The Cambrian News and Merionethshire Standard

ABERYSTWYTH UNION. CONTRACTS FOR PROVISIONS, &c. The Guardians of the Poor of the Aberystwyth Union are ready to receive Tenders (accompanied by samples or patterns, where practicable) for the supply of the following Articles and Materials to their Work house, from the 25th day of March, 1892, to the 29th day of September, 1892, viz :—Stone from the Beach per t'm, Fresh Meat, Milk, Straw, Potatoes, Coals, Firewood, Coffins, Ironmongery, Disinfecting Powder, and Fluid, Boots and Sho. s. Linen and Woollen, Drapery, Haberdashery, &c., Provisions and Grocery. Printing and Stationery, printing abstract of accounts, It is competent for any person to tender for any of the Articles separately. The contractors will be required to deliver the goods at the Workhouse, free of expense, in such quantities and at such times as the said Guardians shall require by their written order. Forms upon which the tenders must be made can be obtained at my office, where particulars of the goods required during the six months may be seen. The tenders must be delivered at my office, sealed and properly endorsed, before One o'clock, p.m., on I Saturday, the 19th day of March next. All samples sent in by persons tendering, and whose tenders are accepted, will be retained by the said Guardians, and no charge shall be made against the I Guardians for such samples. The Guardians do not bind themselves to accept the lowest or any tender. By Order, HUGH HUGHES, Clerk to the Guardians, Union Offices, Aberystwyth, 9th March, 1892. m71

RETRENCHMENT. THE secret of the extraordinary indifference manifested by the public in reference to national extravagance lies in the fact that the great bulk of the people do not con- tribute towards the imperial revenues. A teetotaller who does not smoke, who has no real estate, who does not live in a house of more than twenty pounds yearly value, and whose income is under Y,150 a year pays, no imperial taxation except on the tea he uses, or less than three shillings a year Even those who smoke and drink do not realize that the tobacco for which they pay threepence or fourpence an ounce is only worth about a half-penny an ounce and that spirits which eost threepence a glass are worth less than a penny, the rest being taxation. If the ninety millions so easily obtained were not largely spent in degrading the people, the subject might be left unnoticed but this money is used in maintaining large armaments and in keeping thouvids of aristocratic pensioners who are the worbb enemies of the commonwealth. The system of waste in Government departments has been exposed in various ways, but the at mass of the people do not contribute tl ards the revenue and do not care how tl money is spent. Members of Parlia- m. t are utterly powerless to prevent the growth of expenditure, and the discussion of the estimates is an utterly useless farce. Nearly forty millions are spent yearlyg on the army and navy, and yet we are told that our army is not fit to fight and that our navy is far too weak. The individual voter can only express his opinion at the poll once in five or six years. He then has the choice of voting for a Liberal or a Tory. The Liberal says he is in favour of retrenchment, but has ro more power to check national expenditure than the voter himself. He is only one of six hundred and 'seventy members, and the great spending departments of the State settle how the money is to go, and all that private members can do is to offer words of mild criticism. When the Liberals are in power the expenditure still goes on. The army and navy are always demanding more money, and nobody dares to suggest that the army and navy are useless, and that the whole European war system is a monstrosity. The enormous public debt, amounting to about seven hundred millions, absorbs about twenty millions a year in interest alone. This heavy debt was incurred mainly at the beginning of the century for wars which our grandfathers waged but did not pay for. There can be no doubt that this debt ought to be reduced at a far more rapid rate than it is reduced, but the individual voter cares no more about the national debt th".n he caret; about the national taxation. His influence on imperial politics is too remote, and his power to act is too occasional and indirect for his personal interest to be maintained. Newspapers do not attack national waste and extravagance because they know the subject is not one that the public care about. The great spendthrift departments are corrupting the national life, and as surely preparing national calamity as the individual spendthrift is preparing personal calamity. Next Sunday in thousands of places of worships all over the land sermons will be preached about the sin of individual unbelief, but not a word about the sin of national extravagance, waste, and corruption. The difficulty of creating right public opinion in leference to imperial acts is great, but it is necessary that something should be done to awaken the national conscience even at the cost of ridicule and contempt. We wish it were possible to induce our readers to follow the discussions on supply when millions of money are voted away in a night, the discussions being literally mere matters of form. A determined effort should be made in the House of Commons to bring about retrenchment in army and navy expenditure in order that the national indebtedness may be reduced. England is in a better position to deal with the question of national armaments than any other nation, but how little can be done may be judged from the following incident which shows the state of the public mind, whether the statements made are facts or not. It is said that after the German EMPEROR'S recent foolish speech about GOD being his ally, a gentleman who was present remarked that, whilst his MAJESTY was confident about the coming glory, he should not forget that Russia was behind him, WILLIAM II. retorted, "I will pul- verise Russia." General SHUVALOFF, hearing this story, instituted inquiries, and, finding it was true, reported the matter to M. DE GIERS, who repeated it to the CZAR. ALEXANDER III. sent for General SCIIWEINITZ, and said to him, "Tell your KAISER when he wants to begin pulverising, I will throw half a million men across the frontier with the greatest pleasure." The scandal is that these two Emperors should have the power in their own hands to deal with hundreds of thousands of men as if they were mere puppets. The power possessed by these two Emperors, to waste the resources of their empires while the common people are starving, is possessed by the spending departments of this country. The inhabitants of the United Kingdom have no more power to stop the waste that goes on every day in this country than the people of Germany or Russia have power to control the acts of their despotic rulers. There is no cry that is more in need of being raised at the next general election i than the cry of Retrenchment," but un- less the Liberals are more in earnest than they appear to be at present this cry, as far as Wales is concerned, will be unheard. The only statesman who seems to be really in earnest in protesting against national extravagance is Lord RANDOLPH CHURCHILL, and if he is determined to call the nation's attention to the evil he has already attacked he may find a larger measure of support than would at first sight appear possible.

