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That visit I had to the hospital in Toronto seems to have sparked some changes in my diabetic routine. This Thursday I was told by my Doctor to stop using insulin for the next three months as she felt I no longer needed to take it.
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Appointments in the new Canadian government are very strange as it seems there is a mixture of bad and good in them. Like the Minister for Housing was the former Mayor of Vancouver and he oversaw the highest increase in house prices ever. Then we have conflicting views on the building of pipe lines as the one appointed to oversea this has a sound background but he's up against another who is totally opposed to them.
Guess we'll have to wait and see how things develop.
Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
I am partly doing this to build an archive of modern news from and about Scotland and world news stories that can affect Scotland and as all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on search engines it becomes a good resource. I might also add that in a number of newspapers you will find many comments which can be just as interesting as the news story itself and of course you can also add your own comments if you wish which I do myself from time to time.
Here is what caught my eye this week...
UK and US reach ‘historic’ deal to reduce Trump tariffs
Sir Keir Starmer was hailing what he called a "fantastic, historic day" as Donald Trump announced details of a new trade deal between the US and the UK.
Watch this at:
https://youtu.be/CTYchVamuxg?si=q3Vo4E1IqILmXMw_
US trade: deal or steal?
The UK can now count a hat trick of trade-related firsts since leaving the EU. First accession country to the CPTPP. First major country to have a trade deal with India. And now first country to have an Economic Prosperity Deal with the Trump administration. But is it any good?
Read more at:
https://capx.co/how-good-is-the-us-uk-trade-deal
Coventry's quiet revolution
People say we can’t build anything in Britain any more, and certainly not in record time. But in Coventry, new techniques are laying tram lines in a matter of weeks and at a fraction of the usual cost. Mayors and council officials should send themselves to Coventry to learn how to follow suit.
Read more at:
https://capx.co/coventrys-tram-building-revolution
What’s taking Britain so long to build new nuclear power plants?
What has traditionally put governments (and private utilities) off nuclear is the cost.
Read more at:
https://archive.is/yDrQV
Donald Trump trade agreement with UK a 'great deal' for Scotland that will create jobs
The Scotch whisky industry said the deal represented "welcome progress" to reduce tariffs on exports to the US.
Read more at:
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/p...nt-uk-35197982
The inside story of Glickman's - Glasgow's oldest sweet shop
When the props department for Taggart came knocking at the door of Glasgow’s oldest sweet shop, the hard-working duo in charge at Glickman’s Confectionery got straight to work.
Read more at:
https://archive.is/gfF5n
Conrad Black: And just like that, the Trump 'threat' disappears
Mark Carney's visit to Washington has shown that American aggression was never a real concern to begin with.
Read more at:
https://archive.is/CH0vf
Wemyss Bay McCaskie’s Butchers crowned world's haggis champion
They are eaten in their tens of thousands each year - but at the end of the day, there can be only one. Scotland has a new World Haggis Champion, with a pudding said to be culmination of a lifetime’s work for its creator taking top spot.
Read more at:
https://archive.is/wdv2F
Raise a large glass of Scotch to the UK-India trade deal
DURING the Brexit Referendum those pushing ‘Project Fear’ claimed the UK would suffer in trade deals from leaving the EU’s much larger trade bloc with its superior negotiating power. Well, I worked on an India-EU Free Trade Agreement report, and it has now taken 15 years of negotiation and the EU’s deal remains undone; whilst the UK has now bagged India’s biggest ever trade deal and has done so in just four years.
Read more at:
https://thinkscotland.org/2025/05/ra...he-india-deal/
A stunning restaurant I love to visit in the East Neuk
David Lilley is the executive chef for the W Edinburgh in Edinburgh.
Read more at:
https://archive.is/CCiMk
Churchill and the case for free trade
One model for making this different kind of case is Winston Churchill. Not only was he the West’s savior from totalitarianism, he was also an ardent proponent of free trade.
Read more at:
https://lawliberty.org/churchill-and...or-free-trade/
MSPs back assisted dying Bill in landmark Holyrood vote
Holyrood has backed assisted dying legislation, with MSPs voting to advance Liam McArthur's Bill to allow terminally ill adults to end their lives to Stage 2.
Read more at:
https://archive.is/om0yX
Power from the grassroots
2025 is proving a year of huge political and economic significance. We face a daily deluge of announcements, claims, and assertions that challenge much of what we understand of the ‘World Order’. Most of us feel the deluge comes from ‘on high’ and beyond any influence or control that we, as citizens in a democracy, might legitimately expect to have. There is growing evidence of disillusion, frustration and disenchantment with our governance structures and even with democracy itself.
Read more at:
https://sceptical.scot/2025/05/power...he-grassroots/
Swinney under fire over £1bn SNP ferry fiasco as costs and delays mount
John Swinney has been accused of overseeing a £1bn SNP ferry fiasco as costs for two delayed CalMac ferries rise again, sparking fury at Holyrood.
Read more at:
https://archive.is/I13ZV
What's happening to our young men?
For the first time in modern British history, young men are now more likely than young women to be out of education, employment or training. In this special edition of The Capitalist, we bring you a timely conversation exploring the data, the causes and the political consequences of male economic decline.
You can listen to this podcast at:
https://tinyurl.com/2mayve5d
Electric Canadian
The Great Western Magazine and Anglo-American Journal
On Literature, Science, Art, Commercial and Political Economy, Statistics, &c., Vol. I., Edited by Isaac Clarke Pray (1842) (pdf)
You can read this magazine at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/maga...00praygoog.pdf
Metis Cree Dictionary
By Dr. Anne Anderson (1997)
You can study this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...Dictionary.htm
Canadian Journal of Industry, Science and Art
Added Volume XI (1866) (pdf)
You can read this volume at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/maga...journalr11.pdf
Thoughts on a Sunday Morning - the 11th day of May 2025 - Mother's Day
By The Rev. Nola Crewe
You can watch this at:
http://www.electricscotland.org/foru...5-mother-s-day
Construction
A Journal for the Architectural, Engineering, and Contracting Interests of Canada. Added Volume 1 (1907-8) and Volume 2 for you to read.
You can read these volumes at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/maga...nstruction.htm
The Canadian Canals
Their History and Cost, with an inquiry into the policy necessary to advance the well-being of the Province by William Kingsford, Civil Engineer (1865) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/tran...canals1865.pdf
Saving Sweet & Sour
In the decade between 1947 and 1958, the City of Toronto bulldozed two-thirds of its Chinatown (pdf)
You can read this article at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...eetandsour.pdf
The Beaver Magazine
Added Volume 6 No. 1 (pdf)
You can read this issue at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/tran...cember1925.pdf
Electric Scotland
The Engine Shed
An introduction to the work of the Engine Shed, a social enterprise based in Edinburgh providing training for people with learning disabilities and good food for everyone.
You can read this article and watch the video at:
https://electricscotland.com/food/engineshed.htm
The Shetland Female Emigration Society
And the Emigration of single women to South Australia and Tasmania in the early 1850S by Véronique Molinari (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...inari-2025.pdf
The Mercat Group
Improving Local Democracy in Scotland. LGHP Committee Pre-Budget Scrutiny – 2024. The Sustainability of Scottish Local Government Finances (pdf)
You can read this report at:
https://electricscotland.com/indepen...ercatGroup.pdf
St John Ogilvie
Banffshire-born Jesuit priest, the only Roman Catholic martyr in Scotland, was hanged for refusing to renounce the supremacy of the Pope. He was canonised in 1976.
You can learn more about him at:
https://electricscotland.com/culture...ie_(saint).pdf
Ancient Legacies
10 Castles Held by the Original Clans. Fortunes rise and fall but these clans managed to hold on to these castles throughout the generations. Some of them are even still lived in by the chief! Added this video to our Clans index page.
You can watch this at:
https://electricscotland.com/webclans/index.html
Discover Dunans Castle
A Tale of Preservation in the Scottish Highlands with Charles Dixon-Spain. I added this video to the foot of the Fletcher page.
You can watch this at:
https://electricscotland.com/webclan.../fletcher2.htm
Chronicles of the Cumming Club
And Memories of Old Academy Days 1841 - 1846 compiled by Alexander Fergusson, Lt-Colonel, Historiographer to the club (1887) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/lifesty...00ferggoog.pdf
James Grant
Added two of his publications to his page, Cassells's Old and New Edinburgh in three volumes and also The Romance of War in four volumes.
You can read these at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...rant_james.htm
Arts and Artisans at Home and Abroad
With Sketches of the Progress of Foreign Manufactures by Jeeingeb C. Symons, Esq., one of the Assistant Commissioners of the Handloom Inquiry, &c. (1839) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/art/art...01symogoog.pdf
The Scottish Journal of Agriculture
Volume IV (1921)
You can read this volume at:
https://electricscotland.com/agricul...lture_xvii.pdf
The Church in the Highlands
Or the Progress of Evangelical Religion in Gaelic Scotland in 563 - 1843 by John MacKay, M.A. (1914) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/bible/T...eHighlands.pdf
Aberdeen and the Church in the Highlands
by Ian R. MacDonald (2002) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/bible/r...1macdonald.pdf
The Tour of Dr Richard Pococke
Lord Bishop of Ossory, through Sutherland and Caithness in 1760 with Introduction and Notes by Daniel William Kemp (1888) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history..._Lord_Bish.pdf
The Public Worship of Presbyterian Scotland
Historically Treated by Charles Greig M'Crie, Minister at Ayr (1892) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/bible/p...pofp00mccr.pdf
A Plan of Communication between the New and the Old Town of Edinburgh
In the line of the Earthen Mound, and of Building upon that site with the Observations and Ground-Plans by Alexander Trotter, Esq. of Dreghorn, second edition, greatly enlarged, with additional plates (1829) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...icat00trot.pdf
A Treatise on the Breeding, Rearing and Feeding of Cheviot and Black-Faced Sheep
With some account of - and a complete cure for, that fatal malady The Rot together with observations upon laying out and conducting a Store Farm by a Lammermuir Farmer, John Fairburn (1823) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/agricul...ns59582483.pdf
Old and Rare Scottish Tartans
With Historical Introduction and Descriptive Notices by Donald William Stewart FSAScot. (1893) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/tartans...ishtartans.pdf
Story
The Scottish Journal of Agriculture.
Volume II. 1919. from which I took two articles on Education in the Agricultural field...
THE FOUNDATIONS OF DEVELOPMENT IN AGRICULTURE.
Rt. Hon. Viscount Haldane, K.T., O.M., January 1919
ONE of the lessons which the war has impressed on the world is the necessity of high standards in knowledge and training. The call for more widespread intelligence has become apparent generally, and no longer only in strategy and in the organisation of supply and of munitions. There is no region of civil life where it has not recently been heard. In many of these regions it has met with response. It has met with some response in agriculture and forestry, but the question remains whether the acknowledgment has been sufficient.
In this country we have individual experts in various departments of science who are second to none. There are, however, relatively speaking, but few of these, and of their power of spreading ideas but little use has been made, nor has it even been widely recognised by the public. In physics, in chemistry, in biology, these individuals have done outstanding work, and they have world wide reputations, but their influence on general knowledge within these islands has been restricted and even discouraged. In agriculture and forestry this has been especially the case, and it requires only a little study of what was being done in Germany before the war, and also, in a less comprehensively organised form, in France, in the United States, and in comparatively small countries on the Continent of Europe, in order to appreciate how far we were from keeping pace with our rivals. In Germany the contrast with our own want of organisation was especially marked, and it was an integral part of the policy of the German Government to keep a lead over us in food production.
The key to our inferiority lay in the want of recognition here of the great assistance which science could render, and which high science alone could render. No doubt there were scattered about this country men who knew a good deal and who had done much. In agriculture. I observed the results of their influence through the quarter of a century during which I represented East Lothian in the House of Commons. Although myself unskilled in this branch of knowledge, I had personal friends among farmers there who were no ordinary practical men. They impressed me much. They had, of course, a responsive soil to work with, but they had also what among our practical men was a high standard of knowledge. This had brought about an atmosphere in which the farm servants also had developed. Many of them knew a great deal.
But we want more than this if agriculture is really to develop. It is only in the homes of high science that the highest knowledge can be evolved and diffused among students fitted to apply it in practice. Agricultural colleges are excellent institutions, but they rarely reach a true University standard. I have recently been Chairman of a Royal Commission the task of which was to devise means for the reorganisation of education of a University type in Wales. I observed while there how great was alike the desire for new science to be applied to the tilling of the soil, and the gap which separated practical men from the resources of the University Colleges. Throughout the inquiries which the Commission held in Wales it was impressed on us by the witnesses that it was essential for the Welsh farmers that these resources should be developed, and a much more general resort to them encouraged. This has been done on the Continent and in the United States on a scale and by methods to which we are still strangers.
