The Cambrian News and Merionethshire Standard

WHO IS THE INJURED ONE? WHEN the MAYOR of Aberystwyth at the Town Council meeting held on Tuesday, March 20th, said that a report which we had published in reference to one i t.:m in the proceedings of a previous meeting was entirely wrong and mis- leading," we took prompt action to prove or disprove this very serious accusation. The accusation was not that our report was inaccurate in some par- ticular—inaccuracy is often unavoidable. The accusation was not that the report tended o give a wrong impression-even correctly-worded reports may give wrong impressions. The accusation was that the report was "entirely wrong and mis- leading," and if the accusations had been true, either because our reporter had him- self been guilty, or because we ourselves had altered the report in order to injure the MAYOR and to deceive the public, we should have deserved to forfeit that public confidence which it is our pleasure and our pride that we possess. Our reporter went to Mr D. C. ROBERTS who, at the meeting held on March 6th, said that he agreed to certain applications for leases to be referred back to the Finance Committee as it was merely a detail," and Mr D. C. ROBERTS wrote a letter which bore out the correctness of our report. This letter WAS signed by five other members of the Council, and even Alderman DOUGHTON, who would not sign the letter,. agreed that the leases were sent back for correction only. But the main point is not what was actually done at the meeting of March 6th, but whether our report was entirely wrong and misleading, We inserted Mr D. C. ROBERTS'S letter in the report of the Council's proceedings immediately after the MAYOR'S statement that our report was entirely wrong and "misleading." We were not going to allow the MAYOR'S statement, which struck at our reporter's worthiness and at our own usefulness, to have one chance of credence that we could prevent. That letter and the signatures of the five members who signed it are sufficient justification for our reporter and ample enough vindication for us. Our readers may take our word for it that at public meetings the difficulty of obtaining verbal accuracy is often very great, and whether the MAYOR proposed or suggested" that the applications should be sent back to the Committee for I the rectification of errors only is not of great moment seeing that it was acted upon, and that Mr D. C. ROBERTS, who is wdl known in the town and district as a business man, at the very time said that he agreed, as it was merely a detail." We do not think it is necessary to try to follow Mr SALMON and the MAYOR through all they said on Tuesday. Even the MAYOR'S charges that we made an un- scrupulous use of the letter signed by the six members of the Council is not of great importance. We are not going to defend ourselves against mere calumny. We surely had a perfect right to put the letter just where it would be luost effective, and we are not troubled about this charge of being unscrupulous. .Nobody will now believe that our reporter did anything calculated to "grossly mis- lead," or that he inserted an absolute falsehood." We are willing to leave Mr PEAKE and the other menibers of the Council to deal wit h the charge that they have been guilty of deliberate falsehood. The only points worth a moment's con- sideration are, fiist, whether the applica- tions were referred back merely for correction. The bulk of the members present at the meeting strongly assert that that was the intention; and, second, whether our reporter prepared a report which was" entirely wrong and misleading." The attempt by the MAYOR to represent ua as having made a basp use of the letter written by Mr D. C. ROBERTS is too absurd for serious treatment. We claim the unquestioned right to interpolate a correction in any report as long as the interpolation is clearly indicated and does not profess to be part of the report. We believe that the Town Council have done injustice to Mr MORTON in reference to his application for a renewal on site terms, and by doing injustice to him and others buildings will not be erected which it was intended to erect, the ratable value of the town is kept down, and work is made more scarce than it needs be. The report, of Tuesday's proceedings will show our readers how the MAYOR was lavish in accusations of false- hood, misrepresentation, and baseness. We believe he feels that he is greatly injured, and it is clear that he does not think that it is wrong for him to accuse others of words and acts which he wrongly considers have been imputed to him. He seems to be quite unable to realize that a man may be incapable through no fault of his own of taking right views of things. The words and acts of a mayor of a town are important, especially when they have to do with the renewal of leases of the people's homes and business premises. It is gross folly to misrepresent any public man. We leave the report ot Tuesday's Town Council for the judge- ment of our readers. What has been done in the case of Mr MORTON'S lease is just what was done in the case of another lease in the same street. The Town Council has been weak. Some of the members, we firmly believe, do not understand the question. As far as the fairness of our report of the meeting is concerned, which the MAYOR said was entirely wrong and misleading," we are quite satisfied, seeing that other members of the Council got the same im- pression as our reporter. It is not to be expected that we could have allowed a sweeping charge of gross misrepresentation to be made* without sifting it to the bottom. The MAYOR may mean to do what is right- he is never weary of asserting that absolute fairness is the goal he aims at, but whether he reaches the goal is a matter on which there is clearly ground for more than one opinion. We make no accusation against him except that his words and acts are often difficult to reconcile with what are unquestionably his desires. These discrepancies are some- r times so obvious, that it is impossible, as on Taesday, to believe that he is right and that other representative men of well-known sound judgment and pro- bity are utterly and entirely wrong. The day is coming when the rank and file of the ratepayers will realize that there is far more behind the leases question than a fad of ours. We leave Tuesday's pro- ceedings, and all that led up to them, to the judgment of the people. It is for them to say who is the liar and who is the base and unscrupulous person. We are quite prepared to abide by their judgment.

