Looking Back: Higher education for Keiss, change of council and far north’s first MSP
Higher education for Keiss
From the Groat of May 2, 1924
Matters pertaining to the education of Keiss pupils “received lengthy consideration” at a meeting of the Wick School Management Committee.
Top of the agenda was the proposal to convey Keiss pupils attending Wick High to and from their homes daily “so as to do away with the necessity of their taking lodgings in town”.
The pupils were funded by the Manson Bequest which was continuing to accrue money, the balance having risen from £719 the previous year to £1119 in the current year.
The number of pupils, meanwhile, was decreasing and according to the chairman, Mr J Harper, the committee would be “perfectly justified in incurring the additional expense of taking the pupils into school in the morning and returning them to their homes at night”.
However, Mr W Inrig, Keiss, submitted several objections to the proposed scheme. He maintained that two cars would be required in order to take in pupils from Auckengill and they would be travelling on roads that were frequently blocked with snow in the winter.
He also said the scheme would require the youngsters to leave early in the morning.
He proposed that a three-year intermediate course be established at Keiss, allowing those pupils whose parents could not afford to send them to Wick to stay in education longer.
It was agreed that the matter be put out to parents for consultation.
Council elections attract 41 candidates
From the Groat of May 3, 1974
Elections were set to take place under the reorganisation of local government, with candidates in Caithness contesting seats for Highland Regional Council and Caithness District Council.
Seven of the eight region seats in Caithness were being contested by 22 candidates, with 19 hopefuls bidding for election in eight of the 16 district wards. In seven of the other eight wards only one candidate was nominated, with one ward having no nominations at all.
The new authorities were not set to take over until May 1975. In the meantime the town councils and county councils would be carrying on their duties as normal.
It was reported that “although over the past few years there has been a great deal of discussion and general publicity about the reorganisation of local government, the forthcoming election has caused little excitement. This is mainly the direct result of the new set-up, with the electors feeling out of touch. Another reason is that the poll follows so closely after the general election.
"By 1975 the close association between local authorities and communities as we know it today will have disappeared. Many councillors – burgh and county – who have long and wide experience, have decided to retire from local government because the new circumstances do not allow them the time and facilities to continue serving, if they were elected.”
Stone is far north’s first MSP
From the Groat of May 7, 1999
Liberal Democrat Jamie Stone had become the first Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross Member of the Scottish Parliament.
Tain-based Mr Stone had a majority of 4391 over his nearest rival James Hendry (Labour) following a tense count in Wick Assembly Rooms.
Mr Stone, who gained 10,691 votes, told the crowd that it was an “enormous honour to be elected to Scotland’s first parliament in 300 years”.
The win for Mr Stone represented a retention of the constituency for the Lib Dems. Labour and SNP had both had high hopes of winning what was traditionally viewed as a Liberal constituency.
The eve-of-poll hustings in Thurso was where the would-be politicians hoped to sway those who were still as yet undecided, but it was the “International Independent” who had stolen the show. Gordon Campbell delivered what Groat reporter Colin Punler described as a performance “more in keeping with Monty Python”.
He wrote that “the excitable Stuttgart-based candidate, who claims ‘Dornock’ as his spiritual home and once asked how the hens were doing at the new battery factory in Thurso, delivered a pantomime performance which astonished voters.”
