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Electric Scotland News
The state-of-the-nation report sets out a sweeping picture of the lifestyle habits and changes among Scots over the course of the year.
Education
SATISFACTION levels with local schools among Scottish parents has been falling steadily in recent years, it has emerged.
The problem is most acute in more affluent areas of major cities, although remote small towns are also at the centre of concerns, according to the latest Scottish Household Survey.
It shows that fewer than half of Scots believe local councils – which run schools – are providing high-quality services, while just one in four feels they can influence the decisions affecting their areas.
It finds that 85 per cent of people were “very or fairly satisfied” with local schools when the current SNP government won its Holyrood majority in 2011. This fell to 83 per cent the following year, then to 81 per cent in 2013 and sunk to 79 per cent last year.
Transport
Road congestion is at its highest for six years.
The number of journeys involving delays increased by 2 per cent to 11.7 per cent.
Traffic reached a new record of 44.8 billion vehicle kilometres, up 2 per cent on 2013 and topping the previous peak in 2007.
The number of vehicles was at its highest for at least a decade, which also increased by 2 per cent to 2.8 million.
New vehicles, most of them cars, were also at a ten-year high, with 262,200 registered last year.
Climate change
Despite the increasingly high profile of climate change on the global agenda, fewer than half of Scots consider it an urgent problem. The latest survey has shown just 45 per cent believe the issue is of immediate concern – a sharp drop from 57 per cent in 2008. It also reveals the youngest and oldest adults are the least worried, while more than a fifth are not convinced it is happening at all. The belief in its urgency also fell in direct relation to levels of academic and professional qualifications.
Relationship status
Most Scots are not married or in a civil partnership, the survey has found. More than a third (35 per cent) said they have never married or registered a same-sex civilpartnership.
Just 47 per cent of people are married at the moment, the report found. A further 2 per cent are separated, but still legally married, with 8 per cent divorced. There were 7 per cent of people who are widowed. Almost all (96 per cent) younger adults – aged 16 to 24 – are not married and never have been.
Religion
Half of Scots still describe themselves as Christian despite a general decline in organised religion in recent years.
About one in four (27.8 per cent) say they are Church of Scotland, but this is down from 34 per cent five years ago. A further 14.4 per cent describe them as Roman catholics. Other Christian churches such as the Frees, Wee Frees and Episcopalians, account for a further 7.7 per cent. Muslims account for about 1.4 per cent of Scots. A growing number of Scots (47 per cent) say they are not religious at all. The figure in 2009 was 40 per cent.
Rev Colin Sinclair of the Church of Scotland said: “These latest figures represent the challenges facing many established organisations in Scotland.”
Smoking
The number of smokers has fallen to its lowest level in 15 years, as only a fifth of Scots now smoke.
The level fell from 31 per cent in 1999 and 23 per cent over the last three years
Smoking rates in the most deprived areas have dropped from 40 per cent in 2010 to 34 per cent in 2014.
The figures were hailed by ASH Scotland chief executive Sheila Duffy, who said it was “a significant step” towards a healthier Scotland.
Homeownership
Fewer Scots now own their own home, with more and more people renting from private landlords, the figures show.
Rates of home ownership have declined over the past five years from 66 per cent to about 60 per cent last year. The private rented sector has more then trebled from 5 per cent in 1999 to 14 per cent in 2014. In contrast, the percentage in the social rented sector has declined from 32 per cent in 1999 to 23 per cent in 2007 and has remained steady since. There are now 160,000 people on social housing waiting lists.
Neighbourhoods
Scots have pride in their local neighbourhoods with over 90 per cent saying they are very or fairly good places to live. Antisocial behaviour is relatively low in their area, most people think. The most common problem is dog fouling or barking, a problem for 31 per cent of people. Problems with neighbours, including loud parties and disputes, account for 17 per cent of problems. Drug dealing and mis-use is a rpblem for 11 per cent of Scots and rowdy behavour affects a further 11 per cent. But four in five (85 per cent) adults said they feel safe when walking alone in their neighbourhood after dark.
Volunteering
About one third of people provide unpaid help to organisations or groups. In 2014, 27 per cent of adults provided unpaid help to organisations or groups in the last 12 months.
Levels of volunteering have remained relatively stable over the past five years.
The type of organisations most commonly volunteered for are youth/children organisations (22 per cent), followed by those working with health, disability and social welfare organisations (21 per cent).
Younger adults, and those in age groups 35 to 44 and 45 to 59 were more likely to volunteer with children and young people.
Personal finances
More people are feeling confident about their personal finances in Scotland.
The proportion of households reporting that they felt positive about their household finances increased from 48 per cent in 2013 to over half (52 per cent) in 2014. One quarter of households (25 per cent) reported not having any savings or investments in 2014 though around half (53 per cent) of households reported having savings of £1,000 or more. over half (59 per cent) of single parent households reported having no savings.
Electric Canadian
Reminiscences of a Canadian Pioneer for the last Fifty Years
Continuing to add more chapters to this book and we are now up to Chapter LXII.
In Chapter LXI. The Buffalo Fête, we read...
In the month of July, 1850, the Mayor and citizens of Buffalo, hearing that our Canadian legislators were about to attend the formal opening of the Welland Canal, very courteously invited them to extend their trip to that city, and made preparations for their reception. Circumstances prevented the visit, but in acknowledgment of the good will thus shown, a number of members of the Canadian Parliament, then in session here, acting in concert with our City Council, proposed a counter-invitation, which was accordingly sent and accepted, and a joint committee formed to carry out the project.
The St. Lawrence Hall, then nearly finished, was hurriedly fitted up as a ball-room for the occasion, under the volunteered charge chiefly of Messrs. F. W. Cumberland and Kivas Tully, architects. The hall was lined throughout, tent-fashion, the ceiling with blue and white, the walls with pink and white calico, in alternate stripes, varied with a multitude of flags, British and American, mottoes and other showy devices. The staircase was decorated with evergreens, which were also utilized to convert the unfinished butchers' arcade into a bowery vista 500 feet long, lighted with gas laid for the occasion, and extending across Front Street to the entrance of the City Hall, then newly restored, painted and papered.
