ACCESS TO MOUNTAINS [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sht,---Your
correspondents, writing on this subject, appear to have missed the most important factor in the economical side of the question. This is not that sporting rights afford em- ployment to a number of ghillies and keepers, or that the annual influx of the well-to-do to Scotland involves the 6:pending of a good deal of money locally, though the bene- ficial effcvt of the latter is probably fai more- wictesptead than at first sight appears. The crux of the matter lies in the revenue which the State derives from rates and taxes FA the sporting value of estates. It has been estimated that, from this point of view, the grouse is worth £10,000,000 a year to Scotland.
Reasonable facilities for mountaineering and sight-seeing, such as at present certainly exist, are not incompatible with sporting rights, but if the value of these rights is to be annulled or seriously diminished, then the loss to the revenue derived therefrom would have to be made good by increased taxation in other directions. The root cause of this, and similar agita- tions, if analysed, is probably to be found in that jealousy of those better off than oneself that appears to be inherent in human nature.
Personally, I do not own or rent a grouse moor or deer forest, and am not likely to do so. My interest in the matter is chiefly one shared by the great majority of residents in Scotland—viz., that our rates and taxes should not be in- creased in order to afford facilities to a certain number of people to vent their spite against those who happen to have drawn luckier tickets in the lottery of life than themselves.—
Previous page