COUNTY COUNCIL COMBATS. THE general result of the county council contests appears to be a strengthening of the Liberal forces. Public attention is naturally fixed more on the contests and their results then on the unopposed returns, but the more important feature is certainly the un- opposed returns. If the majority of the members of the county councils is allowed to be re-elected time after time without opposition, dry rot will soon set in and the Local Government Act will become a dead letter. The tendency of legislation will be, happily, to give county councils addi- tional work, but the electoral divisions in many counties are small, and the difficulty of finding candidates who can afford the time and expense of representing the rate- payers is great. How to maintain local interest in the representation of each division is a problem not easily solved. The con- tests in some divisions have been marked by incidents more or less noteworthy. At New Quay one section of Liberals and Nonconformists, in order to spite anothor section of Liberals and Nonconformists, went to a Tory and Churchman and induced him to come out in opposition to the Liberal candidate, and elected the Tory, who did not even issue an address In another division a would-b? candidate could not find enough supporters to fill his nomination paper. In the Strata Florida division, Mr DAVID JENKINS seems to have played into the hands of the Tories and the Rev JonN BOWEN has gsod reasons to object to the Con- servative tactics. If the contest at Strata Florida does nothing else it will teach the electors not to believe everything they hear, and to be true to their own side. In Llanfarian division Mr VAUGHAN DAVIPS, now said to be a Liberal, defeated Mr MORRIS DAVIES, an undoubted Conservative. This contest was really a bitter fight between two families. At Aberystwyth there was only a contest in one division. Mr JOHN JAMES offered himself for No. 3 division and was opposed by Mr WALTER WEMYSS, who was defeated by the narrow majority of twelve votes. MRJA*IES» majority would have been larger if he had not generously voted himself, and sent others of his sup- porters to vote, in divisions where the Liberal candidates were known to be weak. If Mr JAMES was a little more confident of success than the result justified he may well be excused. During the past three years he has fought the battle of the people manfully and has deserved 'the sup- port of every Liberal in the county. (Jnfortuatelv, popularity is not always the lot of those who render the greatest public services. Very little interest was taken in this contest, and more than a fourth of the electors did not vote. In the Llanbadarn division the Rev LL. EDWARDS was again defeated, this time by Mr HumI HUGHES, solicitor. This Conservative victory wa.. made the occasion of fireworks, illuminations, and general rejoicings. The position of Liberalism in Llanbadarn divisicn is just what might be expected from those who represent it. When Liberals are afraid of their principles, or act astaiiist them. the, people are not slow to understand the I situation After the Rev LL. EDWARDS'S defeat three years ago he was pitchforked into the Council as an Alderman. What the electors of Llanbadarn practically say is that their verdict can be treated by the Liberal majority in the County Council it. the same way again. It was a seriou, mistake to make defeated Liberal candidate* into aldermen. This is just. what Liberals have always protested against, and we hold 0 that it is not right for Liberals to do wha they say it is very wrong for Conser* tives to do. If the Rev LL. EDWAF-PS had not been made an alderman, and had on this occasion come forward simpx as the champion of Liberalism, he woU''1 not only have won a seat, but be would have served Liberal principles. The defeat in Llanbadarn is just what the Liberals deserve for their unfaithfulness t° their own principles. At Bow Street lJJ-r HENRY BONSALL was again defeated, the majority against him being increased by otie, The electors took him at his own 10"" bi estimate, but even at that they Inlg. fairly have asked for a substantial ^lS count. At Machynlleth the Liberals have defeated the Plas. This is a big victor^ and shows how Liberal principles succe^ when firmly held. It is very difficult for the Londonderry family to realize how tbe people at the bottom care more fr freedom than for gruel and flannel. ThIS defeat in face of the Dowager Marcliiolle-55 of LONDONDERRY'S high position as a Primrose Dame is quite startling. We hope the Liberals who voted so manfully for their candidate will remember to support hllJJ with their custom. It often happens that the champions of Liberalism are made to suffer in pocket when they cannot afford .to suffer. The best way to show appreciation of Mr RICHARD IEEs's conduct is to gO a.d buy something at his draper's shop We trust that the Cardiganshire Council will not again pitchfork defeated Liberal candidates into aldermanic positions. Soolle, or later this conduct, if persisted in, recoil upon the Liberals. Men like Pr ENOCH DATIEs, Mr JOHN JAMES, Mr JoJl M. HOWELL, and others, might wisely be maee aldermen. They have fought both inside and outside the Council and may fairly be rewarded with the dignity, but to give "he honourable place to men who hare beV rejected by the constituencies is sure, v the long run, to end as it has ended l' Llanbadarn. It is to be hoped that young men all over the district will take inter' in public business, and when the tioJe comes will offer themselves for election Oil County Councils. They may be dffeated, but defeat is nothing. They may not be able to accomplish a great deal, but the attempt is everything. Now that County Councils are entering on their second ter"1 the ratepayers may reasonably ask for their policy-for some plan by which the whole district is to be made more prosperous.