Lord Elgin warmly seconded the hospitable views of the joint committee, and Colonel Sir Hew Dalrymple promised a review of the troops then in garrison. All was life and preparation throughout the city.
You can read the new chapters at http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...pson/index.htm
Enigma Machine
The whole collection can be found at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/lifestyle/enigma.
We're still struggling with puzzle 115.
Broad Horizons
Maple Leaf Sketches from a Prairie Studio by W. Everard Edmonds (1919)
The author of the following sketches has asked me to write a brief foreword regarding them. It is a pleasure to me to accede to his request, not only as an old friend, but as one who has watched with interest his development in the realms of literature. Mr. Edmonds has spent many years in different parts of North West Canada; he has come into touch with what he describes, and therefore knows whereof he writes. His descriptive sketches afford particular evidence of this fact, for they have in them the genius loci which lends to them not only local colouring, but the vividness of an eye-witness. I heartily commend this book to the Canadian public, and trust that it may have as wide a range of readers as its title suggests.
You can download this book from http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...adhorizons.htm
Canadian Templar
Got up the September 2015 newsletter of the Grand Priory of Canada of the Knights Templar (OSMTH)
You can download this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/Reli...teSept2015.pdf
John Hillyard Cameron (1817-1876)
Added this Canadian Scot and Orange Grand Master to our Makers of Canada page.
You can read about him at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/makers/johncameron.htm
Electric Scotland
General View of the Agriculture of the Hebrides
By James MacDonald (1811)
The early history of the Hebrides is involved in thicker darkness than that of any neighbouring region. These islands were successively over-run by different tribes from the continents of Scotland and Ireland and by the northern rovers of Scandinavia. The ancient tales and traditions of the natives, which constitute the existing historical documents of this district, constantly refer to these eruptions; but they yield little that can be relied upon.
The natives are evidently of the same stock with the inhabitants of Ireland and of the Highlands of Scotland: Their language, manners, superstitions, and customs are the same. The tribes who settled among them in consequence of the Scandinavian conquests, between the 9th and 12th centuries, were few in number in comparison with the population of the country, and were speedily absorbed by the native race.
The first written accounts which we have of the Hebridians, occur in the Chronicle of Mann; and these are scanty and confused; nor indeed is the loss of their history of much consequence during the latter periods, (or even from the reign of Alexander III.) when they were finally annexed, by a specific agreement, with the Scottish Crown. What we regret most is the loss of their annals during the area of the introduction of Christianity and the age which preceded it, as well as that of their connexion with the Roman transactions in Britain.
That these extensive regions were at some former epoch possessed of a considerable population, and of resources far beyond what is commonly supposed, we may learn from the monuments of antiquity still visible in them. Castles built with astonishing skill in the midst of deep lakes; immense pillars of stone, plainly indicating the aid of mechanical powers to raise them, and the command of great numbers of men to carry them over ground impervious to cattle used for draught; watch-towers erected in places which, in point of judgment of selection, astonish the ablest engineers of modern times, and formed a regular chain of telegraphic communication; ruins of houses and of temples discovered deep under the present surface of the soil, or within the sea mark in some of the lower isles, and referring consequently to a remote antiquity; all these announce a degree of power, of wealth, and of civilization totally incompatible with the ideas usually adopted with respect to the ancient history of the Hebrides.
But this is not all. The language, superstitions, proverbs, and modes of thinking, general throughout these isles, evince ancient eminence. Their poetry is lofty and pathetic, replete with noble sentiments, and founded upon the historical associations of an illustrious race. It carries us back to a period in which "The kingdom“ of the Innsegallians (as they delight to call themselves) was the pride of its allies, and the terror of its foes; when the kings of the north, and the masters of the great world, fled away discomfited and terrified from its arms; and when the bravery of its heroes, and the virtues of its subjects, were the theme of the historian and song of the bard. Such sentiments we find even at this day universal throughout the western isles; and they carry to the unbiassed mind, upon a controversy lately agitated with much heat and intemperance, a degree of conviction which no sophistry can shake and no eloquence can overturn.
In consequence of the removal of the seat of government from Dunstaffnage, Inverlochy, and the western coast of Scotland, to the eastern counties of Perth, Fife, and Midlothian, the Hebrides were deprived of the immediate protection of their princes, and left to the capricious and arbitrary despotism of their chiefs. The chiefs carried on perpetual wars against one another, and these too of the most rancorous kind, being firequently founded on family or personal feuds. Neither the sanctifier of religion, nor the claims of humanity were respected. The Scottish monarchs, too feeble and too distant to punish the more powerful chiefs, adopted the miserable policy of managing them by setting one of themselves against the other, and of offering the property of the vanquished to his more successful antagonist. To this antagonist another chief was soon opposed, who in his turn, whether victorious or unsuccessful in the first instance, seldom escaped the violent fate of his neighbouring chief. This was the state of the Hebrides from the accession of Alexander III. till the beginning of the 18th century, when, in consequence of the union of England and Scotland, and some circumstances favourable to the admission of young Hebridians of influence into the British army and navy, the blessings of a regular government, and the refinements of civilized society were gradually introduced.
It was not, however, until the year 1748, that the Hebrides could be said to enjoy the complete security which results from an equitable and a powerful government. The abolition of the heritable jurisdictions conveyed to their inhabitants the full privileges of British subjects; and if they have not since that period been so well governed as other portions of our empire, the cause is not to be looked for in any neglect or injustice of the legislature, but in circumstances of a local nature, which it will require much time and powerful exertions to remove.