PEKSONAL IRRESPON- SIBILITY. THE widespread growth of personal irresponsibility threatens to bring about evils far greater and of more dire import than ever existed under the old auto- cratic rule in ancient communities. The modern landlord takes his rent and that is all h gets or expects to get in these days. There is practically an end of his relations to the people who have representative institutions which they depend upon but do not use, and under which they live in undrained hovels on sites soaked with filth and reeking with disease. The landlord, if he interferes, is promptly told to mind his own business. He accepts cheerfully his irresponsibility, and is content to be neither a District Councillor nor a County Councillor, and unless be is moved by great compassion he willingly leaves the people to their own devices. The local parson no longer rules the village. There is the Parish Council, and the local Socrates settles what is to be done and what left undone. Everything is to be left undone that costs money. As for infectious and contagious diseases, he does not know the difference between them, and does not believe in their existence either. His faith is that if you have to be ill you will be ill, and if you have to die you will die, and what is the use of fighting against Providence and spending money in new-fangled things that his grandparents did very well without The 5 parson accepts his irresponsibility as thankfully as the landowner. When epidemics break out he is as brave as any soldier in the face of the enemy, and he does what is possible, but he knows he cannot fight dirty water and unventilated rooms and ignorance with the means at his disposal, and he is glad of his irres- ponsibility. The employer in rural districts and in towns is hedged about by law. The School Board Officer and the Factory Inspector are on his track, and the work- people themselves know what they ca!l their rights. The old relationships between employer and employed have ceased to tlxisi, and the employer's responsibility has in great measure passed away into the hands of officials. The prominent citizen is no longer elected on the Town Council. His irresponsibility is driven home to him, and in times of trouble and darkness he is glad that he is not respon- sible. The School Board attends to educa- tion, or neglects it. The Parish Council, if it does nothing else, prevents the rates from being spent. The District Council muddles for years over sanitary and other defects. The Board of Guardians deals with the poor on niggardly lines, knowing that poverty is a crime against the law. The County Council talks and talks, and takes what views it pleases of its duties. In urban districts the Town Council acts autocratically for the people, and everybody is made to feel their welcome irresponsibility. The people may die in the rural districts of filth diseases, or may be cheated in all sorts of ways in towns, but nobody who is not duly elected is responsible. There is always the elected and representative body whose members can be called to book when the befooled public are weary of neglect and are really anxious that something should be done. We do not think that our readers have any Lotion how this sense of irrespon^ib lity has spread and ripened during the past thirty years. The churches tell you that it is no duty of theirs to see to municipal morality. Let the Town Council see to it. It is no duty of theirs to see to education; if it is primary edu- cation, let the School Board see to it; if it is intermediate education, let the gov- erning body see to it; if it is higher edu- cation, let the College authorities see to it. The churches are free from responsibility. If you say that the community is given over to drunkenness, or violence, or dishonesty, the answer is that there are the police Let them see to it. The individual citizens are sorry, but they are irrespon- sible, and ak helplessly what they can do m the face of regularly-constituted author- ities who are vested with power. When the time for electing representative bodies comes round, it is discovered that nobody is particularly anxious to take responsi- el bility, with it.. accompanying humi- liations, and so the bulk of the candidates are mere honour seekers. The men and women who might do much good ask why they should compete for positions which would only bring them unwelcome responsibility and worry, and so the old order is continued, and irrespon- sibility spreads even to the local governing bodies themselves. The rank and file of the people are perfectly indifferent as to right or wrong conduct in public affairs. If injustice is done to them they grumble and bear it. If injustice is done to some- body else they pay no attention. They take injustice for granted. What is true in rural and urban districts and of local governing bodies is also true of the nation as a whole and of the House of Commons as its voice. There are people who "hink the Transvaal war is wrong and others who think that it is right, but nobody o feels any responsibility for it. The re- sponsibility rests upon Parliament pnd the Government, and neither