By the Rev. Mr William McKenzie, and the Rev. Mr Hugh Ross
Schools:
There are two schools in this parish. One of these erected last year by the Society for propagating Christian Knowledge, with a salary of 12L per annum. It is stationed in Melness and was visited, in April last, by a committee of Presbytery, whose report bears, that there were then 30 scholars, 10 of whom were girls; and that the teacher is well accommodated, and the proficiency of his scholars considerable for the time they have attended. The other, the parochial and grammar school, is situated not far from the church, on the banks of the little river of Rhians, near the arm of the of the northern ocean, called the bay of Tongue, which divides the parish into two distinct parts. It consists of a house 40 feet long, and 15 broad, built with stone and mortar, containing an apartment in one end for the master, and in the other, the school-room, accommodated with writing tables, benches, and a desk for the preceptor, lighted by 6 glass windows. There has been lately a decreet of presbytery for its thorough repair. - The stated salary is 11L. 2 1/2d. The one half of which is paid by the heritor, the other by the tenants. Forty scholars attended last winter and spring. The quarterly fee, for teaching Latin, is 2s. 6d.; for book-keeping, 10s. 6s.; for arithmetic and writing, 2s. 6d.; and for English, only 1s.
Poor:
The number of poor in this parish is 50. They are supported, partly by the Sunday collections; but chiefly by private alms. The crops of 1782 and 1783 failed considerably, as the frost set in the latter end of July, and continued in some degree throughout the whole months of autumn, which blasted the crops and rendered them unfit to be cut down, till winter was far advanced. However, on account of the maritime situation of the greatest part of the parish, the mildew did not do so much hurt in it, as in parishes more distant from the sea. There was victual sufficient for the maintenance of its inhabitants, till the middle of the following springs; when, not only the poor on the session roll, but families of many small farmers, were reduced to the most deplorable situation for the want of bread. In this alarming critical juncture, the session, with the resident gentlemen who were not members of it, met to take into consideration the state of the poor, and to adopt such measures as might tend to their immediate relief. Accordingly the meeting appointed one of their members in every district, to go to solicit the charitable aid of those who had some victual to spare, and to receive from them any quantity they might be pleased to give as a donation to the poor. In consequence of this appointment, some bolls of meal were collected, and distributed among the most indigent. Soon after, the late Hon. General M'Kay, tutor to Lord Reay, sent 20 Bolls of victual for the poor on the Reay Estate, which, with the government mixt meal, that soon followed, and the sold at the low price of 8s. per boll, prevented the dreaded consequence of the failure in the crops. Not one person perished from want of bread.
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