These circumstances are, the disjoined, unconnected, geographical state of the Western Islands, their great distance from cities and markets, the immediate nurses of wealth and of refinement, the difficulty of intercourse on account of the boisterousness of the seas around them, and the storms which so frequently prevail during nine months of the year but above all, the nonresidence of, many of the proprietors, who drain the poor Hebrides of their wealth, and, too often, residing in other parts of the empire, pay little attention to the improvement of their estates.
Whoever weighs these considerations, and many others of a collateral nature, but which are so obvious that it is unnecessary to mention them, will not be surprised to find the Western Islands of Scotland so far back in improvements as they are at present; but, on the contrary, he will wonder how they can, under such disadvantages, supply the stock and support the population which they now contain.
The following report, drawn up by a native, for the consideration of the Board of Agriculture and of Internal Improvement, is the result of seven voyages and journies at different periods since 1793, among these isles, and particularly of a journey of more than 9900 miles through them, in the months of May, June, July, August, and September 1808. He is sure that it is impartial, and he hopes it may be useful. The indulgence of the Board will in his case be but candour; for where the task is arduous, and the means of performance scanty, mediocrity is unavoidable and natural, and to escape censure is positive praise.
You can download this book at: http://www.electricscotland.com/agri...griculture.pdf
I will say about this book that it gives an excellent record of the conditions under which they live and work.
The Eskdale Herd Boy
A Scottish tale for young persons by Mrs Blackford. Added a link to this book under Children's Stories which you can get to at http://www.electricscotland.com/kids/stories/
Field and Fern
Or Scottish Flocks and Herds by H. H. Dixon (1865) in 2 volumes.
This actually fills a gap in our history of agriculture in Scotland so am pleased to be adding this publication which you can download at http://www.electricscotland.com/nature/fieldfern.htm
Scottish Life Memorials and Recollections
Of Historical and Remarkable Persons with Illustrations of Caledonian Humour by The Rev. Charles Rogers, LL.D., FSA Scot, Second Edition (1872)
THE first edition of this work having obtained a degree of favour much beyond its deserts, I have been encouraged carefully to revise every portion of it. The entire arrangement has been altered, the department more especially anecdotal recast, and much new matter added. Besides, the present edition is produced at a price more suited to the majority of readers.
A CENTURY OF SCOTTISH LIFE is the most appropriate title I can devise for a work which includes memorials and anecdotes of remarkable Scotsmen and others during the last hundred years. For a portion of the memorials I am indebted to my late father, a Scottish country minister, and one of the best conversationalists of his time. Personally I have had the privilege of associating with many gifted Scotsmen for the last thirty years, and I have commemorated those who are departed. My sketches are short, for I have not attempted biographies. Throughout the work I have endeavoured to be succinct, preferring to illustrate my subject with anecdotes rather than with reflections of my own. The present edition is enriched with contributions from my patriotic friend Mr. Sheriff Barclay of Perthshire, and other ingenious and obliging correspondents.
CHARLES ROGERS.
You can read this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...es/century.htm
George Dempster
Added an account of his parliamentary career to his mini biography which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ter_george.htm
The Clyde Passenger Steamer
Its Rise and Progress during the nineteenth Century from the 'Comet' of 1812 to the 'King Edward' of 1901 By Captain James Williamson (1904)
A DESIRE has been widely expressed for some permanent record of the rise and progress of the passenger steamer on the Clyde. I have ventured to undertake the task on the strength of an intimate and continuous association with the enterprise from my earliest years, and of an active share in it since 1868. For records and data, I gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness to the builders and engineers of the steamers, and to other gentlemen who have had a personal connection with the traffic. In every case pains have been taken to obtain authentic information.Craigbarnet,
Greenock, July, 1904.
You can read this book at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...steamboats.htm
Dundee Celebrities of the Nineteenth Century
Compiled by W. Norrie (1873). Added a link to this book at the foot of our Famous Scots page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...cant_scots.htm
Gordons of Cairnfield
Found this book which I've added a link to from our Gordon page. I might add we have a great wee collection of books on this family and you can get to them and this one at: http://www.electricscotland.com/webc...og/gordon.html
THE STORY
Thought I'd bring you a New Zealand story this week..
The Journal of George Hepburn
On his voyage from Scotland to Otago in 1850 with extracts from his letters written from Otago.
Edited by his Grandson, William Downie Stewart
THE first part of this small volume contains the journal of my grandfather, George Hepburn, who came from Fifeshire, Scotland, to Otago in the year 1850 in the sailing ship Poictiers.
The second part consists of extracts from letters written after his arrival in Otago and up to the time of his death, at the age of 81, on December 9th, 1883.
The chief interest of the journal consists in the vivid picture it contains of the hardships and discomforts of a seven months’ voyage in a ship of 756 tons.
It is true that the Poictiers was not one of the pioneer ships, for between 1848 and 1850 twelve previous emigrant vessels arrived at Otago; all being of smaller tonnage than the Poictiers. No doubt there are in existence accounts of these earlier voyages, but I do not know of any narrative which records the day-by-day events of life on a sailing ship of that period so faithfully and vividly as does this journal.
From time to time there crop up throughout the journal the strong national antipathies and prejudices of a Scotchman of those days against the English on his first contact with them after leaving his native country. This national hostility may amuse—but will not surprise—those readers who are familiar with the novels of Sir Walter Scott.
The Otago settlement was founded by the Free Church of Scotland. It is not surprising, therefore, that its first settlers were for the most part men of deep religious conviction and of a stern Calvinistic type. To some extent these characteristics reveal themselves in this journal. My grandfather’s passion for the strict observance of the Sabbath prompted him on the long voyage to act as a censor of the morals and behaviour of his fellow passengers. Nothing induced him to relax the rigidity of his strict code, whether the ship was running before a fierce gale or its passengers and crew were sweltering in the heat of the tropics. But the reader must not infer from these evidences of the stricter standards of by-gone days that my grandfather was a dour and sour-visaged bigot. He was a man of kindly and genial disposition, who loved hospitality, and welcomed festive gatherings in his home at Halfway Bush, near Dunedin.
The journal is also of permanent interest because of the early glimpses it gives of various New Zealand settlements—New Plymouth, Nelson, and Wellington—which were ports of call en route to Otago.
George Hepburn was born in 1803 in the Scotch town of Kirkcaldy, the birthplace of the famous economist Adam Smith. [In his Life of Adam Smith Lord Haldane says: "Kirkcaldy, or, as the name was spelt in the days of Adam Smith, Kirkaldy, is a manufacturing town on the north side of the Firth of Forth. From its peculiar characteristic of possessing great length without breadth it has for generations enjoyed the appellation of the lang toon.’ The inhabitants are of that shrewd hardheaded nature for which Fife is famous. Manufacture overshadows agriculture, and the general aspect of the place is that of Industry."]
At the time when with his wife and eight children he reached Dunedin, after a voyage of seven months, the settlement had already been in existence for two years. His letters give many interesting glimpses of the business, social, and religious life of the small community and of its steady growth and development up till the time of his death.
My grandfather was a member of the Provincial Council of Otago from 1855 to 1865, and for some time he served as Chairman of Committees in the Council. He also represented the electoral district of Roslyn in the fourth New Zealand Parliament from 1866 to 1868 as a supporter of the Stafford Ministry, but retired on the ground of ill-health.
The following extract from the Otago Witness of 15th December, 1883, gives some further particulars of his life which may be of interest to the reader.
The place of another of the old worthies of Otago has become vacant, thus still further narrowing the circle of the devoted band of early settlers who struggled hard against difficulties, which can neither be known nor appreciated by the present generation. On September 1st, 1850, Mr. Hepburn arrived at the Port of Otago in the ship Poictiers (Captain Beal) after a seven months’ voyage from London, being accompanied by his wife and a large family. Accustomed in his native land to indoor occupation, the prospects of making a living for his family and himself in the midst of his strange surroundings was not inviting. In Dunedin he saw no opening in the trade which he had at his finger-ends—there were already too many pursuing it for the small population. However, he did not give way to despondency and, although of not a robust constitution, he bravely faced the difficulty, and having secured a section of land at Halfway Bush he, with a will and with the help his young family could afford, tackled the arduous task of clearing the bush and making his ground yield out of its richness sustenance for his household.
About six months afterwards Mr. Macandrew arrived (1851) and, the services of a competent and trustworthy general manager and salesman being required, the position was offered to and accepted by Mr. Hepburn, and in this employ he remained until 1855 when, in conjunction with Mr. James Paterson, be purchased the business from Messrs. Macandrew and Co. and carried it on under the firm or style of Jas. Paterson and Co. for several years very successfully, until he retired to more private life. Even with all the comfort of metalled roads and different conveyances, the daily journey to and from Dunedin to Halfway Bush, especially in wintry weather, does not possess many attractions, so some idea may be formed of the pluck needed to perform the journey, seven days in the week, in all weathers, through bush, scrub, and swamp, with scarcely a track to guide his footsteps.
Keenly alive to his responsibility for the exercise of his religious duties, which were ingrained in him in youth and practised in manhood’s prime, he at once attached himself to First Church under the ministry of Dr. Burns, and on Sabbath, 16th March, 1851 having previously been elected thereto by the members of the Church, he was inducted as an Elder for the Halfway Bush district, and for several years he was also Session Clerk in the First Church congregation. (He had formerly been an Elder in the Free Church, Kirkcaldy.) He had for his colleague in the Deacon-ship the late James Marshall, who had in the Home Country been a Deacon of the Free Church of Falkirk, continuing in connection with First Church until the opening of Knox Church in 1860, when he was appointed as one of the interim Session in its formation. He remained in that position, and was the last survivor of its first Session. In both churches he zealously devoted himself to those labours in which his heart delighted.
The subsequent erection of Wakari into a separate charge, being in Mr. Hepburn’s own neighbourhood, received his warm support and active assistance.
The politics of the Province received from Mr. Hepburn a considerable amount of attention and, although not a "heaven-born orator," he possessed the rarer attribute of commonsense, and showed it as occasion required. In 1855 he was returned at the top of the poll as one of the representatives of Wakari District in the second Provincial Council, and continued a member for Wakari for several Councils, and for a considerable period occupied the difficult position of Chairman of Committees. The still higher position of a member of the Assembly was conferred on him in 1866, the constituency of Roslyn returning him as their member against two other candidates. At the close of the Parliament of 1871 [He resigned in 1868] he did not again offer himself for a seat in the House.
Warmly alive to the advantages of education, he gave his assiduous attention to the school requirements of his district, occupying the position of Chairman of the School Committee.
In editing these papers I have purposely refrained from any attempt to condense the narrative. It is no doubt true that on a prolonged sea voyage there is much that must appear trivial and monotonous, but after several perusals of the journal I reached the conclusion that only by reading the detailed day-by-day record can the reader appreciate the arduous and exacting nature of such a voyage. Moreover, the real charm of both journal and letters lies in the quaint and homely language and the artless simplicity of the style.
The papers were written by my grandfather without any idea that one day they would be published. Indeed they were found some years ago almost by accident buried away in a box in an old house in Scotland.
Hence my first plan was merely to render them available to the third and fourth generations of his descendants; but owing to their intrinsic historical interest I have ventured to think that they may appeal to a wider circle of readers.
I am indebted to Dr. Scholefield, Parliamentary Librarian, and to Mr. Alfred Eccies for references to various people and places; and to the Librarians of the Free Public and Hocken Libraries and the Secretary of the Early Settlers’ Association, Dunedin, for assistance in the selection of illustrations.
You can read this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/nz/otagondx.htm
More stories of Scots in New Zealand can be read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/nz/index.htm
And that's it for this week and hope you all enjoy your weekend.
Alastair
http://www.electricscotland.com/
Electric Scotland News
The state-of-the-nation report sets out a sweeping picture of the lifestyle habits and changes among Scots over the course of the year.
Education
SATISFACTION levels with local schools among Scottish parents has been falling steadily in recent years, it has emerged.
The problem is most acute in more affluent areas of major cities, although remote small towns are also at the centre of concerns, according to the latest Scottish Household Survey.
It shows that fewer than half of Scots believe local councils – which run schools – are providing high-quality services, while just one in four feels they can influence the decisions affecting their areas.
It finds that 85 per cent of people were “very or fairly satisfied” with local schools when the current SNP government won its Holyrood majority in 2011. This fell to 83 per cent the following year, then to 81 per cent in 2013 and sunk to 79 per cent last year.
Transport
Road congestion is at its highest for six years.
The number of journeys involving delays increased by 2 per cent to 11.7 per cent.
Traffic reached a new record of 44.8 billion vehicle kilometres, up 2 per cent on 2013 and topping the previous peak in 2007.
The number of vehicles was at its highest for at least a decade, which also increased by 2 per cent to 2.8 million.
New vehicles, most of them cars, were also at a ten-year high, with 262,200 registered last year.
Climate change
Despite the increasingly high profile of climate change on the global agenda, fewer than half of Scots consider it an urgent problem. The latest survey has shown just 45 per cent believe the issue is of immediate concern – a sharp drop from 57 per cent in 2008. It also reveals the youngest and oldest adults are the least worried, while more than a fifth are not convinced it is happening at all. The belief in its urgency also fell in direct relation to levels of academic and professional qualifications.
Relationship status
Most Scots are not married or in a civil partnership, the survey has found. More than a third (35 per cent) said they have never married or registered a same-sex civilpartnership.
Just 47 per cent of people are married at the moment, the report found. A further 2 per cent are separated, but still legally married, with 8 per cent divorced. There were 7 per cent of people who are widowed. Almost all (96 per cent) younger adults – aged 16 to 24 – are not married and never have been.
Religion
Half of Scots still describe themselves as Christian despite a general decline in organised religion in recent years.
About one in four (27.8 per cent) say they are Church of Scotland, but this is down from 34 per cent five years ago. A further 14.4 per cent describe them as Roman catholics. Other Christian churches such as the Frees, Wee Frees and Episcopalians, account for a further 7.7 per cent. Muslims account for about 1.4 per cent of Scots. A growing number of Scots (47 per cent) say they are not religious at all. The figure in 2009 was 40 per cent.
Rev Colin Sinclair of the Church of Scotland said: “These latest figures represent the challenges facing many established organisations in Scotland.”
Smoking
The number of smokers has fallen to its lowest level in 15 years, as only a fifth of Scots now smoke.
The level fell from 31 per cent in 1999 and 23 per cent over the last three years
Smoking rates in the most deprived areas have dropped from 40 per cent in 2010 to 34 per cent in 2014.
The figures were hailed by ASH Scotland chief executive Sheila Duffy, who said it was “a significant step” towards a healthier Scotland.
Homeownership
Fewer Scots now own their own home, with more and more people renting from private landlords, the figures show.
Rates of home ownership have declined over the past five years from 66 per cent to about 60 per cent last year. The private rented sector has more then trebled from 5 per cent in 1999 to 14 per cent in 2014. In contrast, the percentage in the social rented sector has declined from 32 per cent in 1999 to 23 per cent in 2007 and has remained steady since. There are now 160,000 people on social housing waiting lists.
Neighbourhoods
Scots have pride in their local neighbourhoods with over 90 per cent saying they are very or fairly good places to live. Antisocial behaviour is relatively low in their area, most people think. The most common problem is dog fouling or barking, a problem for 31 per cent of people. Problems with neighbours, including loud parties and disputes, account for 17 per cent of problems. Drug dealing and mis-use is a rpblem for 11 per cent of Scots and rowdy behavour affects a further 11 per cent. But four in five (85 per cent) adults said they feel safe when walking alone in their neighbourhood after dark.
Volunteering
About one third of people provide unpaid help to organisations or groups. In 2014, 27 per cent of adults provided unpaid help to organisations or groups in the last 12 months.
Levels of volunteering have remained relatively stable over the past five years.
The type of organisations most commonly volunteered for are youth/children organisations (22 per cent), followed by those working with health, disability and social welfare organisations (21 per cent).
Younger adults, and those in age groups 35 to 44 and 45 to 59 were more likely to volunteer with children and young people.
Personal finances
More people are feeling confident about their personal finances in Scotland.
The proportion of households reporting that they felt positive about their household finances increased from 48 per cent in 2013 to over half (52 per cent) in 2014. One quarter of households (25 per cent) reported not having any savings or investments in 2014 though around half (53 per cent) of households reported having savings of £1,000 or more. over half (59 per cent) of single parent households reported having no savings.
Electric Canadian
Reminiscences of a Canadian Pioneer for the last Fifty Years
Continuing to add more chapters to this book and we are now up to Chapter LXII.
In Chapter LXI. The Buffalo Fête, we read...
In the month of July, 1850, the Mayor and citizens of Buffalo, hearing that our Canadian legislators were about to attend the formal opening of the Welland Canal, very courteously invited them to extend their trip to that city, and made preparations for their reception. Circumstances prevented the visit, but in acknowledgment of the good will thus shown, a number of members of the Canadian Parliament, then in session here, acting in concert with our City Council, proposed a counter-invitation, which was accordingly sent and accepted, and a joint committee formed to carry out the project.
The St. Lawrence Hall, then nearly finished, was hurriedly fitted up as a ball-room for the occasion, under the volunteered charge chiefly of Messrs. F. W. Cumberland and Kivas Tully, architects. The hall was lined throughout, tent-fashion, the ceiling with blue and white, the walls with pink and white calico, in alternate stripes, varied with a multitude of flags, British and American, mottoes and other showy devices. The staircase was decorated with evergreens, which were also utilized to convert the unfinished butchers' arcade into a bowery vista 500 feet long, lighted with gas laid for the occasion, and extending across Front Street to the entrance of the City Hall, then newly restored, painted and papered.
