The Emigration Boom: The Barren Hebrides: Old-Time "Clear-
"ances": Mr. Scrymgeour and Prohibition: A Cultured Postman From Our Own Correspondent, Edinburgh, Apr. 25.
The emigration fever in the Hebrides is intense, and is unsettling' the whdle community. Some of the older people, particularly thosd whose sons are emigrating and leaving no able persons behind to work the home _holdings, are strongly against this exodus, unparalleled within recent years. Why let the Irish labourers flock into this country, it is asked, and send away the very flower of the Western Islands? One oid Highlander is very bitter, and says that if things are allowed to go on as at present there will be more Irishmen than Scotsmen in Glasgow; but, he added, scornfully, Irish labour is cheap. There is little wonder, however, that the Islanders are leaving barren Lewis for such lands of premise ad Canada and Australia. The miles of heathery waste astonish thd visitor. Round some of the villages patches have been. cleared with what must have been long continuous and painful labour. The stones removed are built into dykes, probably more with the idea of getting-rid of the stones than! of forming enclosures. It is satd to say that there is more stond than soil on the uncleared surfaces. he thinness of the soil in the islands has curious consequences. the recent graves in the oid churchyard of Rodd have to be packed up with specially gathered earth, Funerals in some parts of Harris have to travel a considerable distance to reach a possible place of burial. Large as the emigration hag been this season, another large contingent is expected to leave next year. It may be recalled that between 1907 and 191°. a large number- of North Uist people emigrated to British Columbia, where they have been, without exception, prosperous and satisfied with their positions. Every man of them who could carry a gun, some of them well over 50 years of age, was In the Canadian Army in France during the war.
In the later steamer the majority of emigrants were strapping young fellows weary of waiting for thd long-deferred revival of the fishing industry or bigger crofts, and they had readily accepted the offer the Ontario Government to shi across te Canada and give them employment on farms in Alberta Great.crowds witnessed the embark ation. ' The pipers had taken up ai position on the deck, and the vessel swung from her moor: ings to the strains of "Thy Nut Brown Maiden," which is set to words familiar to Highlands cars:
"In Glasgow and Dunedin maidens fair to see, But never a Lowe and maiden can turn my thoughts from thee."
The song was written in times when the journey to Scottish cities Was still an adventure, Sad partings there were, that was natural, but the scenes. witnessed were quiet and restrained compared with those described by the' warm-hearted Norman Mac-Leod, when the emigrant ship lay off the shores of his beloved Mor-ven three-quarters of a century ago, "We pulled towards the vessel, for I confess I felt strong: ly desirous of seeing these warmhearted men who on this very day' were to bid a last farewell to the Highlands in search of a country' where they fight find a permanent home for themselves and their families. It is impossible to convey to anyone\who was not present a true idea of the scene which presented itself on going on board. Never will it fade from my memory. There were here young and old, from the infant to the patriarch. It was most overwhelming to witness the deep grief, thd trouble of spirit, the anguish and brokenness of heart, which deeply' furrowed the countenances of the greater number of these men, assembled from many an island and' distant portion of the Hebrides."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.