Welsh Newspapers

Search 15 million Welsh newspaper articles

Hide Articles List

22 articles on this Page

CHURCH PROGRESS IN WALES.-LLANBADARN…

RHYDCWMERE.

MARRIAGE OF MISS M. E. DAVIES,'…

LLANILAR.

--------MARKETS.

THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF…

FARMING IN WALES.

CARDIGANSHIRE POLITICS.

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF NORTH…

CRICKET.

---.----------------------ABERYSTWYTH…

APPOINTMENTS IN THE DIOCESE…

- ii. _ --DISESTABLISEMENT…

- THE EDUCATION BILL. 1

News
Cite
Share

THE EDUCATION BILL. 1 The North Wales College court of governors have appointed a committee "to consider and watch the progress of the Intermediate Education Bill," and the first meeting was held on Friday week, when Col. West was elected chairman. The consideration of the bill was proceeded with, and several amendments recommended. A meeting of the London Welsh committee ap- pointed to consider the bill was held at Lonsdale Chambers, Chancery-lane, on Friday week, when Colonel R. Owen Jones, R.E., was in the chair, when, among other recommendations, it was decided that it was desirable that the three national colleges should be represented on the county committees. Mr W. O. Brigstocke, chairman of the Cardigan Board of Guardians, gives it as his opinion that by the Tories, as a rule, the bill is looked on with in- difference, if not, indeed, with positive dislike; attempts are also being made to use the bill as a proof of a tendency on the part of the Government to impose fresh burdens on the land and increase local taxation. By the Liberals, on the contrary, the bill is recognised as a bona fide attempt on the part of the Government to fulfil a solemn pledge given to Wales, but at the same time there are two of the proposals which are not regarded with favour. The proposed constitution of the committees is con- sidered not to bear out the recommendations of the parliamentary committee, who expressly advised that "the governing bodies should to a great extent be popularly chosen, and fairly representative of the views and feelings, the religious sympathies and educational interests of the inhabitants, and that the control of the schools should be transferred to the classes who may be expected to use them." Second- ly, as regards the proposed rate, it is felt that though it is a small one, still it is a tax that should not be placed on the shoulders of the tenant farmers, but that it should be deducted from the rent in the way that the income-tax is now recouped to the far- mer. The bill, well intentioned as it is, and in many respects most valuable, and, in my opinion, quite capable of amendment, shows very plainly how ex- tremely difficult, indeed, impossible it is, to frame a bill for Wales except under the guidance of those who are thoroughly acquainted with, and can sympa- thise in, the hopes and aspirations of the Welsh people. Mr Osborne Morgan has sent the following letter to a constituent on the subject of the Welsh Education Bill :—■ Bill :— 59, Green-street, Grosvenor-square, June 6th, 1885. "Dear Sir,—I entirely share your regret and sur- prise at the unfavourable reception given to our bill in quarters where we might least have expected it. That the Tories should desire to strangle the bill was perhaps natural enough, but, unfortunately, some of our Liberal friends seem bent upon saving them the trouble of doing so. Instead of looking at the broad features of the measure—its distinctly national and undenomina- tional character-instead of acknowledging the un- precedented liberality which the Treasury has shown to Wales, they have fixed their attention on two points of the bill only, both of which are matters of detail, to be discussed at the committee stage—the constitution of 'the county committees' and the alleged exclusion of three or four endowments, one of which, by the way, is not excluded from its scope. "Upon both these points I do not hesitate to say the Welsh members, or the great majority of them, if they presented a united front, might have made the bill pretty nearly what they liked. Yet not a few of our friends gratuitously assume that the bill must pass, if at all, in the exact shape in which it is brought in, and one Welsh journal goes so far as to call it 'a direct and unpardonable insult to Liberal Nonconformist Wales,' and recommends that 'it should be flung back in Mr Mundelia s face with an emphatic expression of disgust.' Now, what Iwish to pointoutis that such an atti- tude as this on the part of Welsh Liberals can have only one result, viz., to kill the bill. The difficulties in the way of any measure involving nice questions both of principls and detail becoming law are already enormous, and a Government can hardly be expected to force £ 14,000 a year on people who fling' the gift back in their face.' But in that case I cannot help thinking that a grave responsibility will rest upon those Welshmen who have refused even to consider this important piece of legislation because it does not exactly meet their wishes, and who, in some cases at least, have condemned it without taking the trouble to understand it, or even to read it.—Believe me, yours truly, G. OSBORNE MORGAN." The Rev Principal Edwards, writiDgto a gentleman in Liverpool, says Dear Mr Thomas,—Many of the provisions of the bill taken separately may not be of much consequence either way. I am inclined to think this of the provi- sion that seems to have given most offence—the power conferred by the bill on justices of the peace —because the county boards will soon be established, and they will, of course, have the power transferred to them. But the bill as a whole is decidedly anta- gonistic to Nonconformists. It contains one provi- sion, which, if I rightly understand its meaning, is, in my opinion, simply fatal. The commissioners have, I believe, no authority to touch certain grammar school endowments without the consent of the pre- sent trustees or governing bodies. If these endow- ments are now misapplied or wasted, is it likely that the men who waste or misapply them will hand them over to representatives of the majority of the inhabi- tants ? Yet this is one of the crying grievances of the Nonconformists, and, if it is not removed, I for my part prefer waiting till the new Parliament will meet, to accepting the bill as it stands.

LLANYCHAIARN.I

- | BALA COLLEGE. !

AUBI ALTERAM PARTEM.

" GOD BLESS THE PRINCE OF…

GAZETTE MEWS.

FAIR WHITE HAXDS.

ANTIQUARIAN DISCOVERY ON CWMWTTHIG…

LAMPETER.