The impression continues to grow in my mind that the occupation of the farmer and of the forest manager must l>e connected more than at present with the directing ability of a learned profession, if we are really to improve our position as a nation in these branches of the national industry.
It must be remembered that the attainment of the maximum output in agriculture and forestry is a social as well as an industrial question. No organisation in an industry is ever really great unless those engaged, humble as well as pre-eminent, find satisfaction in it for the general aims of life. The condition of those who labour must be made attractive, and so must that of the men of skill, if the possessors of knowledge of a high standard are to be attracted. The farm hand must feel that he has scope for intelligence and is no mere machine. The farmer must feel that the science which he has at his command gives him an interest and a freedom in his work which develops his mind and gives scope for his abilities. It is training and education that alone can enable this level to be reached and maintained. The schools and colleges do too little in this country today to provide the foundation on which capacity of this kind can be built up, either in the farm servant or in the farmer. It is not desirable for its attainment that the education given should in the earlier stages be of a merely technical character. The object must always be in the first place to build up the mind so that at a later stage it will not be satisfied with a low level in understanding. The technical training should rise on a substratum of general education. No doubt in the continuation school it will be possible here, as it has proved easy elsewhere, to make instruction in things of a practical kind significant, that is to say illustrative of principles which are the more interesting because it is shown how they operate in actual practice. But the higher skill that comes of higher knowledge is the main thing, and it is only through higher knowledge that this skill can be generally attained.
What is true of the ordinary worker is still more apparent in the case of the higher direction. The agricultural colleges will never be really successful unless they are permeated by the scientific spirit which, at its best, develops only in the true University atmosphere. A certain amount of higher knowledge about agriculture can be crammed up by a year of hard study, and may be made the subject of examination for the diploma of a University in whose atmosphere the study has not taken place, but in the end it is of but little use. The teacher in an institution which is not permeated by the highest scientific spirit may possess much command of detail, but he will not raise his students or inspire them unless he gives the sense that the voyage of discovery on which he is conducting them is one in which what he teaches is only an illustration of larger principles which belong to knowledge as a whole. For knowledge is emphatically a whole, and its most valuable influence and assistance cannot be attained by pursuing it in forms that are only isolated fragments.
This is why it seems to me vital that the agricultural colleges should have a high status, both for teachers and for students, and, like the best Technical Colleges of other kinds, should be kept in the closest relation to the Universities that is attainable. For it is in the atmosphere of the Universities alone that, in the main, the highest kinds of inspiration come to teacher and to taught alike. The great professor is a great influence, not merely because of what he knows, but because of the inspiration of his personality. It is the intellectual level to which he raises those around him that makes the whole difference. And this kind of leader and level are impossible in a small institution confined to a single branch of instruction. The edifice is inseparable from the foundation on which alone it can be well and truly built.
The State is taking a new interest in higher education. It is taking this new interest because it has come at last to recognise that, unless higher knowledge is more widely diffused among our people than it has been in the past, we cannot hope to hold our own against competitors who possess it. It would, I think, be a national misfortune if, at a time when this new development is taking effect in other spheres, the great industries of agriculture and silviculture were left outside. And yet there is real danger of this. People think that it is only by practical work that knowledge and experience come in these subjects. In reality this is just as untrue as it is in the cases of the many industries which have suffered in this country, as has, for instance, the coal-tar dye industry, from starvation in instruction. Science never stands still, and methods in agriculture as well as in other industries constantly require revision in the light of the new science that is constantly arising through study and research in the laboratory.
To me it seems, therefore, that we have reached a critical period in the agricultural history of this country. We must go forward. The interests of the nation require it. And we cannot go forward unless we raise the intellectual level of the whole agricultural community, from the farm servant to the farmer. It is only by the aid of education that this can be done adequately. The schools can do the first part of the necessary work. But the higher education which is required for instructors and for research students, and which should be available also for the best type of farmer, can be got only through study under teachers of adequate standing and range of knowledge. And these will never be common in the agricultural colleges unless these colleges are themselves inspired and their students maintained by their relation to the larger society of the University.
It Is on knowledge that the future of the tillers of the land in this country really depends more than on anything else. And that knowledge will do little good unless it is not only sufficiently widely spread, but is also adequate in its quality.
THE EDUCATION (SCOTLAND) ACT, 1918, IN RELATION TO AGRICULTURE
The new Education Act, which became law on 21st November 1918, and which will come into force on a day to be appointed by the Education Department, introduces important changes into both the organisation and the scope of school instruction in Scotland. It substitutes for the School Boards that have existed for the last forty-six years County Education Authorities controlling the whole system of public elementary and secondary education within their areas, and it provides a scheme of care and training for boys and girls from the age of five, and in certain cases from that of two, to that of eighteen.
The age-limit for compulsory attendance at school is raised to fifteen, and that for the exemption of individuals to thirteen (Section 14), while important alterations are made in the regulations regarding the part-time employment of children of school age (Section 16). Power is given to the Education Authority to supply or aid in supplying nursery schools for children over two and under five years of age “whose attendance at such a school is necessary or desirable for their healthy physical and mental development,” and to attend to the health, nourishment and physical welfare of these children (Section 8). At the other end of the scale provision is made for the compulsory attendance at oan-tinuation schools of lads and girls between fifteen and eighteen years of age (Section 15).
It is enacted that voluntary or denominational schools, as defined in the Education (Scotland) Act, 1897, shall be transferred to the Education Authorities within two years, due provision being made for the maintenance of their denominational character (Section 18). Religious instruction in ordinary public schools is to remain on its present footing of "use and wont” (Section 7)-Reformatory and industrial schools are to pass from the direct control of the Secretary for Scotland to that of the Education Department (Section 19). Education Authorities are empowered to facilitate the attendance at secondary and intermediate schools of all boys and girls qualified for such attendance by payment of fees, travelling expenses and maintenance, or otherwise, and they may similarly assist towards attendance at Universities, Training Colleges, Central Institutions, etc. (Section 4). They may also contribute to the maintenance of schools within their area that are not under their own management, and to that of Universities and Central Institutions (Section 9) Finally they may “as an ancillary means of promoting education" provide libraries for the use not only of boys and girls, but of the adult population in their area (Section 5)
The administrative changes made by the Act involve the disappearance alike of School Boards and of Secondary Education Committees. In the Bill as originally drafted it was proposed that education should be locally controlled, as it is in England and Wales, by Education Committees appointed by the County Councils. In the course, however, of the long discussion that took place this was abandoned, and the principle of the ad body has been retained. The new education area is the county, including all burghs situated within it, save that Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee and Leith form separate education areas (Section i). The Secretary for Scotland will by Order determine the number of members who are to constitute each authority, and will divide each area into electoral divisions among which the members of the authority will be apportioned (Section 2). The electors are the persons registered as local government electors under the Representation of the People Act, 1918 (Section 22), and the voting is to be according to the principle of proportional representation, each elector having one transferable vote (Section 23). The cumulative vote is thus abolished, and a more rational method of securing the due representation of minorities is adopted.