Lord Elgin warmly seconded the hospitable views of the joint committee, and Colonel Sir Hew Dalrymple promised a review of the troops then in garrison. All was life and preparation throughout the city.
You can read the new chapters at http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...pson/index.htm
Enigma Machine
The whole collection can be found at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/lifestyle/enigma.
We're still struggling with puzzle 115.
Broad Horizons
Maple Leaf Sketches from a Prairie Studio by W. Everard Edmonds (1919)
The author of the following sketches has asked me to write a brief foreword regarding them. It is a pleasure to me to accede to his request, not only as an old friend, but as one who has watched with interest his development in the realms of literature. Mr. Edmonds has spent many years in different parts of North West Canada; he has come into touch with what he describes, and therefore knows whereof he writes. His descriptive sketches afford particular evidence of this fact, for they have in them the genius loci which lends to them not only local colouring, but the vividness of an eye-witness. I heartily commend this book to the Canadian public, and trust that it may have as wide a range of readers as its title suggests.
You can download this book from http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...adhorizons.htm
Canadian Templar
Got up the September 2015 newsletter of the Grand Priory of Canada of the Knights Templar (OSMTH)
You can download this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/Reli...teSept2015.pdf
John Hillyard Cameron (1817-1876)
Added this Canadian Scot and Orange Grand Master to our Makers of Canada page.
You can read about him at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/makers/johncameron.htm
Electric Scotland
General View of the Agriculture of the Hebrides
By James MacDonald (1811)
The early history of the Hebrides is involved in thicker darkness than that of any neighbouring region. These islands were successively over-run by different tribes from the continents of Scotland and Ireland and by the northern rovers of Scandinavia. The ancient tales and traditions of the natives, which constitute the existing historical documents of this district, constantly refer to these eruptions; but they yield little that can be relied upon.
The natives are evidently of the same stock with the inhabitants of Ireland and of the Highlands of Scotland: Their language, manners, superstitions, and customs are the same. The tribes who settled among them in consequence of the Scandinavian conquests, between the 9th and 12th centuries, were few in number in comparison with the population of the country, and were speedily absorbed by the native race.
The first written accounts which we have of the Hebridians, occur in the Chronicle of Mann; and these are scanty and confused; nor indeed is the loss of their history of much consequence during the latter periods, (or even from the reign of Alexander III.) when they were finally annexed, by a specific agreement, with the Scottish Crown. What we regret most is the loss of their annals during the area of the introduction of Christianity and the age which preceded it, as well as that of their connexion with the Roman transactions in Britain.
That these extensive regions were at some former epoch possessed of a considerable population, and of resources far beyond what is commonly supposed, we may learn from the monuments of antiquity still visible in them. Castles built with astonishing skill in the midst of deep lakes; immense pillars of stone, plainly indicating the aid of mechanical powers to raise them, and the command of great numbers of men to carry them over ground impervious to cattle used for draught; watch-towers erected in places which, in point of judgment of selection, astonish the ablest engineers of modern times, and formed a regular chain of telegraphic communication; ruins of houses and of temples discovered deep under the present surface of the soil, or within the sea mark in some of the lower isles, and referring consequently to a remote antiquity; all these announce a degree of power, of wealth, and of civilization totally incompatible with the ideas usually adopted with respect to the ancient history of the Hebrides.
But this is not all. The language, superstitions, proverbs, and modes of thinking, general throughout these isles, evince ancient eminence. Their poetry is lofty and pathetic, replete with noble sentiments, and founded upon the historical associations of an illustrious race. It carries us back to a period in which "The kingdom“ of the Innsegallians (as they delight to call themselves) was the pride of its allies, and the terror of its foes; when the kings of the north, and the masters of the great world, fled away discomfited and terrified from its arms; and when the bravery of its heroes, and the virtues of its subjects, were the theme of the historian and song of the bard. Such sentiments we find even at this day universal throughout the western isles; and they carry to the unbiassed mind, upon a controversy lately agitated with much heat and intemperance, a degree of conviction which no sophistry can shake and no eloquence can overturn.
In consequence of the removal of the seat of government from Dunstaffnage, Inverlochy, and the western coast of Scotland, to the eastern counties of Perth, Fife, and Midlothian, the Hebrides were deprived of the immediate protection of their princes, and left to the capricious and arbitrary despotism of their chiefs. The chiefs carried on perpetual wars against one another, and these too of the most rancorous kind, being firequently founded on family or personal feuds. Neither the sanctifier of religion, nor the claims of humanity were respected. The Scottish monarchs, too feeble and too distant to punish the more powerful chiefs, adopted the miserable policy of managing them by setting one of themselves against the other, and of offering the property of the vanquished to his more successful antagonist. To this antagonist another chief was soon opposed, who in his turn, whether victorious or unsuccessful in the first instance, seldom escaped the violent fate of his neighbouring chief. This was the state of the Hebrides from the accession of Alexander III. till the beginning of the 18th century, when, in consequence of the union of England and Scotland, and some circumstances favourable to the admission of young Hebridians of influence into the British army and navy, the blessings of a regular government, and the refinements of civilized society were gradually introduced.
It was not, however, until the year 1748, that the Hebrides could be said to enjoy the complete security which results from an equitable and a powerful government. The abolition of the heritable jurisdictions conveyed to their inhabitants the full privileges of British subjects; and if they have not since that period been so well governed as other portions of our empire, the cause is not to be looked for in any neglect or injustice of the legislature, but in circumstances of a local nature, which it will require much time and powerful exertions to remove.
