Sorry it's taken so long to reply on this one, but I have only just discovered this source myself. I was looking for The Northern Ensign newspapers and have discovered two places , which may be of interest. The first is the Northern Highland Archives in Wick, the web -site is http://www.caithness.org/community/museums/nha/index.html the contact there is:- Brenda.Lees@highland.gov.uk, She was very helpful, they have the John O Groats Journal there also. You could also try the National Library of Scotland who also hold various newspapers at http://www.nls.uk/ The enquiry service will tell you if they have what you are looking for. Good Luck in your quest Carole McBeath (Glasgow) -----Original Message----- From: John McKay <jomac@ansonic.com.au> To: SCT-SUTHERLAND-L@rootsweb.com <SCT-SUTHERLAND-L@rootsweb.com> Date: 22 March 2001 10:21 Subject: SUT Newspaper articles By accident found in a lecture transcript that my ancestor's brother Wm Paterson Mackay sent a letter from Adelaide Australia back to the "northern papers". When I went to check these for a full version, the letter could not be found, as the dates may have been incorrectly transcribed. Has anyone seen this and can they advise? Per below: - Prof Richards: WP Mackay sent a letter to papers in the north of Scot., (John O'Groats Journal, Inverness Courier), espousing the virtues of the new colony. (ref Prof Eric Richards article Highland Emigrants to SA in the 1850's which cites this letter of W.P.'s pg 8 & 9). Prof Richards states ... "Most of the attractions of the antipodes to a prospective Highland migrant, even before the gold fever, were encompassed in a letter written from Adelaide in 1847 by W.P. Mackay who had left Sutherland two years before. His letter was widely publicised in the northern newspapers. He wrote: The time has now arrived when emigrants from Caithness, Sutherland, Ross, Orkney and Zetland, may get a free passage from their own country if they choose ... [to] this country, which is replete with plenty. Here is no starvation, no seizing your goods for taxes, no begging for work, but plenty of good meat at 2d. per lb., bread 6d per loaf. The poorest Zetland fisherman, were he here, could actually live more sumptuously than the best gentry in these islands; for here, on 30s. per week (labourer's wages) a man may have meat every meal, bread cheaper and better than in all Scotland. He spoke glowingly, and for his readers incredibly, of peaches, figs, grapes, melons and wine in profusion. He spelt out the dream further: To the mechanics and farmers of Caithness I would say, take your ploughs, harrows, and farming implements, and tools and come here as quickly as possible. You, in a few years, will be independent. You may buy a section of 80 acres for £80, fence it in, build a house, plough, sow and reap. In a few years, yes, in one year, you may pay your family's expenses with the growth of wheat and potatoes. "You can worship as you think proper here. Religious sects of all kinds and persuasions are on an equal footing. Government will give them aid, if they petition, either for building churches or schools, and also aid teachers. Here are no taxes, the taxes being raised on goods imported." To the Highland Scot in the midst of famine, it must have sounded like paradisiacal music. But in reality it was a description rose-tinted by the current conditions of boom in South Australia, by a man who had landed on his feet and had some capital to give him a start. &c." Prof Richards. (Richards dates this letter as 1849 but says it appeared in 1848? Anyone come across this or know how I might find the full "letter". John McKay in Australia ______________________________