Looking Back – news from the John O'Groat Journal of yesteryear
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Misplaced 'tenderness towards Germany'
From the Groat of January 26, 1923
In an editorial headed "favouring the foreigner" the Groat took issue with Wick Chamber of Commerce's view of a dispute that had taken place in Aberdeen.
Protests had been held at the north-east port against the landing of German-trawled fish and the Wick chamber had passed a resolution to deplore the action of those involved.
However, the Groat writer thought that this resolution had been passed "without as much consideration as ought to have been given to it".
The chamber had described the actions of the Aberdeen fishermen as "indefensible and prejudicial to the fishing interests of this country", but the Groat considered that "it is difficult to see how these assertions could be justified".
The chamber's stance stemmed from concern that the Germans might retaliate by stopping imports of cured herring.
Taking a wider view, the Groat stated that "the favoured manner in which the foreigner is treated in our home waters has long constituted what is nothing short of a disgrace", as "what could be more absurd than that the foreigner can trawl there to his heart's content up to the three-mile limit, whilst British trawlers doing so are promptly pounced upon by a policing cruiser and heavily fined?"
The article continued that "tenderness towards Germany... we regard as entirely misplaced, and there has been too much of it recommended in certain quarters in this country since the Armistice."
Workshop plan at John O'Groats
From the Groat of January 26, 1973
A 21-year-old Caithness man was to start the first manufacturing business for 200 years in his home village.
Walter Mowat had decided to set up a small factory/workshop in John O'Groats and was actively looking for premises.
The previous summer he had started John O'Groats Crafts, the first full-time craft industry in the village, and with his assistant Sheila Moar, of Huna, had been turning out hand-made souvenirs from an attic in his parents' home.
The business specialised in shell jewellery using cowrie shells found on the local beach and had more than 50 separate lines, including brooches, bracelets, earrings cuff-links, rings and pendants, as well as the "famous Groatie buckie strings".
Mr Mowat hoped that when he moved to new premises he would employ more local girls and train them in the "intricate crafts".
Elsewhere, the first Wick meeting of the recently formed Caithness branch of the British Diabetic Association had been held in the Assembly Rooms.
Chairman Dr DP Robertson presided, and the evening included a quiz and an "extremely informative" talk on the county's historic castles by Mr DB Miller, Old Stirkoke.
Supermarket plan rejected
From the Groat of January 30, 1998
Wick traders breathed a sigh of relief after a multimillion-pound plan to develop a supermarket and filling station on the outskirts of the town was rejected by councillors.
At a meeting in Inverness, members of Highland Council's planning committee denied Morrison Developments Ltd outline permission for the scheme after a motion by Wick councillor Anderson Murray that the plan be refused was not opposed.
Speaking after the meeting, Councillor Murray said the development would have "severely damaged" the prospects of the small shops in the town and he felt the developer's claims of greater employment did not take into consideration the loss of jobs that may have occurred if small town-centre businesses had been forced to close.
He also stated that the site at South Road was close to the Town and County Hospital, a school, a cemetery and an area zoned for housing.
He said that in his view "there is no need for another supermarket in Wick".
Marjory Mackenzie, who had opposed the development as both a member of the public and a member of the Royal Burgh of Wick Community Council, said that "sense had prevailed".
She added: "We want to bring the life back into the town centre. I really think the development would have had a detrimental effect on that."
