEARS AGO
From the newspaper of November 1, 1974
Sutherland folk have been watching their television sets with exceptional interest during the last week or two, their attention focused on the haulage drivers’ strike and the personalities concerned.
The reason is that the spokesman for the hauliers is Mr George Mackenzie, from Lochinver. Mr Mackenzie, son of the late Mr and Mrs Angus Mackenzie, Park House, has gone a long way since the beginning of the 1950s when he joined Sir David Robertson in a bid to keep alive the Brora coal pit. George was a salesman for a time and then he left to join Highland Haulage at Inverness. Then he went to Glasgow where he made a name for himself in the road haulage world.
With the teachers’ salaries issue not yet resolved, schools in Sutherland, as in the rest of the country, were more or less out of action yesterday, in response to the Educational Institute’s call for a one-day strike. But it will be back to normal today.
100 YEARS AGO
From the newspaper of October 30, 1924
A pleasant informal gathering met at the house of Mr Robert Mackay, East Gruids, on Friday evening, the occasion being a presentation to him from Mr and Mrs Macpherson and visitors to Inveran Hotel. The company sat down to supper, after which Mr Macpherson, presented Mr Mackay with a handsome marble clock, suitably inscribed, and a wallet of Treasury notes. Mr Mackay has acted as coachman at the Inveran Hotel for the long period of over 60 years. Owing to the advent of the motor car and his declining years he has now retired.
There is an outcry in the country at present about persons being granted drivers’ licences who know no more about driving a motor car than the car knows about them, and the result is that many accidents occur that would otherwise be avoided if the “drivers to be” first went through a course of instruction and passed a given test before being granted a licence. It is only quite recently that an accident happened in the county of Sutherland through the car being driven by an inexperienced driver, and it is fortunate the car was going at a slow pace at the time of the occurrence, as undoubtedly the outcome would have been serious.
