Fine for former Wick publican, Damage claim over town clock and ‘Two-tier’ warning on Gaelic unit

LOOKING BACK: News from the John O’Groat Journal of yesteryear

Two ‘nips’ cost former publican £30

From the Groat of March 20, 1925

An ex-licence holder in Wick had been convicted of illegally trafficking in alcoholic liquor after selling two men a “nip” of whisky each at his refreshment house in Bridge Street.

Alexander Menzies had denied that he had committed the offence by allowing his wife to sell the alcohol to two local carters.

The men in question maintained that what they had paid for was lime juice and that the whisky had been added to the glasses from a hip flask, having bought a half-bottle of the spirit the previous day in Thurso.

However, the three magistrates sitting at the Wick Police Court were not convinced by the evidence and found the accused guilty, imposing a fine of £30. In addition, a warning was given from the bench that the next person convicted of such an offence would face a heavier penalty.

An editorial noted that this was yet another ex-licence holder to be convicted of the charge and stated that it was “highly discreditable that such breaches of the law are taking place in the burgh, which, by the democratic exercise of the people’s will, is a No-Licence area”.

Damage claim over town clock

From the Groat of March 21, 1975

A row had broken out between the local heritage society and Wick Town Council over damage said to have been done to the old town clock which had been replaced by a new electric version.

The Wick Society had acquired the old timepiece free of charge but, in a letter to the council, Ian Mackenzie, the group’s secretary, complained that the clock faces had been broken and the old gears were missing.

In fact, Mr Mackenzie alleged that the workers who dismantled the clock had taken “malicious glee” in smashing the faces.

However, town clerk Mr A Lindsay replied that Mr Mackenzie had gone to the town hall without permission on the day of the work and should not have interfered.

He added that “anyone taking the clock for nothing should not assume they will get all the parts”.

Provost William Mowat called the letter “appalling” and said if the Wick Society was not happy with the donation it could return it “and we will decide what to do with it”.

He added: “We are being treated like criminals and it is just not on. Mr Mackenzie should not have had the effrontery to send such a letter to the town clerk.”

‘Two-tier’ warning on Gaelic unit

From the Groat of March 24, 2000

A handful of children in Thurso were to be taught in the first Gaelic medium unit to be set up in a Caithness school – a move which had divided local councillors.

Highland Council’s education committee had agreed to open a unit at Mount Pleasant Primary School in August, even though the number of children forecast to attend fell short of the official threshold.

Councillor Deirdre Steven expressed fears that the move would create a two-tier system in Caithness schools and asked if it was right that the bulk of children in Thurso be taught in classes of 30 pupils, “and two have their own teacher because they are being taught in a language as foreign to Caithness as Faroese or French”.

She said that in an area with no tradition of the Gaelic language it seemed to be the “one subject on the curriculum into which we seem prepared to invest while the real needs of children – the social and employment skills they will need as adults – are relegated”.

Commenting on a study which highlighted how children taught in Gaelic outperformed their peers in other subjects, Councillor Steven said that children from disadvantaged backgrounds would also “achieve the startling results credited to Gaelic medium education if they, too, enjoyed the ratio being proposed for Thurso of one teacher to two pupils”.

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