The Cambrian News and Merionethshire Standard

THE DIFFICULTIES OF LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT. WHETHER or not Mr JENKINS, a member of the Aberystwyth Town Council, is allowed to continue tipping quarry rubbish into the sea; whether or not the urinal at the back of the Women Students' Hostel is completed; whether or not re- newals of leases are refused to those who are not in favour in certain quarters; and whether or not certain people are deemed to be unworthy of entering into contracts with the Town Council, it is quite clear to the ratepayer of average intelligence that on the first of next November something should be done to put an end to the present well-grounded mistrust in the impartiality and vaunted fairness of the Council as at present constituted. The question is often asked whether it is an advantage or otherwise to be a member of the Council. There can be no doubt that it is an advantage, seeing that the Council has the manage- ment in its own hands of a large and valuable estate, to say nothing of the power the members of the Council possess to serve a friend or to worry an enemy. It is to be hoped that at the next municipal election Mr J. M. ANGUS, or some other member of the College staff, will be elected in the place of one of the retiring members. It is also to be hoped that the ratepayers will elect other new members so that the existing old gang may effectually be broken up. We have shown during the past year or two that the finances of the town are not properly managed—we do not, mean the book-keeping that certain people cannot obtain renewals of leases on terms that are not open to other people that certain individuals enjoy privileges that would not be allowed to every ratepayer. We have shown that resolu- tions are passed and not actpd upon and that when it suits the Council resolutions are not rescinded but con- tradictory resolutions are passed; that money is spent out of the current revenue on capital account; and that the proceeds of one rate are used to make up deficiencies in another in ways that, to say the least of them, are confusing and that do not conduce to simpiicity. We do not believe that the Council as at present constituted is fairly representative of the honesty, intelligence, and business capacity of the rank and file of the ratepayers. There are people who have done work tor the Council who cannot get paid promptly. This ought not to be, and would not be in any public body that was properly constituted. It is no answer to the defects we point out to say that the individual members think they are doing right and have no evil inten- tions. It is enough that men who profess to represent the ratepayers are warped, or ignorant, or mentally deficient, or incurably stupid, The reasons why fresh representatives are not chosen are that no interest is taken in the election until it is too late to let the ratepayers know what is being done. Candidates arc put forward at the last moment who have no earthly chance of being elected, and the result is that the old evil conditions are continued. Of course there is an unwillingness on the part of the most desirable members of the community to undertake the disagreeable task of con- testing an election, and the position of Town Councillor has been so cheapened that the position is no longer held in good repute. Stili it is most desirable that the best men in the community should find places in thp Town Council so that local public life may be lifted from the quagmire into which it has been allowed to sink owing to reasons with which our readers are perfectly well acquainted. We do not ,think any good end would be served by discussing in detail the merits or demerits of individual members of the Council, or of possible candidates. The proceedings at each meeting speak for themselves. They are irregular, and justly convey to out- siders the impression that only certain courses will be accepted by the majority. There is no hope for a better state of things at Aberystwyth until the old gang has been completely broken up, and this could be done if the ratepayers were alive tj the evils arising out of the 0 existing state of things and began now to prepare for the election in November, instead of waiting until the middle of October before doing anything. Anyone who wishes to help to redeem the town from its present humiliating position should take an early opportunity of letting the ratepayers know that he intends to offer himself for election. The members who retire at the next election are Mr RoiiKRT PKAKE, Mr CROYDON MARKS, Mr J. P. THOMAS, and Mr JOHN JENKINS. With oue exception the lot might be dismissed with advantage. It would be a great gain to the town if someone were elected who could not be button- holed and who would insist on the business of the Council being conducted in order and with dignity. The sub- ject is worthy cf the best attention of the ratepayers. A good fight can be made for reform if the field is taken now, but nothing effective can be done, except by accident, if the selection of candidates is left until the middle of October. The Council needs to be remodelled, but the danger in making a statement of this kind is that the best men are inclined to go and the worthless ones, and those with axes to grind, are sure to remain. The rate- payers cannot go far wrong on the first of November if they vote against at least three members of the old gang.