the right nor the wrong is a matter of personal concern This n removal of responsibility has been greatly increased by railway companies and by industrial companies of all sor s. The individual shareholder pays bis money and is more or less prepared to lose it, but he is not prepared to trouble himself about the management of the concerns. He is not a director, and the responsi- bihty rests upon the directors. He takes his dividends without; responsibility and without shame, and acts as if it were no concern of bis how the profit be shares was made. Even when there is no com- pany, the individual sa>s it is no business of his to discover whether things can be sold honestly for the price asked for them. Everybody must look out for bimseif, but we need scarcely say that responsibility must rest somewhere, but nobody knows or cares where. From time to time pro est is raised against the general and whole- sale repudiation of responsibility, bu' we have not seen any earnest attempt made to point out how it is to be dealt with. As far as we can judge, the only way in which the growth of irresponsibility can be checked is for everybody who has influence—ministers, writers, teachers, ad- ministrators—to awaken the public con- science and to cultivate a municipal and national sense of responsibility. There oaght not to be a lower standard of morals for a town, or a county, or a nation, than for an individual. The churches ought not to be willing to take money for the service of GOD which no private person would have the imper- tinence to take for his own use. News- papers ought not to rake moral gutters for garbage to serve up to the public which they dare not serve up to their own families. Local governing bodies ought not to be guilty of sweating and of other wrong acts which the individual members repudiate and would be ashamed of in their own businesses. Parliament should be parged of men who scoff at national purity and uprightness, and this can only be brought about by the electors refusing to be made the tools of men who use the House of Commons as a shield for all sorts of rascality and insincerity. There is a great work before all public teachers, namely, to bring public morality and intelligence to a f higher level than at present. For a long time we have sought by select-d in- stances to show how wrong is doue and how evil is ignored in public life. Whether we have succeeded or not it is not for us to say, but the need for improvement is very pressing. Lower franchisee, popular education, and great extensions of freedom in many directions have revealed new perilP—new possibilities of evil, and it behoves all those who see the trend of things to try and elevate public life, and to redeem it from the degradation which threatens it from many sides. We make this appeal because we know that there are many individuals who are ready to throw th in- selves into the great work if those who occupy public position would only speak out boldly against wrong and lead the way to higher life than now seems possible.

THE CAUSE OF THE POOR. LIEUTENANT COLONEL PRYCE-JONES has called attention to the fact that there are four workhouses in Montgomeryshire which are not fully occupied. Each workhouse, of course, is used for epileptics, impover- ished drunkards, and other wastrels, young children, invalided men and women, and also for imbeciles. It would be impos- sible to exaggerate the undesirability of sending poor people, whose only offence is that they have outlived their power to earn the means of subsistencej to herd with the lewd, the profane, the imbecile, the sick, and the otherwise afflicted. We know, alas, that in this highly- Christian country extreme poverty is an offence against. the law, but surely the punishment inflicted for the offence is excessive when it entails compulsory com- panionship with the lowest and mo4 abandoned characters of the country. Long experience has shown that it is hopeless to expect reform from the Local Government Board, but is it quite im- possible to use the workhouses in Wales so as to reduce the torture imposed upon the decent poor, and especially to get rid of the bad influences which result from keeping children in workhouses ? Three things, it seems to us, are possible if Welsh county councils would only form a joint committee under the eighty-first clause of the Act of 1888. First, it would be possible to set one workhouse apart for epileptics, another for imbeciles, a third for the sick, and a fourth for the notoriously profane and ill-behaved. Children ought not to be brought up in any workhouse, but should be sent to cottage homes or should be boarded out. It would be quite easy for three or four counties to combine so that the special cases might be dealt with, and then the decent poor could be kept in their own district under conditions that would not be revolting to the sense of what is due to the aged poor who have lived honest lives, but are no longer able to maintain them- selves or even to attend to their own needs. If those who drift to workhouses were wisely sifted into classes and shrewdly dealt with, not only would a good deal of profitless