Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-01
$2O,OOO,OOO A YEAR
Expended Upon the Game and Fish
Preserves of Scotland.
THOUSANDS OF ACRES ARE IDLE
Except as They Are Used by the Wealthy
SpOrtsmen of England.
A RICH YANKEES BIG LEASEHOLDs
CORRESPONDENCE OF THE DISPATCH,

CORRESPONDENTS OF THE DIsPArCHI
ToMICH, SCOTLAND, October 15.-On
coming face to face with the fact of the de.
population of rural Scotland, and especially
of the Northern and Western Highlands, it
is astounding that any system of land laws
is permitted to exist which will work such
fatal results to a country. There must be
practical reason for all this, you feel. You
dig and delye for that reason, and you are
still more astounded. Inquire where you
may, there is in effect but one answer;
Hlghlanders are not worth TO the great
landlords so many red deer. Crofters are Of
less account than psrtridges and rabbits.
Human beings in the form of Scottish
peasantry are less valuable than their weight
in pheasants or fshp'
Not satisfied with assertions and general
tiles, you delve and dig again. 1t is easy
enough to find proof of depopulation. But
it is difficult for the average American to
realize how land proprietors can find ade-
quate compensation for the loss of popula-
ton and its labor which ordinarily alone
give to land the greatest value possible for
1t to possess. Agents and factors every
ing and fishing privileges is more than re-
paving proprietors. This seems so mex
plieable that you delve and dig again, as I
did, and finally arrive at some most as
founding facts. The great overwhelming
fact is that a greater area of land in Scot
land IS now devoted to the exclusive pur-
pose of game preserves than is occupied by
farmers for the exclusive cultivation of the
soil, and that nine-tenths of all land and of
all rods OF loch, brook or river shores in the
kingdom are annually leased in shooting
and fishing privileges to British sportsmen.
PEASANTS IN THE WAY.
Naturally Scottish peasantry are in the
way of game and fish. But passing dis
cussion OF the effect OF this land policy upon
the sociologic and economic condition of
Scotland, we Americans have no conception
whatever of the stupeGdous sums annually
paid by British titled and gentleman sports
men for their few weeks delights with rod and
gun. The amounts received by single owners
for single privileges are equally surprising.
Mrs. Chisholm, owner OF the Chisholm
estates, which border Strathglass here, must
receive e14, 900. L find that for SO shootings
and fshings the Duke of Sutherland receives
rentals amounting to e23, ,996. As he has
more than 100 for lease, his income from
this source alone must reach e35, 900 or
e40, 900. In Forfarshire, on the estate be-
longing to the Tutors OF the Earl of Dal-
housie, these privileges whose rental prices
1 have been able to secure reach e10, 400;
and Of those of the Countess Dowager OF
Seafeld regarding which information is
available, IL shootiugs and fshings in
Elginshire give her e3, ,1S9; in Banffshire,
e566; and IA in Inverness-shire, "A, sos; or
a total of e8, 800; which is probably not
one-third OF her entire income from this
source.
As 1 am quite certain the facts have never
vet appeared in the public prints either in
Great Britain or America, 1 have been to
the pains of putting into tabulated form
the actual rentals known to be annually
paid for these shooting and fishing privi-
lepPS in Scotland: