 The children all now learned English in addition to their native Gaelic.Improved midwifery skills, denied to the island by Reverend Mackay, reduced the problems of childhood tetanus.There had been some talk of an evacuation in 1875 during MacKay's period of tenure, but despite occasional food shortages and flu epidemic in 1913 the population was stable at between 75 and 80 and there was no obvious sign that within a few years the millennia old occupation of the island was to end.