expenditure be saved, but an almost incalculable amount of suffering amongst the poor would be prevented. As workhouses are at present managed the decent poor prefer starvation on the barest pittance rather than be subjected to the horrors of the miscellaneous work- house. We are not sure, if the people who are forced into workhouses were wisely classified, that it would not be possible to give the decent poor just the sort of shelter and help that they need, but to compel them to pass their lives with imbeciles, epileptics, chronic invalids, and even lunatics is to deal with them in ways that they would not be dealt with if they were criminals. It is quite clear, to begin with, that it makes no difference to imbeciles whether they are housed at Forden, or Tregaron, or Dolgelley, or Lampeter. If they were in a place specially adapted to them, it would be easier to deal with them. The same is true of chronic invalids. As regards the rough and profane and indecent element which is found in every workhouse, there need be no special con- sideration for them. They should be sent to the places adapted for them, and nobody would complain if they were treated with the firmness necessary to keep them in order. If Lieutenant- Colonel PRYCE-JONES will take this sub- ject up, and try to force it upon the attention of the Local Government Board, he may be the means, not only of doing n much good, but of preventing a great deal of real injustice to the deserving poor. We do not contend for this classification on the ground of economy. We do not think that cost should be too carefully considered in trying to make the lives of poor women and worn-out men and destitute children bearable and free from terror and shame. The work- houEe system as it now exists is a scandal in the land. To avoid the horrors of workhouse life, thousands of poor people are living in damp hovels on a few pence a day, and suffer privations which, inflicted upon dumb animals, would render the offenders liable to fine and imprisonment. It is monstrous that any child should be brought up in workhouses. It is equally monstrous that the afflicted poor should be com- pelled to live with the insane, the obscene, the filthy-congued, and the imbecile. We have no faith in the Local Government Board, but if Lieutenant Colonel PRYCE-JONES, who is a good business man, would take the subject up, he might render a great service to the country, and do a work for the poor that they can never do for themselves. We do not pretend that the subject is a simple one or that reform would be easy, but the evils are notorious, and before long something will have to be done. It will not always be possible to treat the poor in the lump—well and ill, moral and immoral, sanA and imbecile. The dread of entering workhouses is one great cause of the continuance in the country of hovels unfit for human habitation. The sub- ject is well worthy of far greater attention than it receives, and has deeper ramifications in the life of the people than the average guardians of the poor suspect.

THREE GREAT LAND SCHEMES. THERE are signs all over the district of an agricultural awakening. Fear of landlords has declined, and landlords themselves are less disposed to take offence or to stand on their dignity. The fact that agriculture is becoming more and more a manufacturing business requiring trained skill tends to increase the mutual dependence and confidence of the owners and cultivators of the soil in each other. A great deal has not yet been done fh->t might be done ta bring science and special knowledge to bear as fully as they might, easily be brought upon the breeding and rearing of poultry, the production of milk and butter, the growing of special and profitable crops, and the breeding and rearing of sheep and cattle, but it may now safely be said that the Welsh firmer who leaves his stock, his crops, and his land mainly to the natural and unaided in- fluences of the seasons, and the weather is the exception rather than the rule. Wh n the annual turnover of a farmer is increased from three times his rent to ten or twenty times his rent he will not be so particular about a slight addition to it, and when the landowner is himself a manufacturer of foodstuffs he will not be as greatly in need of every penny that can be screwed out of his tenants as he is now. There can be no doubt that the University College of Wales is exercising beneficial influence on the farming in- n beneficial influence on the farming in- dustry, and there are also many other in- fluences at work. We wish it were pos- sible to get the landlords of the dis- trict to join together to bring into tilth the three great tracts of land comprised in the estuary of the Dovey, Borth bog, and Tregaron bog. y 11 The only things necessary are co-opera- 1 ion, money, and skill. There are no insuperable obstacles in the way, and we understand that the Commissioners of Woods and Forests w uld favourably consider any reasonable scheme for the reclamation of the estuary of the Dovey. We know, of course, that there is a great deal ot silly talk about the nationalisation of land, but the estuary of the Dovey, with its thousands of acres of reclaimable land, is a very good in- stance of all that is likely to be done under a system of land nationalisation. If a number of capitalists were to under- take this scheme there can be no doubt that the three areas we have named could be brought into cultivation. A river rnus through each of the areas, and in these days the work could be done so as to return good interest on the outlay. Of course Borth bog and Tregaron bog are private property, but they are not valu- able, seeing that they are covered with water growths, and that it is impossible I to take a cart over them. If fifteen or twenty thousand acres of land between Tregaron and Glandovey were reclaimed there would be a great increase in the prosperity of the whole district, for it is the best land that lies under water. The deepening of the Dovey would pro- tect the Cambrian Railway at both sides, and would benefit the har- bour of Aberdovey, besides making the drainage of Borth bog much more easy than it is at present. We under- stand that the Teify could easily be deepened by reducing a shoulder below Tregaron. If that river were deepened a tew feet, the work of drainage would be ui n quite simple from an engineering point of view. Indeed, there are no engineer- ing difficulties in any of the three areas. There are conflicting interests there is unbelief; there is apathy; there is objec- tion to what are called new-fangled schemes, but there are no obstacles in t'ie way that any one of five or six men who might be named could not easily overcome. The Crown owns a good deal of almost worthless land in Wales. No- body can buy this land, for the Crown when it sells land does not give a title, and after paying for it the purchaser might find that the Crown had sold the land before, or had leased it, or even had never owned it The agricultural awakening was evi- dent at the Aberystwyth entire horse show last Monday. We hope some day to see it manifested in improved markets. There is r.o reason why this part of Wales should not send thousands of tons of food into England more thaD are sent at present. Education has reached even the most remote homestead, and if markets were provided there would be a steady increase in prosperity. Unfortunately, the improve- ment of markets is slow and difficult work and not free from cost, and as yet farmers scarcely believe in markets which are not of long standing. Our hope of improvement lies in the action of a few intelligent landowners who, we think, would 0 find tenants far more sympathetic than they were twenty or thirty years ago. Besides, railways are mere amenable to influence than they were then, and very little can be done in these days without the assistance of railways. We wish it were possible to reclaim the estuary of the Dovey, Borth bog, and Tregaron bog, and so add some twenty thousand acres of cultivated land to this district, besides adding greatly to the healthfulness of the whole area.

EDITORIAL NOTES. Leading Liberals are very anxious to assure the rank and file that it is not differences in the party that cause its weakness. We agree. The great cause of Liberal weakness at the present time is not differences, but indifferences. The Machynlleth Intermediate School is in need of a. human skeleton or a set of bones that can be made into a skeleton. Here is a rare chance for anybody who wants to promote learning. People who have nothing else in the world may dispose of a "set of bones." Speaking at Trowbridge, on Saturday, Mr WALTER LorG, president of the Board of Agri- culture, declared that the general election would not come until the Government had completed its task in South Africa. We suppose Parliament will have to be dissolved when it has sat its full time whether the war is over or not. The tendency of public opinion this week is against an election in July. The reason for the fluctuation is not far to seek. It is felt that the election depends a good deal on the course of the war. Just at present the tide of war is not strongly flowing on our side, and the feeling is that the end is less clearly in sight than a month ago. The wise thing is to be ready. A most important case has been decided against the Great Eastern Railway Company. A firm of nursery gardeners and florists broueht an action against the Company for damages. The Company have con- structed certain sidings near the plaintiff's pro- perty, which contained a large number of green- houses. The allegation was that the smoke and gases from the locomotives had materially damaged their business. Many witnesses were called on both sides, acd in summing up his LORDSHIP remarked upon the importance of the case, inas- much as it affected all railway companies aud a great many horticulturists throughout the country. The jury found for plaintiffs for JE400, and judgment was entered accordingly with costs. The way black smoke is poured out of railway engines and works at Aberystwyth is serious. We pre- sume that nursery gardeners are not the only people who will be able to obtain redress for injury done by black smoke. On Tuesday, at the Merionethshire Joint Police