These circumstances are, the disjoined, unconnected, geographical state of the Western Islands, their great distance from cities and markets, the immediate nurses of wealth and of refinement, the difficulty of intercourse on account of the boisterousness of the seas around them, and the storms which so frequently prevail during nine months of the year but above all, the nonresidence of, many of the proprietors, who drain the poor Hebrides of their wealth, and, too often, residing in other parts of the empire, pay little attention to the improvement of their estates.
Whoever weighs these considerations, and many others of a collateral nature, but which are so obvious that it is unnecessary to mention them, will not be surprised to find the Western Islands of Scotland so far back in improvements as they are at present; but, on the contrary, he will wonder how they can, under such disadvantages, supply the stock and support the population which they now contain.
The following report, drawn up by a native, for the consideration of the Board of Agriculture and of Internal Improvement, is the result of seven voyages and journies at different periods since 1793, among these isles, and particularly of a journey of more than 9900 miles through them, in the months of May, June, July, August, and September 1808. He is sure that it is impartial, and he hopes it may be useful. The indulgence of the Board will in his case be but candour; for where the task is arduous, and the means of performance scanty, mediocrity is unavoidable and natural, and to escape censure is positive praise.
You can download this book at: http://www.electricscotland.com/agri...griculture.pdf
I will say about this book that it gives an excellent record of the conditions under which they live and work.
The Eskdale Herd Boy
A Scottish tale for young persons by Mrs Blackford. Added a link to this book under Children's Stories which you can get to at http://www.electricscotland.com/kids/stories/
Field and Fern
Or Scottish Flocks and Herds by H. H. Dixon (1865) in 2 volumes.
This actually fills a gap in our history of agriculture in Scotland so am pleased to be adding this publication which you can download at http://www.electricscotland.com/nature/fieldfern.htm
Scottish Life Memorials and Recollections
Of Historical and Remarkable Persons with Illustrations of Caledonian Humour by The Rev. Charles Rogers, LL.D., FSA Scot, Second Edition (1872)
THE first edition of this work having obtained a degree of favour much beyond its deserts, I have been encouraged carefully to revise every portion of it. The entire arrangement has been altered, the department more especially anecdotal recast, and much new matter added. Besides, the present edition is produced at a price more suited to the majority of readers.
A CENTURY OF SCOTTISH LIFE is the most appropriate title I can devise for a work which includes memorials and anecdotes of remarkable Scotsmen and others during the last hundred years. For a portion of the memorials I am indebted to my late father, a Scottish country minister, and one of the best conversationalists of his time. Personally I have had the privilege of associating with many gifted Scotsmen for the last thirty years, and I have commemorated those who are departed. My sketches are short, for I have not attempted biographies. Throughout the work I have endeavoured to be succinct, preferring to illustrate my subject with anecdotes rather than with reflections of my own. The present edition is enriched with contributions from my patriotic friend Mr. Sheriff Barclay of Perthshire, and other ingenious and obliging correspondents.
CHARLES ROGERS.
You can read this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...es/century.htm
George Dempster
Added an account of his parliamentary career to his mini biography which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ter_george.htm
The Clyde Passenger Steamer
Its Rise and Progress during the nineteenth Century from the 'Comet' of 1812 to the 'King Edward' of 1901 By Captain James Williamson (1904)
A DESIRE has been widely expressed for some permanent record of the rise and progress of the passenger steamer on the Clyde. I have ventured to undertake the task on the strength of an intimate and continuous association with the enterprise from my earliest years, and of an active share in it since 1868. For records and data, I gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness to the builders and engineers of the steamers, and to other gentlemen who have had a personal connection with the traffic. In every case pains have been taken to obtain authentic information.Craigbarnet,
Greenock, July, 1904.
You can read this book at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...steamboats.htm
Dundee Celebrities of the Nineteenth Century
Compiled by W. Norrie (1873). Added a link to this book at the foot of our Famous Scots page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...cant_scots.htm
Gordons of Cairnfield
Found this book which I've added a link to from our Gordon page. I might add we have a great wee collection of books on this family and you can get to them and this one at: http://www.electricscotland.com/webc...og/gordon.html
THE STORY
Thought I'd bring you a New Zealand story this week..
The Journal of George Hepburn
On his voyage from Scotland to Otago in 1850 with extracts from his letters written from Otago.
Edited by his Grandson, William Downie Stewart
THE first part of this small volume contains the journal of my grandfather, George Hepburn, who came from Fifeshire, Scotland, to Otago in the year 1850 in the sailing ship Poictiers.
The second part consists of extracts from letters written after his arrival in Otago and up to the time of his death, at the age of 81, on December 9th, 1883.
The chief interest of the journal consists in the vivid picture it contains of the hardships and discomforts of a seven months’ voyage in a ship of 756 tons.
It is true that the Poictiers was not one of the pioneer ships, for between 1848 and 1850 twelve previous emigrant vessels arrived at Otago; all being of smaller tonnage than the Poictiers. No doubt there are in existence accounts of these earlier voyages, but I do not know of any narrative which records the day-by-day events of life on a sailing ship of that period so faithfully and vividly as does this journal.
From time to time there crop up throughout the journal the strong national antipathies and prejudices of a Scotchman of those days against the English on his first contact with them after leaving his native country. This national hostility may amuse—but will not surprise—those readers who are familiar with the novels of Sir Walter Scott.
The Otago settlement was founded by the Free Church of Scotland. It is not surprising, therefore, that its first settlers were for the most part men of deep religious conviction and of a stern Calvinistic type. To some extent these characteristics reveal themselves in this journal. My grandfather’s passion for the strict observance of the Sabbath prompted him on the long voyage to act as a censor of the morals and behaviour of his fellow passengers. Nothing induced him to relax the rigidity of his strict code, whether the ship was running before a fierce gale or its passengers and crew were sweltering in the heat of the tropics. But the reader must not infer from these evidences of the stricter standards of by-gone days that my grandfather was a dour and sour-visaged bigot. He was a man of kindly and genial disposition, who loved hospitality, and welcomed festive gatherings in his home at Halfway Bush, near Dunedin.