LIBERAL AND CONSERVA- TIVE MILITARISM. AT Oxford, on Saturday, Mr JOHN MORLEY rendered Liberalism a great service by making clear to the feeblest intellect that there is no difference between Liberal and Conservative militarism, and that, there- fore, at the present time, the Liberal party is very small indeed, but as Mr MORLEY says rightly, the Liberal party—the true Liberal party—will not disband. The obvious duty of the Liberal minority- the small minority-is to have faith in their cause and in truth and justice, and to wait until they become the majority. Those who have read these columns know that ever since the great meeting at Bir- mingham more than twenty years ago, when Mr GLADSTONE spoke and when Mr CHAMBERLAIN was a false Radical, we have frequently pointed out the process of party decay. Then came Mr CHAMBERLAIN'S secession. Afterwards came Mr GLAD- STONE'S death—and since then, as far as official Liberalism is concerned, chaos. The constituencies need to be educated. Mr JOHN MORLEY has delivered a great speech, and he is a perfectly honest in- fluence in Liberalism, but he does not seem to be cut out for an official party leader, and especially not for a leader capable of welding together discordant Liberal ele- ments. The reasons why he is not cut out for a successful party leader are highly creditable to him, but the fact still remains. It may he that the Liberal and Conservative Imperialists will in the end bring about national calamities so great and terrible that Mr JOHN MORLEY will eventually be the leader to whom the nations in despair will turn for salvation. That he will not stoop to meanness for power is certain, and that he will not court the masses for popu- larity is equally certain. We are glad to feel that this is true of him, and as long as it is true we are not without hope that sooner or later right will be done, and that these nations will rally to a Liberalism whose watchwords are not "Conquest, Militarism, and Imperialism," but the old watchwords of Peace, Retrenchment, and Reform." We agree with Mr MORLEY that it is no use arguing as if courses of action were possible after the war that were possible before the war. The war has dwarfed the causes which brought it about, and has brought into existence problems a thousandfold more difficult to deal with. With the course that may be pursued in reference to the Transvaal and the Orange River State after the conclusion of the war it would be idle to speculate, but that the electors of the Principality should hold fast to true Liberalism at the next general elec- tion is of the utmost importance. We believe with Mr MORLEY, and have never hesitated to express the belief, that the objects of t,he war, putting t,hose objects at their best and at their highest, were not worth all the waste of treasure and the hideous sacrifices of life, and the kindling of abom- inable passions which the pursuit of those objects has entailed. I have, he continued, asserced before now to my constituents, and will assert to the end, be the end what it may, that none of the alleged wrongs of the Outlanders, nor all the "wrongs put together, were worth the desolation of a single stricken British or Boer home." These are our opinions, and we have expressed them plainly ever since the war began. We do not blame those who differ from us or sneer at them. They must be as free as we are to judge for themselves. We j n know that war often seems to be a small thing to those who have had no ex- parience of it, and who take no part in it, and who bear at most only a trifliDg and almost imperceptible share of its financial cost. Wales has been all too ready to shout with the Jingoes. Now that the Boers hnve practically been beaten let us try and see what has been gained and lost in the strife. Let us watch the course of events from now onwards. The Boers have been defeated. Two States have been destroyed. The policy of war has brought its bloody, ghastly triumph, and now let us see what follows the victory, not only in South Africa, but in this country. We were told before the war began that it was unpatriotic to talk about the cost of war, or to object to it, as talk of that kind would encourage the Boers to make demands which could not be conceded. After the war began we were told that it was unpatriotic to point out the dreadful nature of the conflict or to fix attention on the scandal of the raid, as the Boers would be encouraged in their resistance. Now the war is virtually over, or, at any rate, the ultimate issue is assured, and we may with justice call upon its advocates and supporters to show these nations what good things worth the sacrifice of life and n treasure have been secured. Majuba has i been avenged, we admit, at the cost of seven thousand British lives and seventy or eighty millions of treasure, and the crushing out of two States. Ob, yes, Majuba has been avenged, but will the advocates and defenders of the war dare to assert anywhere that the avenging of Majuba was worth the lives that it has cost ? We think not. We shall probably annex both the conquered States. We virtually are forced to annex them. Shall we be as just to the Boers as the Boers were to us ? We fear not, but we shall see. A great deal was said before the war about equal rights to all white races, but do our readers believe that the same freedom will be given to the Boers as to the British ? We may be told that the war has made equal frights to the Boers impossible. Just so. The opponents of war knew that one result of the war would be unequal laws for the defeated, but the advocates of the war do not seem to think that oppression is an evil except when it is the British who are oppressed. We are under no illusions as to the out- come of the war, and know quite well that it is impossible to act now as if war bad not been waged. This is the differ- ence between the opponents and advocates of war. The Jingoes talked as if it were possible to go to war and win a few blood- less victories and then declare peace and Jet things go on as they were before, plus glory and some other things on our side That has never been the history of war. The winning side loses a great deal, as we are just beginning to dis- cover. What we are now chiefly con- cerned about is not the settlement of South Africa—that will be the work of statesmen-but the future of Liberalism in this country, and especially in the Principality. It does not matter a great deal whether the Liberals are at first many or few, but it matters everything that they should purge themselves from Militarism, from covetous Imperialism, from blatant Jingoism, and from parasites and office seekers. Mr JOHN MORLEY may never be the leader of a triumphant Liberal party, but he might lay the foundations anew of honest, upright Liberalism. It is necessary in the interests even of those who are not Liberals that the Liberal party should not be a mere discredited rabble with- out a policy, without leaders, and withoat clearly defined goals.

