In the Oban Times of 100 years ago, there appeared detailed weekly accounts of life on the islands and other remote regions, including regular contributions from an unnamed correspondent on Coll. Such topics as the weather and the state of farming and fishing receive frequent mention and there are occasional glimpses of the health of the islanders and the affairs of schools and church.

The importance of certain matters to the islanders is clear from the continuity of their treatment throughout the year whereas other topics, even though dealt with just once, are detailed with such touching particularity that past lives seem suddenly more intimate and real. We are told, for instance, that the children of Arnabost school were granted a days holiday in recognition of the wedding of the Duke of York and Princess May and that school sports were organised including a tug-of-war between girls and boys - which the girls won! - surely a centennial re-enactment is overdue.

It is further noticeable how many of the reports are timeless in that they might easily have been made yesterday as with those eternal complaints about the ferry services or the condition of the roads.

Thus, in January we hear that:
'The mail steamer Handa has been making her trips unexpectedly well for her size and weight in the late stormy weather, It seems strange, however, that a more suitable boat has not yet been put on this route:

In June, protests were voiced over the mail ferry's two hourly detour to Croggan and in July a boat larger than the Handa and Fingal was demanded. These demands became more vociferous throughout December following severe weather and in particular the Great Storm of 17/18th. November. Pressure was also increased for the provision of a serviceable pier.

Even greater exasperation seems to have been prompted by road conditions:
8th. April: "There is a rumour that the road to the fishing harbour at Cornaig is to be put in good repair or a new one built altogether and that the harbour also be improved, That road hitherto has been a disgrace to civilization!'
22nd. April: 'Sir - permit me to advert to the continued neglect of the Cornaig Road ... Have I not myself turned grey with shame from the frequency and persistence with which for two years I have kept drumming at the ears of our councillors.'

So, at the beginning of August islanders were heartened to learn that work on the Cornaig roads was about to begin although, by the end of August, it was reported that no progress had been made. Indeed, by January 1898 there had still been no progress.

Feelings ran high over this stretch of road not just because - 'a horse and cart could not pass along It In winter' - but because Cornaig was an important fishing harbour for the island and there were recurrent suggestions that it merited being upgraded to a large commercial herring station. However, 'the local fishermen lacked the proper boats and gear to enable them to fish on the outer banks which are so productive in all kinds of fish: - and there were repeated reports that - 'steam trawlers continue to threaten the Coll fishing banks.'

The first steam trawlers that year were reported in February whereas the local fishermen, relied largely on the 'long or great line', fishing for cod and ling and did not start till April. Long line fishing was in marked decline by the turn of the century.

Perhaps the most urgent matter raised throughout 1893 involved the framing of proposals to lay before the Deer Forest and Land Commission, which was due to visit Coll. To this end, four mass meetings were held (usually at Arnabost) in which islanders strongly expressed their feelings about land ownership.

Thus, Donald MacLean urged that they should - 'claim their rights to the land which now lay waste under sheep and rashes.' Hector MacQuarrie: - 'they had no land and now they were deprived of all kinds of employment … it was quite impossible for the poor people to keep body and soul together.'

Archibald MacNiven (Aridhnangobhar) recalled how his father had been evicted from Broadhills and Allan MacFadyen described how - 'up to 1879, the people of that place (Arinagour) held patches of land for potato ground, About that date the then factor (Mr, Chapman) induced the people to give up these plots of land for some time while they would get potato ground elsewhere. This they agreed to do as their own patches through constant cultivation were greatly impoverished. The result was that the march dykes of their potato ground were levelled down and now they would not claim it not any other ground for potatoes... (now) none of the Arinagour people get potatoes nor the place whereon to grow or plant them … (at that time) they were charged an additional 10/- peat rent.'

John Johnston, - 'being the life and soul of the land movement on Coll: pointed out that - 'there was a fatal want in not having at least half the crofters as evaluators of Coll properties... the current evaluations have left a burden on the crofter which is impossible to bear, Most of the farmers complain of the present great depression in agriculture and find it difficult to make both ends meet and how is the crofter to so do with his small unproductive patches of bog and rock? … the value of cattle had immensely declined within the past two years so that crofters were unable to meet their rents at the Whitsunday term ... call for revaluation of properties ... to avert a great misery.'

In similar vein we hear that: - 'The long distance some of the crofters have to cart their sea weed is a great drawback to them but as a rule their miserable holdings are so impoverished by constant cultivation that it would yield little or no crop without being properly manured every year.'

At the fourth meeting, the Rev. Roderick Moss, (later referred to as 'Ross'), John Johnston, Angus MacFarlane (Sorisdal) and Donald MacInnes (Uig) were appointed delegates to give evidence before the Royal Commission on its appearance on Coll. Alan MacDonald, cottar, Boust: - 'nothing less than the restoration of the land that they and their fathers once possessed would satisfy the Highland people' Neil MacKinnon, Sorisdal: - 'If it was true that the land of Gallanach was only 18p per acre, surely it would be better to give the land to the people who were willing to pay more than that figure. It was a great pity to see so much of the best land in the island lying waste, with a few stray sheep here and there. He had visited all parts of the Highlands but he nowhere noticed such glaring instances of desolation as in his native island. The numberless old ruins throughout the island would bear witness to that fact.’

On a more positive note, the value of tourism was becoming evident: 17th. June: 'The summer visitors are beginning to arrive in numbers among us to enjoy the fine scenery and health-giving breezes from the sea which abounds in our island. A few weeks in the West Islands will go far to restore the energies of people who are under constant strain of brain and muscle in the crowded centres of industry all the rest of the year and it is a mercy that they have a quiet retreat at hand where all the surroundings are just the very thing needful to refresh such people. The islanders will no doubt do their best to render the sojourn of their visitors as pleasant as possible.

However, the aftermath of some Christmas visitors that year was not quite so welcome: 21st. January: 'The measles epidemic has spread rapidly throughout the island, having been spread, it is alleged, by some young people who came recently from Glasgow.’

That same January, the deaths were reported of Miss Agnes Kennedy, 25yrs., eldest daughter of Donald Kennedy, Kilbride, and of James MacKinnon, 95yrs., Bousd - "An Taillear Mor" - the Big Tailor - one time crofter at Totronald until evicted in 1858. The reports of the measles epidemic and these two deaths were together, perhaps implying a causal link.

A little later in February a far lengthier obituary occurs:
'Our correspondent regrets to record the sad death of one who was much esteemed and whose genial manner will be long missed by all on this island. Mr. Alexander Fowler, postman, who was found dead on Saturday morning of last week between his own house and Gallanach was one of the most respected old natives of Coll in which he passed the best part of his days. He was not only noted for his scholarly attainments in Latin, English arid Gaelic but also for the exemplary life which he led. He possessed a valuable fund of old traditions and customs that are now only too rapidly disappearing. The deceased was for many years teacher of the old school of Boust and the young people of that locality who were under his teaching still speak highly of his many excellent qualities. Mr. Fowler's father was also a Gaelic teacher at Arinagour for some time … he died many years ago at an advanced age, Alexander Fowler was 67 years of age. The cause of his death is said to have been heart disease … A lady visitor to Coll thus wrote about the deceased Mr. Fowler: - ‘Our last Coll was on old Alistair, the postman. His lonely hut without window or chimney and with only the usual 4ft. high door, was very tidy, the heather thatch held in position by ropes of twisted heather weighted with stones. The floors of two ruined huts close by were his potato fields. One had to climb up and look over the walls to find these specimens of agriculture, To gregarious town dwellers, it is difficult to conceive a lonely life like Alistair's at the top of a narrow pass amidst darkness and ruins and yet when he steps out of his door on a summer morning, his eyes are greeted with as fair a scene as earth's ardent voluptuary could imagine. Like so many others, he lived in recollection of the past: Aye, it was the hearty place then, when Torrestone, now represented by a cottage and a sheep fank, was a populous township and all the valleys resounded with the voices of children and blythe laughter of the young men and maidens.” The deceased was uncle of Capt. MacKinnon, Cornaigmore.’ Further details of the fowler family can be seen in the 1991 Coll Magazine (pp. 2-4).

Inevitably, much of the year’s news was fragmentary but nonetheless interesting:
14th January: apparently New Year was not what it used to be: ‘Years ago almost the whole available population of the island would have been resolutely engaged in an exciting game of shinty on the sand beaches or on the nearest plain…’
4th. February: ‘MacLean’s tomb is in a sad state of repair …’
11th. March: ‘In Coll the Highland fling is now totally discarded as ‘low country’ dances are thought to be a more genteel form of dancing …’
18th. November: ‘… complaint that the songs and dances at the MacLean gathering have been anglicised…’
25th. November: ‘… a stackyard fire at Cliad occupied by the Galbraiths …’

Finally, the Argyll and Bute Lunacy Board’ report that: ‘Argyllshire shows nearly twice the Scottish incidence (of insanity) at 56/10,000 … in some parishes it is as high as 170/10,000 … being an exceptionally high ratio of fatuous and crazy people.’

Well, you have to be, don’t you?