The journal is also of permanent interest because of the early glimpses it gives of various New Zealand settlements—New Plymouth, Nelson, and Wellington—which were ports of call en route to Otago.
George Hepburn was born in 1803 in the Scotch town of Kirkcaldy, the birthplace of the famous economist Adam Smith. [In his Life of Adam Smith Lord Haldane says: "Kirkcaldy, or, as the name was spelt in the days of Adam Smith, Kirkaldy, is a manufacturing town on the north side of the Firth of Forth. From its peculiar characteristic of possessing great length without breadth it has for generations enjoyed the appellation of the lang toon.’ The inhabitants are of that shrewd hardheaded nature for which Fife is famous. Manufacture overshadows agriculture, and the general aspect of the place is that of Industry."]
At the time when with his wife and eight children he reached Dunedin, after a voyage of seven months, the settlement had already been in existence for two years. His letters give many interesting glimpses of the business, social, and religious life of the small community and of its steady growth and development up till the time of his death.
My grandfather was a member of the Provincial Council of Otago from 1855 to 1865, and for some time he served as Chairman of Committees in the Council. He also represented the electoral district of Roslyn in the fourth New Zealand Parliament from 1866 to 1868 as a supporter of the Stafford Ministry, but retired on the ground of ill-health.
The following extract from the Otago Witness of 15th December, 1883, gives some further particulars of his life which may be of interest to the reader.
The place of another of the old worthies of Otago has become vacant, thus still further narrowing the circle of the devoted band of early settlers who struggled hard against difficulties, which can neither be known nor appreciated by the present generation. On September 1st, 1850, Mr. Hepburn arrived at the Port of Otago in the ship Poictiers (Captain Beal) after a seven months’ voyage from London, being accompanied by his wife and a large family. Accustomed in his native land to indoor occupation, the prospects of making a living for his family and himself in the midst of his strange surroundings was not inviting. In Dunedin he saw no opening in the trade which he had at his finger-ends—there were already too many pursuing it for the small population. However, he did not give way to despondency and, although of not a robust constitution, he bravely faced the difficulty, and having secured a section of land at Halfway Bush he, with a will and with the help his young family could afford, tackled the arduous task of clearing the bush and making his ground yield out of its richness sustenance for his household.
About six months afterwards Mr. Macandrew arrived (1851) and, the services of a competent and trustworthy general manager and salesman being required, the position was offered to and accepted by Mr. Hepburn, and in this employ he remained until 1855 when, in conjunction with Mr. James Paterson, be purchased the business from Messrs. Macandrew and Co. and carried it on under the firm or style of Jas. Paterson and Co. for several years very successfully, until he retired to more private life. Even with all the comfort of metalled roads and different conveyances, the daily journey to and from Dunedin to Halfway Bush, especially in wintry weather, does not possess many attractions, so some idea may be formed of the pluck needed to perform the journey, seven days in the week, in all weathers, through bush, scrub, and swamp, with scarcely a track to guide his footsteps.
Keenly alive to his responsibility for the exercise of his religious duties, which were ingrained in him in youth and practised in manhood’s prime, he at once attached himself to First Church under the ministry of Dr. Burns, and on Sabbath, 16th March, 1851 having previously been elected thereto by the members of the Church, he was inducted as an Elder for the Halfway Bush district, and for several years he was also Session Clerk in the First Church congregation. (He had formerly been an Elder in the Free Church, Kirkcaldy.) He had for his colleague in the Deacon-ship the late James Marshall, who had in the Home Country been a Deacon of the Free Church of Falkirk, continuing in connection with First Church until the opening of Knox Church in 1860, when he was appointed as one of the interim Session in its formation. He remained in that position, and was the last survivor of its first Session. In both churches he zealously devoted himself to those labours in which his heart delighted.
The subsequent erection of Wakari into a separate charge, being in Mr. Hepburn’s own neighbourhood, received his warm support and active assistance.
The politics of the Province received from Mr. Hepburn a considerable amount of attention and, although not a "heaven-born orator," he possessed the rarer attribute of commonsense, and showed it as occasion required. In 1855 he was returned at the top of the poll as one of the representatives of Wakari District in the second Provincial Council, and continued a member for Wakari for several Councils, and for a considerable period occupied the difficult position of Chairman of Committees. The still higher position of a member of the Assembly was conferred on him in 1866, the constituency of Roslyn returning him as their member against two other candidates. At the close of the Parliament of 1871 [He resigned in 1868] he did not again offer himself for a seat in the House.
Warmly alive to the advantages of education, he gave his assiduous attention to the school requirements of his district, occupying the position of Chairman of the School Committee.
In editing these papers I have purposely refrained from any attempt to condense the narrative. It is no doubt true that on a prolonged sea voyage there is much that must appear trivial and monotonous, but after several perusals of the journal I reached the conclusion that only by reading the detailed day-by-day record can the reader appreciate the arduous and exacting nature of such a voyage. Moreover, the real charm of both journal and letters lies in the quaint and homely language and the artless simplicity of the style.
The papers were written by my grandfather without any idea that one day they would be published. Indeed they were found some years ago almost by accident buried away in a box in an old house in Scotland.
Hence my first plan was merely to render them available to the third and fourth generations of his descendants; but owing to their intrinsic historical interest I have ventured to think that they may appeal to a wider circle of readers.
I am indebted to Dr. Scholefield, Parliamentary Librarian, and to Mr. Alfred Eccies for references to various people and places; and to the Librarians of the Free Public and Hocken Libraries and the Secretary of the Early Settlers’ Association, Dunedin, for assistance in the selection of illustrations.
You can read this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/nz/otagondx.htm
More stories of Scots in New Zealand can be read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/nz/index.htm
And that's it for this week and hope you all enjoy your weekend.
Alastair