VISITORS AND SUMMER RESORTS. THE success of the summer season upon which watering places in this district are now entering depends partly on the weather, partly on fashion, partly on the local authorities, and partly on the inhabitants of the watering places them- selves. Nothing can be done to control the weather and very little, and that only indirectly, to influence fashion, but a great deal can be done to influence local authorities, and the inhabitants of each summer resort have their own conduct under their own control, subject to certain limitations which we will point out. As regards fashion in visiting watering places, some thing can be done by maintaining high standards and by becoming the resort of those who loom large in the public eye. The visit of the QUEEN, and subsequently of the PRINCE OF WALES, did something to set the fashion, and the efforts made to bring the natural beauties of the country into greater prominence have not been without influence, but much more could be done in this direction if it were not for petty jealousies and rivalries which in the past prevented anything like general co-operation for common ends. Local authorities have a good deal of power to make or mar summer resorts. They can see that the bylaws are impartially applied that the streets are carefully tended; that obstructions are not allowed to accumulate; and that exceptional privileges are not granted to those woo have the most impertinence in claiming them. At the present time, for instance, a sort of menagerie is pitched on the beach, and two or three people in business have set up shops there. Is it really necessary that every year the Council should pass a resolution to keep the beach clear of stalls and other obstructions ? It is most important that the streets should be kept clean-far cleaner than Terrace-road is kept in the summer season, but surely it is not necessary to sweep the streets before watering them, and it is highly objection- able for visitors to have dust and refuse blown into their faces, ei'her by men who sweep the streets or by men who cart away garbage. It is necessary that there should be carriages and donkeys and coaches, but it is not necessary that every sort of antiquated, dilapidated conveyance should be pressed into service, and it is most important that the donkeys and horses should not be measly, broken-down, ill-kept creatures that would be a disgrace to a knacker's yard. The first duty of local authorities is to see that selfish and unscrupulous individuals do not set up claims to exceptional privileges, and that those who have neither good taste nor good manners do not strike fatal blows at the reputation of the community. It may be important that the Lifeboat Association, the Salvation Army, Dr BARNARDO'S Homes, and a score of other good institu- tions should be kept veil supplied with funds, but it is still mo important that visitors should not be forever pestered with beggars who rattle collecting boxes in their faces and who make walks on public parades a torture. There is, surely, a limit which local juthorities should strictly draw as to the amount of an- noyance even the most philanthropic institution should be Allowed to inflict upon visitors in efforts to collect money. Up to this point we should not be surprised to find that we have the in- habitants of summer reports mainly with us. They feel very strongly against those who injure summer resorts, 0 and are ready to condemn local authorities for apathy, or stupidity, or neglect. Many of the greatest drawbacks of summer resorts, however, are due to the' persistent folly and ixcusable selfish- ness of individual inhabitants, who are the first to cry out against the enemies of the town," and who make the most bitter complaints against those who try to "injure tie place." It is necessary that butcher's meat should be exposed for sale, but suiely it is neither necessary nor expedient that sheep and calves should be skinn'd and beheaded on the footpaths of a fashionable summer resort. It niay be inavoidable that goods should be proteced by awnings, but the awning irons oight not to be left out week day and Sunday all the year round. A shopkeeper may not have accommodation for unpacking his goods anywhere except in the streets, but he ought not to allow packing paper and straw to lie where le unpacks his goods or to be blown wlerever the wind blows it. The streets are common property, and no individual h)8 a right to more than a commoi use of them. Some of the worst offenders against order, neatness, beauty, ceanliness are men who would be angry if tiey were properly described in this column. In every prin- cipal street of Aberystwjth there are men who care more for thfir own personal temporary convenience than they care either for their own perrianent prosperity or for the good of the cemmunity. It is only necessary to walc through the streets of Aberystwyth my day in the week to discover who are the chief offenders. We make no appeal to them for we know that appeal; are useless. If a man cannot see that he is untidy, or selfish, or unjust, or ai enemy of the public, it is no use appeding to him, any more than it would be of use to show pictures to the blind, or to play music to the deaf, or to ask for speeches from the dumb. Let those who hlve the interests of their own summer resort at heart go round it and try to see vhat there is in the streets that they WJuld object to as visitors. Then let them ask who are the offenders? A great dea has still to be learnt in many I of the simmer resorts of this district in order to keep them well abreast of the most advanced places in the country.