WALES FOR THE WELSH. ON Tuesday night the Birmingham Water Bill was read a second time by a majority of 142. Mr T. E. ELLIS moved that the Bill should be read that day six nionthsi but he did not contend that Welsh water was to be reserved for the Welsh. All he asked was that the rights of coov moners and others should be protected- Mr CHAMBERLAIN said that after Birmingham had taken all the water that town required there would still be water for twenty millions of people. He might have reasoll- ably said that Wales is able to supply all England with abundance of water, and we are sure nothing better could happen to Wales than that Birmingham, London* and other large towns should create great artificial lakes in Wales and bring Wales into note as one of the most beautiful playgrounds in the United Kingdom. The impounding of the heavy rainfall on th Welsh mountains would be a great advantage to large districts which are often inall- dated by floods. The fact is that far more water runs to the sea from the Welsh hills in a day than London and Birminghafl' could use in a year. We do not think that greater rubbish is ever talked thaI! the rubbish talked about the rights of Welsh commoners. The land in C., Wales that will be conrerted into lakes is pract'' cally worthless, as Mr T. E. ELLIS knows as well as we do. As long as it remains common it remains worthless—worthless eve" to the commoners. Of course it Boundi well to plead for the poor commoners, but the cry is a cry that in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred has no meaning. Let us take an actual case, which is worth j) good deal more than many speeches. Bortb I is a pleasant seaside village in Cardigan- shire. There is a common belonging to the place, which is worth nothing to anybody- The inhabitants of Borth, who liuve suffered greatly from the inroads of the sea, have tried to sell the common so that it might be enclosed and cultivated and made of use, and that the purchase money might he used to build groins for the protection f Borth, but they have failed in their attempt, and so Borth common is year after year not only worthless but often 9 positive nuisance and danger to the iv- habitants owing to the land being flooded- We do not think that Mr T. E. ELLIS, or anybody elip, would advise that public money should be spent in brirging Bortll common into a state of tilth. A few geese wander over the waste, but it would be gross exaggeration to say that Borth conY mon is of any real use to a single com- moner. There are hundreds of thousands of acres of practically worthless common and Crown land in Wales and nobody who knows anything about Wales would oppose the sale of this land to private owners who would fence it, drain it, build houses on it, and make it capable of supporting human beings. If the inhabitants of Bir- mingham, London, and other large towns can make the sterile lands of Wales value by all means let them do so. The existence of the few inhabitants on the land that will be take-n by Birminghani i5, indeed, only existence, and the Act of Parliament that dispossesses them will confer upon tneiu advantages and profit which they have never dreamt of possess- ing. Wales has too often played at dog- in-the-manger to her own loss. Tllkè Plynlimon mountain, from one of whose small lakes Aberystwyth is supplied with water. Would it not be to the pa,b lic advantage if the whole tract could he put to use ? If anybody proposed to impound the raiafall on Plynlimon mountain would it not be nonsense to talk about the injury that would be done to the- very few individuals who eke out a miser- able existence on .that uncultivated a.rP^j especially as they would be well provide fori It the Birmingham scheme is carrie out, a far larger and more population will be provided for than >VJ be dispossessed, and a great attraction visitors will be created. The wide, cultivated tracts of land in many parts e Wales are not a strength but a weak- ness to the nation. To keep thtiu un- used because commoners have certain valueleS rights which they rarely exercise is statemfinship, nor even, common sens-e. i- j;e the time is not far distant when t Uouuty Couucils of Wales aud the e