Register (Adelaide, SA : 1901 - 1929), Thursday 30 November 1922, page 6


ST. ANDREW'S DAY.

^Stands Scotland -where it ; did?' asked Macbeth ijrhen, sick at heart, he waited for the. news of Scotland lost. If Scotsmen still ask themselves the question on this, St Andrew's

name day, the query: Is merely rhetorical. The stormy days- of Scotland's history have passed, and the land they love stands* forever foursquare to all the winds that blow. Their fellow Australians have a special sympathy for -'their St. Andrew sentiments, if only for the reason that Australia owes a great debfr to her old Scottish colonists — hard-working, selfrespecting people' with a flair for theology and a lore!, of decent living. The educational history of each Stale —notably that of Victoria— bears traces of that passion for education which is the distinguishing mark of Scottish citizens generally and Scottish, parents particularly. Two old Scotch-Australian, sayings, coined by. good James Forbes ' (first Moderator of the Victorian Presbyterian Assembly) are these — 'The schoolmaster is everything. Education is the cheap defence of nations.' 'Woe to any statesman,' writes James Forbes, 'who bequeathes a legaey of - uny schooled children to any nation.' The best type of Scots have talked and worked and fought for the nation's education as they toiled and suffered for the learning of their own children. And from their hills and glens the Scotsmen brought not only the practical qualities, the fortitude and tenacity of men long acclimatised to a bleak atmosphere and hard living— they brought some of the graces of life which cling round home customs in an old civilization. Songs and stories sung and told round the fireside for hundreds of snowy winters gather a naive, poetic charm which is peculiar to folk lore. Australians who. without the advantage of a Scottish musical education in youth, fail to appreciate the 'pipes,' have yet a love for the Scottish dancing and the old Sco;tish songs which grace such a festival as St. Andrew's, jnst as they are forever grateful for the poet, who was— . . . the chief of bards * — That swell the heart with songs of social flame. And high, delicious revelry. ; . ? .''?-;