EDITORIAL NOTES. The dead in the South Arican campaign now number nearly eight thousand. Oh, war is a most glorious thing, but tie cost is very heavy. At Portmadoc Council, this week, Mr NEWELL called attention to the daAger of horses taking fright by reason of the waste paper thoughtlessly swept into the streets. It was decided that the SURVEYOR should attend to the matter. After many months' delay an inspector from the Local Government Board has visited Pennal. The local officials only received a few hours' notice and were unable to attend. When will the Welsh members of Parliament take steps to put an end to the Local Government muddle and incapacity ? ♦ Women have once more let it be known by resolutions passe i at their Liberal Federation meetings that they will support parliamentary candidates who refuse to give them the parlia- mentary franchise. Truly women are not yet fit to exercise the franchise They deserve their serfdom. » It is announced that the Carnarvon Union have about forty children boarded out, the foster parents receiving two shillings weekly towards the keep of each child. The granting of this wretched pittance is just the way to bring discredit upon a good movement. What do the Carnarvon Guardians mean by expecting ten children to be maintained for a pound a week? Mr W. J. CAINE, at the World's Temperance Congress, on Tuesday, was alarmed that the revenue of India from drink had more than doubled during the past twenty-five years. Why does Mr CAINE see the evil of drink revenue in India and call attention to it while he is silent about the drink revenue of this country ? We have asked this question many times, but we never receive any answers. In December, 1896, the Bury St. Edmund's Vestry asked the Local Government Board to sanction the hire of a boardroom. Last Saturday the CHAIRMAN announced that a communication had at length been received from the Local Government Board. The Board has considered the matter for three years and a half, and now asks for "further information." Wales can pro- vide scores of instances mere or less like this case. The interesting question is how long the people are going to put up with the neglect and incapacity of the Lccal Government Board ? ♦ » The Manchester Guardian is rapidly becoming the paper to which it is necessary to look for the best reports even of London and national meetings. The London papers are too much given up to foreign articles and news. It seems to us that the Manchester Guardian is in many ways the best newspaper in the country, and it is never necessaiy to be ashamed of it, or to blush for its reports, or its articles, or its advertisements. We have no space for Mr JOHN MORLEY'S Oxford speech, but the only full roport we have seen appeared in the Manchester Guardian. This is not by any means an isolated case. We have expressed this opinion more than on Je before, but just now it is well to speak out on the side of those who are in favour of truth, The best reports of the Women's Liberal Federation meetings appeared in the Manchester Guardian. Mr D. A. THOMAS, M.P. for Merthyr, has not given entire satisfaction to Mr PRITCHARD MORGAN, who is the junior member for that constituency. Mr D. A. TUOMAS sees the serious nature of this defect and pleads the difficulty in consulting him upon questions of urgency that arise in Parliament during his prolonged absence' in Australia, China, and more re- "cently, in the Korea." Why, when Mr PRITCHARD MORGAN was in the way of getting gold enough to payoff the national debt even we could not give him satisfaction, and we are al- most as meek as they make them We should not like to say anything improper, but it seems to us that Mr D. A. THOMAS has wiped the eye" of Mr PRITCHARD MORGAN, who ought to be sorry he spoke, but probably is nothing of the sort. In one of the daily newspapers last week the public were informed that in Wales most of the smaller landowners, who are numerous, com- pletely ignore their duty to the commonwealth in reference to tree planting. It is well-known in Wales that owing to railway rates and other causes it does not pay to grow timber, and the largest landowner in Wales, the Crown, does not grow timber. It is ridiculous to expect land- owners to grow timber at a loss out of patriotism. It would be just as reasonable to expect those who use timber to bay it at a loss out of patriotism. We published a case some time ago in which timber about Dinas Mawddwy was felled ready for sending off, but the railway rates were so high that it was cheaper to leave it to rot or to be used as firewood. What is the use of growing a crop that costs more than it is worth? Will our daily contemporary tell us? There is nothing more difficult to bear with patience by a business man than the constant meddling of outsiders in his affairs. We have suffered a good deal in this way for some years. Not long ago the daily newspapers contained inspired paragraphs about the Penrbyn quarries, to the effect that a large number of overlookers, including the son of the late manager, had been dismissed. The newspapers are now having to announce that there is no truth whatever in the statement as far as the manager's son is con- cerned. It is absurd to try to make out that men may not leave an employer or that an employer may not dismiss men without garbled statements appearing in the newspapers. The dabblers in other people's affairs in the end are almost sure to come to grief. Lord PENRHYN has a big business to manage, and as long as he obeys the law he ought not to be worried by men who have petty little ends to serve, and who do not object to dabbling in any sort of filth in order to serve them. The United Kingdom Commercial Travellers' Association at Norwich passed a resolution in favour of the purchase of railways by the State and the reduction and equalisation of railway rates all over the country. To get State management of railways it is not neeessary that the railways should be purchased. All that is necessary is that existing dividends should be guaranteed. We are probably a long way from this great reform, but it is clear that the people will not continue to tolerate action like that of the Great Western and the London and North Western in Wales. Through traffic and through rates and reasonable charges have become a national necessity, and the change may be nearer than we