For the management of schools or groups of schools, school management committees are to be formed, including representatives of the Education Authority and of the parents of the children attending the schools concerned, at least one teacher, and (where there are denominational schools) at least one person chosen on religious grounds (Section 3)
An Advisory Council will be appointed by the Crown for the purpose of advising the Education Department on educational matters (Section 20), and local advisory councils of a similar character are to be established by the Education Authorities (Section 25). The Department is in future to be known as the Scottish Education Department instead of "Scotch” (Section 30); Women, whether married or single, are equally eligible with men for appointment to all bodies constituted under the Act (Section 28). No certificated teacher can be dismissed unless (a) he receives three weeks’ written notice of the motion for his dismissal; (£) not less than half of the members of the Education Authority are present; (c) not less than two-thirds of those present vote for his dismissal. The appeal to the Department is retained (Section 24).
The provisions of the Act most vitally affecting agriculture are those affecting the conditions of part-time employment of children of school age, and those requiring lads and girls between fifteen and eighteen years of age to attend continuation classes. It is provided that a child under thirteen years of age shall not be employed on any school day before the close of school hours, or on any day before 8 a.m. or after 6 p.m.; nor is any child between thirteen and fifteen years of age to be so employed unless he or she has been exempted from school attendance. Power is, however, given to the Education Authority to vary these restrictions by byelaw, either generally or for any specified occupation. It is thus impossible for a farmer to employ whole-time a boy or girl under thirteen in any circumstances, or to employ whole-time a boy or girl between thirteen and fifteen who has not been exempted from school attendance, while, unless the power of varying the testriction is exercised, such children may be employed only for an hour or so on school days, and only between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Saturdays and holidays.
The provisions regarding the attendance at continuation classes of lads and girls between fifteen and eighteen years of age are more elaborate, and in view of the controversy that has taken place regarding them they should receive the special attention of everyone interested in the future of agriculture in Scotland.
In the first place the Education Authority is to consult persons concerned in local crafts and industries and to make full inquiry into local circumstances before drawing up for the approval of the Department a scheme of instruction in continuation classes. In the case of boys and girls between fifteen and sixteen years of age this scheme is to be submitted within a year after the “appointed day ” on which the Act comes into force. The scheme for older lads and girls does not come into force until three years after the appointed day. Then in the carrying out of the scheme, and particularly to facilitate the registration and classification of lads and girls, the Authority is to invite the co-operation of associations or committees of employers and workmen in the various local industries. The scheme is to include instruction in the English language “and in such other parts of a general education as may be deemed desirable,** special instruction of a technical character and physical exercises. Attendance is to be for at least 320 hours per annum, “distributed as regards times and seasons as may best suit the circumstances of each locality "; but the classes must be held between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m., and the period of actual employment in any day or week, together with the time spent at classes and that spent in travelling, must not exceed the period of employment permitted by any Act of Parliament that applies to the person concerned.
Lads and girls whose education is otherwise satisfactorily provided for are not brought under the scheme, and the Education Authority may exempt individuals from the obligation to attend classes where they are satisfied that the circumstances justify exemption.
It has already been stated that the full scheme does not come into operation until three years after the appointed day, i.e. some time in the year 1922. Nor does it apply to any boy or girl who reaches the age of sixteen during that period. Its operation will thus be gradual, and abundant time is given for the various industries of the country, including agriculture, to prepare for the new conditions.
The new scheme may shortly be described as one of “universal compulsory continuation classes,” save that attendance at classes is no longer to be an addition to the lads* or girls’ working day, but is to be taken out of it.
Some of the critics of the Act appear to regard it as laying a burden upon the employer, which he must, in the interests of production, do his best to minimise. This point of view is, however, a short-sighted one, which ignores alike the conditions of modem industry, whether urban or rural, and the provision that the Act makes for the fulfilment of these conditions. Whatever may be the future policy of this country with regard to agricultural production, it is obvious that trained intelligence is essential to the maintenance of the position that Scotland has held in the past. Nor can it be seriously maintained that the conditions of agriculture are such as to justify its exclusion from a national scheme that is intended effectively to co-ordinate elementary, secondary, technical and university education. On the contrary, anyone who is familiar with the educational systems of Denmark, Canada and the United States, to mention no other countries, will see that the new Act gives Scotland for the first time an opportunity of coming into line with the modern development of agricultural education.
Much will depend on the spirit with which the Act is locally put into operation. It makes the fullest provision for those practically concerned with agriculture to take part in its administration, whether as members of Education Authorities and School Management Committees, or as members of the proposed advisory industrial committees, and thus to ensure that the schemes of instruction shall meet the requirements of the various districts of the country, both in their scope and in the arrangement of times and seasons.
The burden laid upon agriculture, if burden it can be called, is no greater than that laid upon other industries. The number of lads and girls under 18 engaged in agricultural work in normal times is estimated at one-sixth of the whole number of persons so engaged. During the war the proportion has been higher, but the period of three years allowed before the scheme of continuation classes comes fully into force should suffice to restore the normal proportion. The period of attendance at classes is to be not less than 320 hours, which is about one-ninth of the working year of the person concerned. Under any arrangement of times and seasons it is hardly possible for the deduction, including time spent in travelling, etc., to exceed one-fifth of the year. Thus the total deduction from the working year of the agricultural population cannot exceed, and may be considerably less than, one-thirtieth. Now the weekly half-holiday has meant a deduction of one-twelfth, taken mainly from the time bf full-grown and thoroughly experienced men and women. The much smaller deduction now contemplated is to be taken exclusively from the time of untrained lads and girls under 18, and thus counts for even less in proportion than the figures indicate.
This calculation should convince critics of the Act that their fears are groundless. Instead of dwelling on the burden laid on agriculture, let them turn to the other side and help to realise the great possibilities that the Act affords for restoring the ancient reputation of Scotland as the best-educated country in the world.
END.
Weekend is almost here and hope it's a good one for you.
Alastair
That visit I had to the hospital in Toronto seems to have sparked some changes in my diabetic routine. This Thursday I was told by my Doctor to stop using insulin for the next three months as she felt I no longer needed to take it.
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Appointments in the new Canadian government are very strange as it seems there is a mixture of bad and good in them. Like the Minister for Housing was the former Mayor of Vancouver and he oversaw the highest increase in house prices ever. Then we have conflicting views on the building of pipe lines as the one appointed to oversea this has a sound background but he's up against another who is totally opposed to them.
Guess we'll have to wait and see how things develop.
Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
I am partly doing this to build an archive of modern news from and about Scotland and world news stories that can affect Scotland and as all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on search engines it becomes a good resource. I might also add that in a number of newspapers you will find many comments which can be just as interesting as the news story itself and of course you can also add your own comments if you wish which I do myself from time to time.
Here is what caught my eye this week...
UK and US reach ‘historic’ deal to reduce Trump tariffs
Sir Keir Starmer was hailing what he called a "fantastic, historic day" as Donald Trump announced details of a new trade deal between the US and the UK.
Watch this at:
https://youtu.be/CTYchVamuxg?si=q3Vo4E1IqILmXMw_
US trade: deal or steal?
The UK can now count a hat trick of trade-related firsts since leaving the EU. First accession country to the CPTPP. First major country to have a trade deal with India. And now first country to have an Economic Prosperity Deal with the Trump administration. But is it any good?
Read more at:
https://capx.co/how-good-is-the-us-uk-trade-deal
Coventry's quiet revolution
People say we can’t build anything in Britain any more, and certainly not in record time. But in Coventry, new techniques are laying tram lines in a matter of weeks and at a fraction of the usual cost. Mayors and council officials should send themselves to Coventry to learn how to follow suit.
Read more at:
https://capx.co/coventrys-tram-building-revolution
What’s taking Britain so long to build new nuclear power plants?
What has traditionally put governments (and private utilities) off nuclear is the cost.
Read more at:
https://archive.is/yDrQV
Donald Trump trade agreement with UK a 'great deal' for Scotland that will create jobs
The Scotch whisky industry said the deal represented "welcome progress" to reduce tariffs on exports to the US.
Read more at:
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/p...nt-uk-35197982
The inside story of Glickman's - Glasgow's oldest sweet shop
When the props department for Taggart came knocking at the door of Glasgow’s oldest sweet shop, the hard-working duo in charge at Glickman’s Confectionery got straight to work.
Read more at:
https://archive.is/gfF5n
Conrad Black: And just like that, the Trump 'threat' disappears
Mark Carney's visit to Washington has shown that American aggression was never a real concern to begin with.
Read more at:
https://archive.is/CH0vf
Wemyss Bay McCaskie’s Butchers crowned world's haggis champion
They are eaten in their tens of thousands each year - but at the end of the day, there can be only one. Scotland has a new World Haggis Champion, with a pudding said to be culmination of a lifetime’s work for its creator taking top spot.
Read more at:
https://archive.is/wdv2F
Raise a large glass of Scotch to the UK-India trade deal
DURING the Brexit Referendum those pushing ‘Project Fear’ claimed the UK would suffer in trade deals from leaving the EU’s much larger trade bloc with its superior negotiating power. Well, I worked on an India-EU Free Trade Agreement report, and it has now taken 15 years of negotiation and the EU’s deal remains undone; whilst the UK has now bagged India’s biggest ever trade deal and has done so in just four years.
Read more at:
https://thinkscotland.org/2025/05/ra...he-india-deal/
A stunning restaurant I love to visit in the East Neuk
David Lilley is the executive chef for the W Edinburgh in Edinburgh.
Read more at:
https://archive.is/CCiMk
Churchill and the case for free trade
One model for making this different kind of case is Winston Churchill. Not only was he the West’s savior from totalitarianism, he was also an ardent proponent of free trade.
Read more at:
https://lawliberty.org/churchill-and...or-free-trade/
MSPs back assisted dying Bill in landmark Holyrood vote
Holyrood has backed assisted dying legislation, with MSPs voting to advance Liam McArthur's Bill to allow terminally ill adults to end their lives to Stage 2.
Read more at:
https://archive.is/om0yX
Power from the grassroots
2025 is proving a year of huge political and economic significance. We face a daily deluge of announcements, claims, and assertions that challenge much of what we understand of the ‘World Order’. Most of us feel the deluge comes from ‘on high’ and beyond any influence or control that we, as citizens in a democracy, might legitimately expect to have. There is growing evidence of disillusion, frustration and disenchantment with our governance structures and even with democracy itself.
Read more at:
https://sceptical.scot/2025/05/power...he-grassroots/
Swinney under fire over £1bn SNP ferry fiasco as costs and delays mount
John Swinney has been accused of overseeing a £1bn SNP ferry fiasco as costs for two delayed CalMac ferries rise again, sparking fury at Holyrood.
Read more at:
https://archive.is/I13ZV
What's happening to our young men?
For the first time in modern British history, young men are now more likely than young women to be out of education, employment or training. In this special edition of The Capitalist, we bring you a timely conversation exploring the data, the causes and the political consequences of male economic decline.
You can listen to this podcast at:
https://tinyurl.com/2mayve5d
Electric Canadian
The Great Western Magazine and Anglo-American Journal
On Literature, Science, Art, Commercial and Political Economy, Statistics, &c., Vol. I., Edited by Isaac Clarke Pray (1842) (pdf)
You can read this magazine at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/maga...00praygoog.pdf
Metis Cree Dictionary
By Dr. Anne Anderson (1997)
You can study this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...Dictionary.htm
Canadian Journal of Industry, Science and Art
Added Volume XI (1866) (pdf)
You can read this volume at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/maga...journalr11.pdf
Thoughts on a Sunday Morning - the 11th day of May 2025 - Mother's Day
By The Rev. Nola Crewe
You can watch this at:
http://www.electricscotland.org/foru...5-mother-s-day
Construction
A Journal for the Architectural, Engineering, and Contracting Interests of Canada. Added Volume 1 (1907-8) and Volume 2 for you to read.
You can read these volumes at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/maga...nstruction.htm
The Canadian Canals
Their History and Cost, with an inquiry into the policy necessary to advance the well-being of the Province by William Kingsford, Civil Engineer (1865) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/tran...canals1865.pdf
Saving Sweet & Sour
In the decade between 1947 and 1958, the City of Toronto bulldozed two-thirds of its Chinatown (pdf)
You can read this article at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...eetandsour.pdf
The Beaver Magazine
Added Volume 6 No. 1 (pdf)
You can read this issue at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/tran...cember1925.pdf
Electric Scotland
The Engine Shed
An introduction to the work of the Engine Shed, a social enterprise based in Edinburgh providing training for people with learning disabilities and good food for everyone.
You can read this article and watch the video at:
https://electricscotland.com/food/engineshed.htm
The Shetland Female Emigration Society
And the Emigration of single women to South Australia and Tasmania in the early 1850S by Véronique Molinari (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...inari-2025.pdf
The Mercat Group
Improving Local Democracy in Scotland. LGHP Committee Pre-Budget Scrutiny – 2024. The Sustainability of Scottish Local Government Finances (pdf)
You can read this report at:
https://electricscotland.com/indepen...ercatGroup.pdf
St John Ogilvie
Banffshire-born Jesuit priest, the only Roman Catholic martyr in Scotland, was hanged for refusing to renounce the supremacy of the Pope. He was canonised in 1976.
You can learn more about him at:
https://electricscotland.com/culture...ie_(saint).pdf
Ancient Legacies
10 Castles Held by the Original Clans. Fortunes rise and fall but these clans managed to hold on to these castles throughout the generations. Some of them are even still lived in by the chief! Added this video to our Clans index page.
You can watch this at:
https://electricscotland.com/webclans/index.html
Discover Dunans Castle
A Tale of Preservation in the Scottish Highlands with Charles Dixon-Spain. I added this video to the foot of the Fletcher page.
You can watch this at:
https://electricscotland.com/webclan.../fletcher2.htm
Chronicles of the Cumming Club
And Memories of Old Academy Days 1841 - 1846 compiled by Alexander Fergusson, Lt-Colonel, Historiographer to the club (1887) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/lifesty...00ferggoog.pdf
James Grant
Added two of his publications to his page, Cassells's Old and New Edinburgh in three volumes and also The Romance of War in four volumes.
You can read these at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...rant_james.htm
Arts and Artisans at Home and Abroad
With Sketches of the Progress of Foreign Manufactures by Jeeingeb C. Symons, Esq., one of the Assistant Commissioners of the Handloom Inquiry, &c. (1839) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/art/art...01symogoog.pdf
The Scottish Journal of Agriculture
Volume IV (1921)
You can read this volume at:
https://electricscotland.com/agricul...lture_xvii.pdf
The Church in the Highlands
Or the Progress of Evangelical Religion in Gaelic Scotland in 563 - 1843 by John MacKay, M.A. (1914) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/bible/T...eHighlands.pdf
Aberdeen and the Church in the Highlands
by Ian R. MacDonald (2002) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/bible/r...1macdonald.pdf
The Tour of Dr Richard Pococke
Lord Bishop of Ossory, through Sutherland and Caithness in 1760 with Introduction and Notes by Daniel William Kemp (1888) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history..._Lord_Bish.pdf
The Public Worship of Presbyterian Scotland
Historically Treated by Charles Greig M'Crie, Minister at Ayr (1892) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/bible/p...pofp00mccr.pdf
A Plan of Communication between the New and the Old Town of Edinburgh
In the line of the Earthen Mound, and of Building upon that site with the Observations and Ground-Plans by Alexander Trotter, Esq. of Dreghorn, second edition, greatly enlarged, with additional plates (1829) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...icat00trot.pdf
A Treatise on the Breeding, Rearing and Feeding of Cheviot and Black-Faced Sheep
With some account of - and a complete cure for, that fatal malady The Rot together with observations upon laying out and conducting a Store Farm by a Lammermuir Farmer, John Fairburn (1823) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/agricul...ns59582483.pdf
Old and Rare Scottish Tartans
With Historical Introduction and Descriptive Notices by Donald William Stewart FSAScot. (1893) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/tartans...ishtartans.pdf
Story
The Scottish Journal of Agriculture.
Volume II. 1919. from which I took two articles on Education in the Agricultural field...
THE FOUNDATIONS OF DEVELOPMENT IN AGRICULTURE.
Rt. Hon. Viscount Haldane, K.T., O.M., January 1919
ONE of the lessons which the war has impressed on the world is the necessity of high standards in knowledge and training. The call for more widespread intelligence has become apparent generally, and no longer only in strategy and in the organisation of supply and of munitions. There is no region of civil life where it has not recently been heard. In many of these regions it has met with response. It has met with some response in agriculture and forestry, but the question remains whether the acknowledgment has been sufficient.
In this country we have individual experts in various departments of science who are second to none. There are, however, relatively speaking, but few of these, and of their power of spreading ideas but little use has been made, nor has it even been widely recognised by the public. In physics, in chemistry, in biology, these individuals have done outstanding work, and they have world wide reputations, but their influence on general knowledge within these islands has been restricted and even discouraged. In agriculture and forestry this has been especially the case, and it requires only a little study of what was being done in Germany before the war, and also, in a less comprehensively organised form, in France, in the United States, and in comparatively small countries on the Continent of Europe, in order to appreciate how far we were from keeping pace with our rivals. In Germany the contrast with our own want of organisation was especially marked, and it was an integral part of the policy of the German Government to keep a lead over us in food production.
The key to our inferiority lay in the want of recognition here of the great assistance which science could render, and which high science alone could render. No doubt there were scattered about this country men who knew a good deal and who had done much. In agriculture. I observed the results of their influence through the quarter of a century during which I represented East Lothian in the House of Commons. Although myself unskilled in this branch of knowledge, I had personal friends among farmers there who were no ordinary practical men. They impressed me much. They had, of course, a responsive soil to work with, but they had also what among our practical men was a high standard of knowledge. This had brought about an atmosphere in which the farm servants also had developed. Many of them knew a great deal.
But we want more than this if agriculture is really to develop. It is only in the homes of high science that the highest knowledge can be evolved and diffused among students fitted to apply it in practice. Agricultural colleges are excellent institutions, but they rarely reach a true University standard. I have recently been Chairman of a Royal Commission the task of which was to devise means for the reorganisation of education of a University type in Wales. I observed while there how great was alike the desire for new science to be applied to the tilling of the soil, and the gap which separated practical men from the resources of the University Colleges. Throughout the inquiries which the Commission held in Wales it was impressed on us by the witnesses that it was essential for the Welsh farmers that these resources should be developed, and a much more general resort to them encouraged. This has been done on the Continent and in the United States on a scale and by methods to which we are still strangers.
