June 5, 1900

n THE Herald reported: ''The Fife miners held their annual gala at Stirling yesterday when some eight or nine thousand people left the Kingdom and spent an exhilarating day in and around the City of the Rock. Eleven special trains were required to transport excursionists from Cowdenbeath, Kelty, Kincardine, Kirkcaldy, Upper Dunfermline, Ladybank, and Leven, and the trippers were accompanied by a dozen bands.''

A union leader told a mass meeting of the trippers: ''Our forefathers would have treated the coal as they did the gold - reserved it to the state, to be worked for the benefit of the state, and not for the aggrandisement of private individuals.''

n THE Herald also reported: ''The Ardrossan Harbour Company has lost no time in proceeding to carry out its intention of starting men in place of those now on strike. Mr Graeme Hunter, the 'union smasher', arrived at Ardrossan yesterday morning and had an interview with Mr Craig, harbour manager. Mr Hunter states it is his intention to meet the men now on strike to try to induce them to return to work, failing which he will bring in outside labour. There are only some 40 men left in the town, so that the prospect of the local men returning to work is remote.''

n COMMENTING on the co-operative movement, The Herald observed: ''There is nothing wrong in dividend-hunting. The wrong is in pretending to be social reformers of an exalted type when merely combining for individual gain.''