think. There are cases like tint of the Manchester and Milford Railway Com- pany which is managed, save the mark, by the Court of Chancery. It is high time that some- thing were done to bring the methods adopted on that line before the House of Commons. We do not know who is to blame, but the Court of Chancery is responsible. v » At the World's Temperance Congress the Archbishop of CANTERBURY said there still re- mains one enemy to be encountered that is much more difficult to deal with than all the enemies we have encountered yet, and that is the iudifference of men in genera!, and even of very good men, to the duty of helping our fellows who have yielded or are in danger of yielding to this most terrible temptation. To those who have studied the subject it is a cause of unending astonishment that there should be so many to pass the whole matter quietly by." Some time ago the Archbishop of CANTERHURY made a speech about Dr WILLIAMS'S School, Dolgelley. He made state- ments which were not only not correct, but calculated to misrepresent and injure that in- stitution. His LORDSHIP S attention was called to his misrepresentation, but although he is a good and pious man and an archbishop and, we eup- pose, awake to his duty, he has never from that day to this manifested anything but the most utter indifference to the consequences of his mis- statements. If the ARCHBISHOP will study his own behaviour towards Dr WILLIAMS'S Girls' School he may ascertain why other people of less pretensions than his and in humbler spheres are as indifferent about temperance as he is about I the truthfulness of his public utterances. Aberyntwyth tradesmen who find that their goods take ten or twelve days to reach them will probably discover, if they make enquiries, that their merchants have been instructed to send goods by roundabout routes. That has been the experience of some business men and- well, is it necessary to say more ? The Cambrian Railways Company as well as the tradesmen of the town suffer by this grievance. ♦ Some very zealous people at Swansea "have been putting the law in operation against Sunday traders. Last Monday leave was granted to Mr LEEDER. who has been acting for the small traders who have been convicted, to take pro- ceedings against one man for driving a councillor to chapel, and against another for driving a minister, and against others for doing work that is more or less necessary. The cases will be heard next Monday. Among the charges will be one against three men for cleaning the market on Sunday and another for driving a magistrate on Sunday. ♦ The money contributed by private persons in aid of the Indian famine relief fund is given to those who cannot be sent to the relief works and who will not apply for help to public officials. What we cannot understand is why the Indian Government does not make a grant of a million or so to the same bodies to which private subscriptions are sent. Indian famines should not be left to private munificence. Owing to other demands the private subscriptions to- wards the famine relief funds da not amount to anything like as much as on former occasions when the destitution was less. On Thursday, the 28th of June, the Merioneth Liberal Association will meet to adopt measures for the selection of a candidate to succeed Mr O. M. EDWARDS, who is retiring and is resolved not to seek re-election. The crude method of selec- tion by newspaper has wisely not been adopted in Merionethshire, and any fussy busybodieB from London and elsewhere who have tried to steal a march upon less pushing, but more deserving candidates, will discover the nature of their mistake. The electors of Merionethshire are mere able, perhaps, than the electors of any constituency in the United Kingdom to select a candidate without the interference of outsiders who have their own man to advocate. However good a field Suuth Africa may be some time hence for emigrants from this country, it is perfectly clear that for the present no wise man or woman will go there. Sir ALFRED MILNER has issued a warning, and says that any one entering South Africa will be delayed at Cape ports, and will only increase the numbers of those supported by charity. We know of how little use warnings are, but still they ought to be given. In this part of Wales there are many who doubtless think that now is just the right time to try their fortune in South Africa, but they would have far better chances almost any- where than there until the country has recovered from the disaster of war. » » Is there never to be an end of the feeble pottering by the Aberystwyth Rural Council in respect to the drainage of Borth ? It is pitiful that in these days a seaside health resort should be without a system of drainage. There are ways in which the subject can be brought home to every resident, but we are loath to resort to them as they force the innocent to suffer with the guiity. Just think that in the middle of June, Borth drainage is deferred for a month. If the inhabitants of Borth think that visitors are indifferent about drainage they are greatly mistaken. It is a great pity that these primitive subjects have to be discussed year after year. The ratepayers of Aberystwyth have now an excellent opportunity of seeing what the Town Council will do in reference to the half-made objectionable urinal behind the College Hostel. The work has been done so far out of the rates. The Local Government Board will not sanction a loan. Will the Council injure the Hostel and persist in spending money on capital account out of the rates ? We shall see. The probable course is that the matter will be dropped for the present, and when the subject is supposed to have passed out of the public mind the work will be completed. No doubt the urinal was placed behind the Hostel because it was net thought the subject would be discussed. If the Council are not ashamed to do the wrong thing we are not afraid to discuss it, and before that place is finished we will use some very plain language indeed. Does the Bishop of BANGOR really believe, or only wish, that the Dolgelley Grammar School will become a great public school ? The diffi- culties in the way of the realisation of that wish or belief are almost insuperable. It is absurd for a place like Dolgelley to possess two inter- mediate schools for boys. Mr KINMAN is doing all that man can do, but the raw