Committee, Mr O. SLANEY WYNNE was appointed chairman in succession to the late Dr EDWARD JONES. There were no prisoners for trial. • • It was decided, on Tuesday, in the Queen's Bench Division, that a bicycle is a two-wheeled carriage and must pay the fee for going over a bridge that is charged for two-wheeled car- riages. •» We publish in our correspondence columns an interesting letter by the Hon C. H. WYNN on the Dolgelley and Llanelltyd main road qnestion. Our correspondent says that he will not trouble us further, but if his opponents require answer we hope he will not keep his vow too rigidly. One local effect of the war is to delay the carry- ing out of important works such as the doubling of portions of the Cambrian Railways. Still it should not be forgotten that the more success- ful the railway is the sooner that ntcessary work will be carried out. Each place on the coast should see to its own progress, and should make it worth the while of the railway:company to do for it all that is possible. The Liberal meetings "at Nottingham have given a good deal of dissatisfaction to* Liberals all through the country. We are neither sur- prised nor disappointed. Mr HERBERT GLAD- STONE'S declaration in favour of the annexation of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State is only part of the feeble Liberal game which was played by Sir EDWARD GREY. For the time being Liberalism is dead, and has no vigorous representatives either in Parliament or in the country. It is said that Mr LLOYD GEORGE, M.P., having definitely decided upon addressing a meeting of Liberals at Bangor to explain his attitude with regard to the Transvaal question, the executive committee of the Liberal Association have requested that he should meet them at least a week before to discuss the situation, as it is alleged that there is considerable feeling against such a meeting being held. There is no reason why a meeting should be held, but it must not be said that Mr LLOYD GEORGE is afraid of holding a meeting] It is sometimes courageous not to manifest courage. » The relations between the different places in the district and the Cambrian Railways Company are much more amicable than they were under the predecessors of Mr DENNISS. At the last meeting of the Criccieth Council, for instance, something was said about a path to thel Black Rock which the Manager of the Railways in- tends to recommend the Company to make. Here a difficulty is got over and an advantage conferred upon visitors. The great aim of all the people should be to increase the population. What the district needs is more people. » Mr PRITCHARD MORGAN'S position in China is a very hum-drum affair after all, and is nothing like the newspaper accounts given of it. We are now told that Mr PRITCHARD MORGAN ifhad en-! ormous difficulties to overcome beforeheconld secure the contract for mining concessions in Szechuan. There does not seem to have-Pbeen anything like aTjChinest rush for the:privileg-e of securing Mr PRITCHARD MORGAN. Neverjmind, his contract has been upheld and finally rati- fied. Time willj'reveal what it is worth. RThe Chinese seem to be pretty cute. The Merioneth- shire mining feverlseems to have.. cooled down again. # Lieutenant-Colonel PRYCE JONES has effectively called attention to the fact that thereare three workhouses more than are necessary in Mont- gomeryshire. What is true in Montgomeryshire is true in Cardiganshire and in other Mparts of the country. What is wanted is that the work- houses should be used for the classification of paupers aad that they should be made less like prisons. The Local Government Board is so utterly useless that it is only by sheer force the body can be got to do anything. The member for the Montgomery boroughs has done some very good work in the House, i and it is not likely that his services will be forgotten what- ever may bacome of him at the next election. We have dealt with the workhouse question in au article. The Aberystwyth Town Council are re-erecting the diminutive band stand on the beach. We suggest that half the band] should occupy the stand on one night and the other half on the succeeding night. In this way the music could be continued like a serial novel. The structure, in our opinion, is a mistake, but that will be demonstrated gradually. It is also a mistake for the band to be fixed in one place, but that again is a mistake that will have to be realised gradually. Nobody seems to be anxious to father this wonderful bandstand, and in the end we expect it will be disowned all round. That the Council should disfigure the beach with groynes, a life-boat slip, and a bandstand is hard to realise, but there is the fact. Lord LONDONDERRY has been appointed Post- master-General in succession to the Duke of NORFOLK. This is good news for the people of Machynlleth, who will be glad for the sake of the family at the PUs. Besides, the MARQUESS is a really first-rate man of business, and we shall not be surprised if he reduces the postal chaos to something like order. It is only necessary to read that hopeless puzzle, the Postal Guide, to discover how much needs to be done. We know how