The impression continues to grow in my mind that the occupation of the farmer and of the forest manager must l>e connected more than at present with the directing ability of a learned profession, if we are really to improve our position as a nation in these branches of the national industry.
It must be remembered that the attainment of the maximum output in agriculture and forestry is a social as well as an industrial question. No organisation in an industry is ever really great unless those engaged, humble as well as pre-eminent, find satisfaction in it for the general aims of life. The condition of those who labour must be made attractive, and so must that of the men of skill, if the possessors of knowledge of a high standard are to be attracted. The farm hand must feel that he has scope for intelligence and is no mere machine. The farmer must feel that the science which he has at his command gives him an interest and a freedom in his work which develops his mind and gives scope for his abilities. It is training and education that alone can enable this level to be reached and maintained. The schools and colleges do too little in this country today to provide the foundation on which capacity of this kind can be built up, either in the farm servant or in the farmer. It is not desirable for its attainment that the education given should in the earlier stages be of a merely technical character. The object must always be in the first place to build up the mind so that at a later stage it will not be satisfied with a low level in understanding. The technical training should rise on a substratum of general education. No doubt in the continuation school it will be possible here, as it has proved easy elsewhere, to make instruction in things of a practical kind significant, that is to say illustrative of principles which are the more interesting because it is shown how they operate in actual practice. But the higher skill that comes of higher knowledge is the main thing, and it is only through higher knowledge that this skill can be generally attained.
What is true of the ordinary worker is still more apparent in the case of the higher direction. The agricultural colleges will never be really successful unless they are permeated by the scientific spirit which, at its best, develops only in the true University atmosphere. A certain amount of higher knowledge about agriculture can be crammed up by a year of hard study, and may be made the subject of examination for the diploma of a University in whose atmosphere the study has not taken place, but in the end it is of but little use. The teacher in an institution which is not permeated by the highest scientific spirit may possess much command of detail, but he will not raise his students or inspire them unless he gives the sense that the voyage of discovery on which he is conducting them is one in which what he teaches is only an illustration of larger principles which belong to knowledge as a whole. For knowledge is emphatically a whole, and its most valuable influence and assistance cannot be attained by pursuing it in forms that are only isolated fragments.
This is why it seems to me vital that the agricultural colleges should have a high status, both for teachers and for students, and, like the best Technical Colleges of other kinds, should be kept in the closest relation to the Universities that is attainable. For it is in the atmosphere of the Universities alone that, in the main, the highest kinds of inspiration come to teacher and to taught alike. The great professor is a great influence, not merely because of what he knows, but because of the inspiration of his personality. It is the intellectual level to which he raises those around him that makes the whole difference. And this kind of leader and level are impossible in a small institution confined to a single branch of instruction. The edifice is inseparable from the foundation on which alone it can be well and truly built.
The State is taking a new interest in higher education. It is taking this new interest because it has come at last to recognise that, unless higher knowledge is more widely diffused among our people than it has been in the past, we cannot hope to hold our own against competitors who possess it. It would, I think, be a national misfortune if, at a time when this new development is taking effect in other spheres, the great industries of agriculture and silviculture were left outside. And yet there is real danger of this. People think that it is only by practical work that knowledge and experience come in these subjects. In reality this is just as untrue as it is in the cases of the many industries which have suffered in this country, as has, for instance, the coal-tar dye industry, from starvation in instruction. Science never stands still, and methods in agriculture as well as in other industries constantly require revision in the light of the new science that is constantly arising through study and research in the laboratory.
To me it seems, therefore, that we have reached a critical period in the agricultural history of this country. We must go forward. The interests of the nation require it. And we cannot go forward unless we raise the intellectual level of the whole agricultural community, from the farm servant to the farmer. It is only by the aid of education that this can be done adequately. The schools can do the first part of the necessary work. But the higher education which is required for instructors and for research students, and which should be available also for the best type of farmer, can be got only through study under teachers of adequate standing and range of knowledge. And these will never be common in the agricultural colleges unless these colleges are themselves inspired and their students maintained by their relation to the larger society of the University.
It Is on knowledge that the future of the tillers of the land in this country really depends more than on anything else. And that knowledge will do little good unless it is not only sufficiently widely spread, but is also adequate in its quality.
THE EDUCATION (SCOTLAND) ACT, 1918, IN RELATION TO AGRICULTURE
The new Education Act, which became law on 21st November 1918, and which will come into force on a day to be appointed by the Education Department, introduces important changes into both the organisation and the scope of school instruction in Scotland. It substitutes for the School Boards that have existed for the last forty-six years County Education Authorities controlling the whole system of public elementary and secondary education within their areas, and it provides a scheme of care and training for boys and girls from the age of five, and in certain cases from that of two, to that of eighteen.
The age-limit for compulsory attendance at school is raised to fifteen, and that for the exemption of individuals to thirteen (Section 14), while important alterations are made in the regulations regarding the part-time employment of children of school age (Section 16). Power is given to the Education Authority to supply or aid in supplying nursery schools for children over two and under five years of age “whose attendance at such a school is necessary or desirable for their healthy physical and mental development,” and to attend to the health, nourishment and physical welfare of these children (Section 8). At the other end of the scale provision is made for the compulsory attendance at oan-tinuation schools of lads and girls between fifteen and eighteen years of age (Section 15).
It is enacted that voluntary or denominational schools, as defined in the Education (Scotland) Act, 1897, shall be transferred to the Education Authorities within two years, due provision being made for the maintenance of their denominational character (Section 18). Religious instruction in ordinary public schools is to remain on its present footing of "use and wont” (Section 7)-Reformatory and industrial schools are to pass from the direct control of the Secretary for Scotland to that of the Education Department (Section 19). Education Authorities are empowered to facilitate the attendance at secondary and intermediate schools of all boys and girls qualified for such attendance by payment of fees, travelling expenses and maintenance, or otherwise, and they may similarly assist towards attendance at Universities, Training Colleges, Central Institutions, etc. (Section 4). They may also contribute to the maintenance of schools within their area that are not under their own management, and to that of Universities and Central Institutions (Section 9) Finally they may “as an ancillary means of promoting education" provide libraries for the use not only of boys and girls, but of the adult population in their area (Section 5)
The administrative changes made by the Act involve the disappearance alike of School Boards and of Secondary Education Committees. In the Bill as originally drafted it was proposed that education should be locally controlled, as it is in England and Wales, by Education Committees appointed by the County Councils. In the course, however, of the long discussion that took place this was abandoned, and the principle of the ad body has been retained. The new education area is the county, including all burghs situated within it, save that Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee and Leith form separate education areas (Section i). The Secretary for Scotland will by Order determine the number of members who are to constitute each authority, and will divide each area into electoral divisions among which the members of the authority will be apportioned (Section 2). The electors are the persons registered as local government electors under the Representation of the People Act, 1918 (Section 22), and the voting is to be according to the principle of proportional representation, each elector having one transferable vote (Section 23). The cumulative vote is thus abolished, and a more rational method of securing the due representation of minorities is adopted.