material for great success is not present. We do not wish to dictate, or to even make offensive suggestions, but we ask the Bishop of BANGOR and the friends of education generally in the district whether the attempt to maintain two schools in a place like Dolgelley is not an almost criminal waste of force ? The BISHOP is not unreasonable and Nonconformists surely do not wish to be unreasonable. The mistakes of the past are made, and the question is whether something cannot be done to unite the forces. Neither the Church nor the Chapel nor anybody else is to be benefited by the existence of two schools which cannot be as efficient as one school might be. There was an air of defence in the speeches on the prize distribution day that tells of strain and difficulty. Why should not the best be done ? At one of the meetings of the United Order of Oddfellows, last week, Lord CREWE made a speech in which he dealt with the subject of old-age pensions. He dealt with a suggestion that the Government should be asked to grant pensions to those who hai reached the age of seventy-two, or ssventy-three, or seventy-four. His LORD- SHIP'S plea was that if the Government took upon itself the burden after a fixed age friendly societies, employers, and others would know what they were undertaking when they granted old-age pensions. The main feature of this proposal is that it leaves to the Government the unknown quantity and asks the public to take only clearly ascertained liability. We have never been able to see why muni- cipalities should not provide old-age pensions and act in other ways to encourage thrift. There can be no doubt that if the Government would grant pensions to all those who passed beyond the age of seventy the whole question would be greatly simplified. Unfortunately, in this as in other matters, the people most concerned take very little interest in the subject, and until their interest is aroused very little progress is possible The Bishop of HEREFORD, a really great and good bishop, addressed the pupils of Cardiff In- termediate School this week. His LORDSHIP said they had heard a great deal lately about patriotism. He did not know of any word in the language which was more liable to be per- verted in its common use than the word I patriotism.' Of all forms of patriotism they were liable to use in their spsech, what they called Imperial patriotism might be the most misleading to them if they did not take care. If they wished to be Imperial patriots in the proper sense, they must begin by being good civic patriots. If they were to be really good and great members of the British Expire, they must think of what good they could do in the life of the home in which they were living every day and the life of the city or town in which they resided." We wish it weie possible to drive into the minds cf the people the foregoing words. There is far more good to be done by domestic and municipal patriotism than by that Imperial patriotism which delights in a band of music playing See the Conquer- ing Hero Comes." The greatest battles of life are secret battles, and the greatest victories are unrecorded victories, In every home and town and village in this district there is teed for heroes and room for the hightst and noblest forms of patriotism. At the Penrhyndeudrat-th Board of Guardians, on Tuesday, the question was raised whether pauperism in Wales was caused by drink. Mrs MORGAN said that she believed that ninety-six per cent. of pauperism in Wales was caused by drink. What people who say things of this kind do not seem to realize is that sober people spend all they earn, and in old age come to pauperism just as those who spend all they earn in drink come to pauperism in old age. There is no other goal for the old except pauperism if they have no reserve. It is a strange thing that people will not recognize facts. The reason why the poor are so hardly treated is that their poverty is attributed to their own bad behaviour. • • The World's Temperance Congress is now sitting in London. Mr BRAMWELL BOOTH say. that the drink traffic was responsible for more crime, poverty, disease, premature death, moral degradation, and sin against GOD than all the wars and slaveries of the world put together." He also said that with one exception only, so far as he knew, no organised Christian com- munity had consistently declared themselves against this evil or bad ceased to compromise with it." Notwithstanding these very serious charges, not even Mr BRAMWELL BOOTH had a word to say against the national revenue, amount- ing to nearly forty millions a year, derived from the drink traffic. When will the World's Tern. perance advocates awake to the fact that the trade they denounce is steadily growing notwith. standing their opposition ? Locally, the temper- ance party have nothing to say that is of the least consequence, and even the World's Temper- ance Congress is dumb on the great profit derived by the nation from a trade that is described as more prolific of evil than all the wars and slaveries of the world put together ♦ « It turns out, after all, that the Crown is not as generaus as it appeared tc be in com- parison with Mr CASSON in its dealings with the Festiniog Council in regard to the water supply and in reference to water rights. We were inclined to think that there was something more than appeared on the surface. We new learn that Mr CASSON is asked to sell the water that a nine inch pipe can take in addition to easement through his land, while the Crown only grants easement for the pipes to go through the land. In dealing with public matters it is always well to state all the case, and it is unjust to Mr CASSON to represent his concession and the concession of the Crown as equal. Probably Mr CASSON, who has charged nothing for easement, will take a rent of five shillings a year for the right to lay pipes through his land, but what about the value ot the supply of water which, of course, the Council will sell to the public, and which is the only thing Mr CASSON has charged for. It is to be hoped that the Council will put themselves right with Mr CASSON as a preliminary step towards obtaining a satisfactory settlement of the water question. We have no doubt that Mr CASSON will be reasonable, but it is not the surest way to en- sure reasonableness to make misleading statements. The subject will come up again.