great the limitations of the Postmaster General are, but the Marquess of LONDONDERRY has great business ability, and is not deficient in courage. He could render an immense service to trade and to the public if he would make the Parcel Post pound seventeen or eighteen ounces, so that the public would I o have to pay for two pounds in order to send one. Then the charge for two oune a and a half of printed matter ought to bu less than a halfpenny, while half a pound or a pound of printed matter ought to 1 e charged more than a halfpenny. It is absurd to charge half the price of a newspaper for sending it by post. Another great reform could be effected by not sending local correspondence from dis- tricts to centres like Shrewsbury. The sysem that did well enough fifty years ago is utterly out of date now. I We consider that the Intermediate School at Aberystwyth is in direct competition with the elementary schools of the town, and that is one reason uhy it is impossible for us to defend the school. Under clause 65 of the scheme it is stated that no scholar shall, without the special permission of the school masters, be "d. mitted to the school under the age of nine years." Well, unless the school is to be an infant school, children under nine years of ag ought not to be admitted. Clause 66 says the school, and all its advantages shall be open to all children of good character and sufficient health who are residing with their parents or in lodgings to be licensed for that purpose by the school managers." Clause 69 says "Nil applicant for admission shall be admitted to the school unless (a) after passing an exami nation equivalent to the fourth standard (b) if a scholar in a public elementary school, after reachiag the fourth standard." So it will be seen that children in elementary schools are eligible to enter the Aberystwyth Intermediate School after passing the third standard. This is clear. After reaching the fourth standard, that is, after passing the third standard, a child instead of remaining at the elementary school may pass on to the intermediate school. It may be said that all the pupils at the intermediate school are much higher than the third standard, but we have the fact before us that the scheme pro vides for direct competition with the elemen- tary schools, and it is not likely that the public are going to provide the Intermfediate School with money to compete with the elementary schools. To talk of training teachers in a school that admits children after. they have passed the third standard does not need any criticism from us. The thing speaks for itself. Mr J. G. W. BONSALL, ef Fro--frlith, near Aberystwyth, by far the ehr»wd«»t magistrate in Cardiganshire, died on Thursday afternoon (yester- day). « m It is now stated that the railway companies have only discussed but not decided the question of an increase of excursion fares. Railways never seem to ask themeelvea whether lower rates would not result in increased rectipts. • « Mr T. W. RUSSELL, Parliamentary secretary to the Local Government Board, speaking in the East End of London on Wednesday afternoon, intimated that in a month or two Parliament would be dissolved. V The spring is later than usual this year. Vegetation is backward. This may not be a disadvantage later on, for an early spring with subsequent frost tells against the gardener and the agriculturist. A good deal of rain has fallen this week. The weather is still cold, but farm work :s fairly forward. ♦ At Brussels Railway Station, on Wednesday night, a boy of sixteen fired a revolver at the PRINCE of WALES. The PRINCE was not touched and continued his journey. The PRINCESS was with him. The greatest sorrow and indignation are ielt at the act. The youth was apprehended, and another person who picked up the revolver was mistakeu for the would-be assassin and was very roughly handled. The PRINCE probably owes his life to the poorness of the weapon. Two shots had missed fire. There was something said ia the House of Commons on Tuesday night about contract boots and shoes for the army. Will some member ask whether the official passers" of boots and shoes are not o be paid by the contractors ? It is said that some thousands of contract boots were rejected. The firm could nut understand this rejection. They learnt that the only way was to pay the "passer." This was done. Then not only were no further boots rejected, but the four thousand pairs of rejected boots were also passed. There can be no doubt that the influence of the periodic sales of horses by Messrs FRANK LLOYD, NUTTAL, and Co., at the Cheshire Repository, Crewe, was manifest at the show of horses at Aberystwyth last Monday. Farmers take their horses from this district to the sales and are induced every now and then to buy one. What is more important, they see there the sort of horses that fetch high prices and their own action as regards sires is affected. There are signs of agricultural awakening all over the district. The railway companies might do worse than offer exceptional rates for horses sent to this repository for sale. < In a case of voting for the extension of build- ing time at the