For the management of schools or groups of schools, school management committees are to be formed, including representatives of the Education Authority and of the parents of the children attending the schools concerned, at least one teacher, and (where there are denominational schools) at least one person chosen on religious grounds (Section 3)
An Advisory Council will be appointed by the Crown for the purpose of advising the Education Department on educational matters (Section 20), and local advisory councils of a similar character are to be established by the Education Authorities (Section 25). The Department is in future to be known as the Scottish Education Department instead of "Scotch” (Section 30); Women, whether married or single, are equally eligible with men for appointment to all bodies constituted under the Act (Section 28). No certificated teacher can be dismissed unless (a) he receives three weeks’ written notice of the motion for his dismissal; (£) not less than half of the members of the Education Authority are present; (c) not less than two-thirds of those present vote for his dismissal. The appeal to the Department is retained (Section 24).
The provisions of the Act most vitally affecting agriculture are those affecting the conditions of part-time employment of children of school age, and those requiring lads and girls between fifteen and eighteen years of age to attend continuation classes. It is provided that a child under thirteen years of age shall not be employed on any school day before the close of school hours, or on any day before 8 a.m. or after 6 p.m.; nor is any child between thirteen and fifteen years of age to be so employed unless he or she has been exempted from school attendance. Power is, however, given to the Education Authority to vary these restrictions by byelaw, either generally or for any specified occupation. It is thus impossible for a farmer to employ whole-time a boy or girl under thirteen in any circumstances, or to employ whole-time a boy or girl between thirteen and fifteen who has not been exempted from school attendance, while, unless the power of varying the testriction is exercised, such children may be employed only for an hour or so on school days, and only between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Saturdays and holidays.
The provisions regarding the attendance at continuation classes of lads and girls between fifteen and eighteen years of age are more elaborate, and in view of the controversy that has taken place regarding them they should receive the special attention of everyone interested in the future of agriculture in Scotland.
In the first place the Education Authority is to consult persons concerned in local crafts and industries and to make full inquiry into local circumstances before drawing up for the approval of the Department a scheme of instruction in continuation classes. In the case of boys and girls between fifteen and sixteen years of age this scheme is to be submitted within a year after the “appointed day ” on which the Act comes into force. The scheme for older lads and girls does not come into force until three years after the appointed day. Then in the carrying out of the scheme, and particularly to facilitate the registration and classification of lads and girls, the Authority is to invite the co-operation of associations or committees of employers and workmen in the various local industries. The scheme is to include instruction in the English language “and in such other parts of a general education as may be deemed desirable,** special instruction of a technical character and physical exercises. Attendance is to be for at least 320 hours per annum, “distributed as regards times and seasons as may best suit the circumstances of each locality "; but the classes must be held between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m., and the period of actual employment in any day or week, together with the time spent at classes and that spent in travelling, must not exceed the period of employment permitted by any Act of Parliament that applies to the person concerned.
Lads and girls whose education is otherwise satisfactorily provided for are not brought under the scheme, and the Education Authority may exempt individuals from the obligation to attend classes where they are satisfied that the circumstances justify exemption.
It has already been stated that the full scheme does not come into operation until three years after the appointed day, i.e. some time in the year 1922. Nor does it apply to any boy or girl who reaches the age of sixteen during that period. Its operation will thus be gradual, and abundant time is given for the various industries of the country, including agriculture, to prepare for the new conditions.
The new scheme may shortly be described as one of “universal compulsory continuation classes,” save that attendance at classes is no longer to be an addition to the lads* or girls’ working day, but is to be taken out of it.
Some of the critics of the Act appear to regard it as laying a burden upon the employer, which he must, in the interests of production, do his best to minimise. This point of view is, however, a short-sighted one, which ignores alike the conditions of modem industry, whether urban or rural, and the provision that the Act makes for the fulfilment of these conditions. Whatever may be the future policy of this country with regard to agricultural production, it is obvious that trained intelligence is essential to the maintenance of the position that Scotland has held in the past. Nor can it be seriously maintained that the conditions of agriculture are such as to justify its exclusion from a national scheme that is intended effectively to co-ordinate elementary, secondary, technical and university education. On the contrary, anyone who is familiar with the educational systems of Denmark, Canada and the United States, to mention no other countries, will see that the new Act gives Scotland for the first time an opportunity of coming into line with the modern development of agricultural education.
Much will depend on the spirit with which the Act is locally put into operation. It makes the fullest provision for those practically concerned with agriculture to take part in its administration, whether as members of Education Authorities and School Management Committees, or as members of the proposed advisory industrial committees, and thus to ensure that the schemes of instruction shall meet the requirements of the various districts of the country, both in their scope and in the arrangement of times and seasons.
The burden laid upon agriculture, if burden it can be called, is no greater than that laid upon other industries. The number of lads and girls under 18 engaged in agricultural work in normal times is estimated at one-sixth of the whole number of persons so engaged. During the war the proportion has been higher, but the period of three years allowed before the scheme of continuation classes comes fully into force should suffice to restore the normal proportion. The period of attendance at classes is to be not less than 320 hours, which is about one-ninth of the working year of the person concerned. Under any arrangement of times and seasons it is hardly possible for the deduction, including time spent in travelling, etc., to exceed one-fifth of the year. Thus the total deduction from the working year of the agricultural population cannot exceed, and may be considerably less than, one-thirtieth. Now the weekly half-holiday has meant a deduction of one-twelfth, taken mainly from the time bf full-grown and thoroughly experienced men and women. The much smaller deduction now contemplated is to be taken exclusively from the time of untrained lads and girls under 18, and thus counts for even less in proportion than the figures indicate.
This calculation should convince critics of the Act that their fears are groundless. Instead of dwelling on the burden laid on agriculture, let them turn to the other side and help to realise the great possibilities that the Act affords for restoring the ancient reputation of Scotland as the best-educated country in the world.
END.
Weekend is almost here and hope it's a good one for you.
Alastair