All letters must be written on one side qf the paper and accompanied by the name and. address of the writer, not necessarily for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith.

DOLGELLEY VOLUNTEERS. SIR,—I wish you lived nearer here so that I could tell you personally the following short story, but a very eventful one in Dolgelley. My short story is entitled, The attempt to form a volun- teer company at Dolgelley." A short time ago, at the instigation of Mr H. F, Carpenter of the Cambrian Brewery, Dolgelley, who has taken very keen interest in the above movement and who has indeed been the ruling spirit of it, an attempt was made to raise a vol- unteer company at Dolgelley, which such thing existed, I believe, in the remote past, but had been allowed to die. A meeting was called, com- mittee appointed. 120 men subscribed their names, correspondence passed with the War Office, every- thing went on beautifully, until-but I am going on too fast. Consequent upon this local attempt, the Lord Lieuteaant of the county convened a meet- ing at the Shire Hall, Dolgelley, to decide about having a Merioneth battal- ion. Splendid idea Excellent. We fellows jumped at it. Mr Carpenter, unless I am wrongly informed, wrote to the Lord Lieutenant before the meeting stating that it would be a good thing if we could join and co-operate in the movement. Don't you think it was right ? Of course you do. But would you believe it, eir, it was not mentioned at that meeting, and the Dolgelley movement was not recognised. It, in fact, got a direct snub. Naturally the 120 fellows who had subscribed their names were piqued at this and thought they were not wanted, and the consequence was we decided unanimously at a meeting held to get our- selves united to the Vol. Battalion R.W.F., at Carnarvon, under the command of Col. Rees. Do you not think, sir, that we were entitled to a little consideration, considering that we had led the van in this movement, which I doubt very much would have been started before doomsday but for Mr Carpenter and a few others in the town. Now the county movement and ours [started within a few days of each other, ours first. The county movement has not had the sanction of the War Office, up to the time of writing, or it has not been made public, or it has not been in communication with the War Office. Now the Dolgelley movement hu received that sanction on the authority of Colonel Rees, who wrote to the Secretary of the Dolgelley Committee that be would be at Dolgelley to enrol the men and that he would see that two or three doctors were present, tailors for measuring also measure stand, etc. At last Jubilation amongst the men, they flocked together and talked. Yes, sir, some went so far as to lose a day's wages at the mines and possible dismissal in order to be present at the enrolment. Nonsense, Sir No, sir, quite true. Then the bomb was thrown in and it burst with disastrous effect. V, e were informed at the last moment that there would be no enrolment that night by Colonel Rees, and that Colonel Rees would explain everything to us at a suddenly- called meeting at the 'Pubi c Rooms. What was his explanation? I may be duller than most of those present at the meeting, but I am conceited esough to believe that I am not entirely empty- headed. I failed to find any explanation to justify what he had done. He gave two principal reasons- First, that he bad been commanded by the Lord-Lieutenant of the county to postpone the the enrolment or something to that effect. But I fail to see that that explains why he should stop the enrolment, when he was armed with the sanction of the War Office to unite the company- to a battalion outside the county. The second reason was that he heard rumours of friction between somebody or other, and that it influenced him to a very great extent. Fancy that! Wasn't it a farce ? I think it very laughable to think the enrolment of the Dolgelley company of volunteers, who have volunteered to serve and fight for our beloved Queen and country, should be stopped partially because Colonel Rees thought that the sanction of the War Office was of lesser import- ance than rumours of friction. Has the War Office, thpn, no authority ? And now, sir, we are stranded here and held up as dry as yours faithfully, A NETTED MAWBDACH SALMON.