last meeting of the Aberystwyth Council, more than one ca6e was put before the meeting at the same time, and one of the cases was that of Alderman DAVID ROBERTS. In taking the show of hands, the MAYOR asked Alderman ROBERTS if he voted for his own application. It will be observed that if he had not voted for his 'own application, he could not have voted for the other application. If twenty case are lumped together, and one of them is the cases of a town councillor, is the town councillor's vote to be lost in the nineteen cases because it is wrong far him to vote in his own case ? What curious notions of fairness some people have. The election at Barmouth of Mr ALLSOP and Mr ABRAHAM to be members of the Town Council is quite reasonable. There is a great deal of work still to do in order to push the town to the front, and the ratepayers know what they want even when they do not know how to get it. There are two sides to the progress of Barmouth, and an element of opposi- tion wiil give renewed life to the local govern- ing body. The town has been retrieved from a perilous position, but all has not by any means been done that needs to be done. We shall be glad if the new members show that they have a policy that can be generally supported. Mr ALLSOP was a member of the old Local Board. Mr CHAMBERLAIN, on Tuesday night, made one of those sharp, silly remarks which raised a laugh against Mr HEDDERWICK, who was pleading that the Colonies should be directly represented in Parliament. Mr HEDDERWICK said that the Colonies had two representatives in the House of Lords already, and Mr CHAMBERLAIN asked him whether he, as a Liberal, would describe that as representation. It seems to us that as far as the House of Lords is concerned, popularly- elected representatives are impossible. Would Mr CHAMBERLAIN deny that landed property in England is not represented in the House of Lords? Just in the same way the Colonies might be represented. There is nothing what- ever to prevent a colonist from being elected to sit in the House of Commons, just as natives of India have been elected to sit in the House of Commons, and have most truly and really represented India. Mr CHAMBERLAIN may depend upon it that some sort of closer con- nection is desired between the Colonies and the mother country, a connection that will neither take away the independence ot the Colonies nor yet interfere with their free action. It is a separate body that is needed, and it might sit one year in New Zealand, another year in Canada, and another year in Africa, and so on. There are Imperial interests, and when the representation of the Colonies is referred to, nobody presumes that the Colonies are to send members to the House of Commons to discuss an Aberystwyth Parade Extension Bill It i. absurd that the House of Commons in its present form should have to deal with small local proj-cts of this kind. A letter was read at the Aberystwyth Town Council, on Tuesday, in reference to Mr MOR- TON'S application for a lease. In his letter Mr MORTON says I beg to say that it is not.true that thu terms are identical with those given to Mrs CLAPPERTON. Your SURVEYOR tells you no alteration can be done to the premises except rebuilding. I have had my own sur- veyor over the house, and he reports that no "structural alteration can be done to the pre- mises. They must came down and new founda. tions be laid. To offer me such terms in the face of this knowledge which the Counci* possesses is, I consider, a gross and palpabl injustice." How completely it is possible for men to deceive themselves was made clear by the words of the MAYOR who said With regard to one of the s atements of the letter it was not correct. The terms on the ag nda were on ratable value t asis, subject te plans and specifications being approved. Those 4, e,e the t-rms given to Mrs CLAPPERTO, and to that extent the terms were ideunc,I." Now what is the essential diff.-ret.ee in the terms of the iwo cases. In M^ CLAPPKRTON'S case she did not want to take the wh,.Ie buildn-g down, and It" as not tak. n wn In Mr MORTON'S case he did want to take the building down, and ir the structure is interfered with it mu t come dow n, and yet the same terms are off rt d to Mr MORTON, who only ha- » sit-, as to Mrs CLAPPPRTON who was ailo* ed to r, t it, a build- ing. As Mr MORTON say-, to describe these terms as identical is to state wt at s not true, nd to insist upon them is rtta n t.. quote the 1 ttpr, a palpable an 1 <!1' » j Why should not the Counci c, in parr -t Jy ? That the Finance Comm tt-e ev i- lice in a special note to say at tIt. t r", 'flered to Mr MORTON are idt-ntiea it, "iio, (fared to Mrs ('LAPPERTON is us ounding.

OLD FALSK lEI. rH tio I i P. M.1 ny ladies and geotleineti i\ fieri old or disused f,.Iseteeth w"ich III Sli a-i « i )e turned into tnon y Mes-rs R-. -in.: J. B Kraser, of Princes* str et, Ip^vtich ( sial S t .e 1333), buy old false teeth. It u .t' teeth to them tuey will remt you hy r. ti.r post the utmost value or, if pr*ftiuy "Ji nilke you the be-t offer aud hold tc ch o- toy your reply If referenc-- n ccs^ry. Messrs Bacon & Co., Banben-, ipswicli 3.175