THE REPRESENTATION OF MERIONETH. A well-attenoed meeting of the Executive Com- mittee of the Liberal Association of the county was held at Bala on Thursday under the presidency of Dr Roger Hughes. It was resolved to submit the resignation ot Mr O. M. Edwards, M.P., to the local committees in the various polling districts for consideration. It was also agreed to bold a meeting of the Council of the Association at Dulgtlley on the 2Sth June, and to request the local committees to send to the meeting delegates with the view of adopting measures for electing a successor to Mr Edwards, w ho seems|determined not to seek re-ehction. The Secretary announced that the sum of L295 had been received from the eouuty towards tl\: Thomas Ellis Memorial Fund. It was resolved to press upou the districts who have not sent in their contributions to do so with- out delay, so as to transfer the county contri- butions to the central fuud.

Durirg a thunderstorm at Harrogate on Mon- day night, Colonel Jones, of Badsworth Hall, Pontefract, was struck by lightning whilst crossing the camp fie"ds at Sturbeck-lane. where he was with his regiment, the Queer, s Own Yorks Dragoons, under a month's training. He held an umbrella at the time of the accident and that was shattered. On Tuesday evening, Mr Meshach Roberts, night underground manager of the Plas Power Colliery, near Wrexham, was making his rounds as usual. Hp had just tapped the roof in a certain plaee when it came down suddenly and killed him instantly. Deceased was about forty yetvrs old.

TH PROPOSED WELSI-I CENTRAL COUNCIL. I THE more carefully the scheme for establishing a Welsh Central Council is Examined the more obvious it becomes that the proposers of the scheme have Hot made themselves acquainted with the Local Government Act, 1888, and the more certain it is that no Government will attempt to pass a measure for extending the powers of county councils which for twelve years they have neglected to use. It is not even possible for the advocates of this scheme to go to Parliament and say that the powers given in the existing Act are inadequate or unworkable. They have never been tired, and when the deputation goes before the PRESIDENT of the Local Government Board his complete answer will be that they have extensive powers in the Act of 1888, but have never used them. His advice will probably be to go home and study clauses ten and eighty-one of that cl 9 Act; to get the Welsh County Councils to co-operate in carrying out some neces- sary work tor Wales; to test where more power is needed and then, when experience has been obtained, when limitations have been reached, and when every Government department has devolved all the powers that can be devolved, to come back and ask for enlarged powers. The Shrewsbury conference was lacking in everything that might have given it weight. It seems to have done nothing but draw up a scheme that goes in some directions beyond the unused powers al- ready in the hands of county councils, but It is difficult to say whether this is so or not, as the existing powers have never been tested. The whole thing seems to be worthy of 1 those Llandrindod politicians who, from time to time, amuse themselves by draft- ing schemes for the political, religious, and social regeneration of the Principality. The advocates of a new Act of Parliament j have not a leg of any sort to stand on. We were in hopes that the conference would have urged that the existing Act should at once be put into operation; but this was far too tame and coirmon- place a course for them to pursue. Anybody who will read the clauses will see that the powers are very extensive— far more important and extensive than seems to be realized by those who met at the Shrewsbury conference. We frankly admit that it is much easier to urge the passing of a new Act of Parliament than to get the County Councils and Quarter Sessions of Wales to work together to put most compli- cated provisions into working order. Any man who undertook this task and accomplished it would deserve well of his countrymen. In reference to railways, crown lands, reclamation of estuaries, the straightening of rivers, the making of new and less hilly country roads, the co- ordination of educational agencies, the re-arrangeinent of assize work, the estab- lishment of Welsh industries, the reform of county court administration, the estab- lishment of arterial drainage and water supplies, the reform of Poor Law adminis- tration and many other subjects, there is ample room for good work under the existing Act. As far as we can judge it is not at all likely that any Govern- ment will undertake to promote a Bill to do work which the County Councils already possess the power to do but evidently have no desire to undertake. What Wales wants is somebody to bring the County Councils into line, instead of adopting the very simple but quite use- less plan of demanding a fresh Act of Parliament. There is plenty of law and plenty of power already. What is wanted is insight and willingness to do work that will not bring much reputation to whoever undertakes it. We shall be surprised if anything practical comes of the Shrewsbury conference, unless it is resolved to abandon the idea of obtain- ing an Act of Parliament which it is hoped will give to Wales something like Home Rule. Home Rule is desirable, but Wales is not going to secure it by a side wind. The plain course to adopt is to put the existing Act in force and for county councils to act on broad lines and with far seeing appreciation of the needs of the Principality. How some people do love to po-e at a conference with all the practical difficulties of pro- gress hidden in the back ground.