The Cambrian News and Merionethshire Standard

WELSH UNIVERSITY PRINCIPLE £ NL) JDETATIA Dr. R. D. ROBERTS, in his suggested aiiiended charter, dealt with several great principles and one matter of detail. Dr. ISAMBARD OWEX, who is supposed to have prawn the draft charter approved of by the Draft Charter Committee, has issued a aiPniorandam in which he disingenuously ignores all the o I principles dealt with by D;* ROBERTS and fastens on the one detail and even then he only fastens on a det4^ °f the detail. The Draft Charter Com,,iitte(,, proposed that the University Body should be composed of more than a hundred persons, and the real power was given to the authorities of the three University Colleges. This body is obviously too iarge, and was made large in 0r^r to hide the real governing body of the proposed Uni- versity, namply, the authorities of the three Colleges at Aberystwyth, Cardiff, and Ban- gor. There must be a University body. It is iniportank how that body is constituted, but nc; ither Dr. ROBERTS nor Wales is to be luted into considering the constitution of the University body anything but a detail- The questions of principle are whether teaching that shall count for degrees is to be limited within the walls of the three University Colleges whether Theolop-v is to be a faculty in the Uimex^, and whether each College is to be a University, or there is to be only one Welsh Uni- versity, and that a real one. Dr. ISAMBARD OWEX, who is the lay figure moved from Cardiff, is evidently anxious to divert the attention of Wales from the great principles we have indicated to the detail as to the composition of the University body. Why is Dr. ISAMBARD OWEN anxious to see three standards erected for degrees 1 Why is he afraid of entrusting the University body with power to recognize teaching outside the walls of the three University Collegcai

ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS. THE present Liberal Government may achieve distinction by its valuable administrative re- forms, even if it is not successful in accom- plishing great legislative changes. Already the heads of departments have done something towards making it clear to the people that there may be a real difference between Liberal and Conservative Governments quite apart from legislation. We believe that administrative reforms might easily be ex- tended in many directions so as to give the nations the full advantages of past legislation, much of which remains a dead letter, partly because of the apathy and ignorance of the people, but mainly because of the Conservative and reactionary spirit of local officials. Town Clerks, Local Board Clerks, Lords Lieutenant, Clerks to Boards of Guardians, Clerks to County Councils, Chairmen of public bodies, Judges, and Magistrates, all tend to narrow down the powers of the bodies they serve, or the offices they repre- sent, and to interpret as narrowly as possible the laws they have to administer. Theie I are Acts of Parliament containing abundant powers which are never utilized, and govern- ments have the means of putting in force systems cf administration which would re- move all sorts of ancient injustice and wrong. Take for instance the treatment of prisoners before and after trial. Nobody knows the sufferings and indignities forced upon prisoners contrary to law by officials who think it their duty to humiliate and degrade accused persons. \V hen it was the custom to send Irish Members of Parliament to prison the country was made familiar with some of the almost nameless indignities prisoners are compelled to undergo. Think of the hunger, that seems to be an inevitable part of the sufferings of prisoners. In workhouses again the system of administration is often most brutal. Poverty we know is an offence against the law of this country, and a person can be sent to prison for having no visible means of subsistence, but surely the time has come when workhouses should not be torture houses, partly owing to the ignorance an brutality of those in authority, and partly owing to the herding together of all sorts of people. The PRESIDENT of the Local Government Board has reduced the qualification of Guardians of the Poor to X5. This will enable ratepayers to elect men and women, and especially women, who were excluded until Mr FOWLER made this great administrative change. We trust that n' n all through this district women will be found zn to serve on Boards of Guardians. Two- thirds of paupers are women and children, and it is due to the claims of these un- fortunate creatures that some of those who administer the Poor Laws should be women. A few weeks ago the Dolgelley Guardians appointed a woman to be a relieving officer, and this appointment has been confirmed by the Local Government Board. In this appointment we not only have a case of administrative reform on the part of the Local Government Board, but we have an exercise of power on the part of a local governing body. Further, we have a good illustration of the fact that there are numerous offices which women are entitled to fill if they applied for them. Women have to look for justice as much to change of public opinion as to change in the laws. Women do not claim the positions they are entitled to hold. Years ago, at Aberystwyth, a woman was made registrar of births and deaths, and we have never heard that the duties of the office are not carefully and efficiently discharged. In Ireland Mr JOLIN MORLEY has effected perhaps the greatest administrative reform of the century by an order abolishing armed police. It is said that in future the police of Ireland are not to be soldiers, but are to be like the police of this country. We are not at all sure that the disarming of the Irish police will not do more for the peace and content of Ireland than many Acts of Parliament. This act of confidence will appeal to the people every time they meet a police officer for years to come. The LORD CHANCELLOR, again, in his department has made several working men magistrates. This is an im- portant administrative reform of far-reaching effect. We hear a great deal about the dignity of labour, but what we see is that labour is treated with indignity. A lord, however big a noodle, is put into places of honour, I> it a working man, however wise, is seldon vested with any power. Lord HERSOIIKLL has taken a step in the right direction in appointing some working men II) be magistrates. He would do well if he "ended his power to counties where Tory ds Lieutenant have given Tory squires Z5 ost a monopoly in the administration of (1--t law. It is said, but this re-port lacks confirmation, that the POSTMASTER-GENERAL is going to give the country in an Imperial penny post as great an administrative re- form as any member of the Government could give. The POSTMASTER-GENERAL has power to give the country enormous advantages n m if he can break through the hard crust of permanent officialdom. He could do much to bring back prosperity to the rural dis- tricts by establishing an agricultural parcel post. In the administration of justice, in working the Education Acts, in the Post Office, in the various departments of the Local Govern- ment Board, in taxation, in reduction of national indebtedness, in promoting thrift, in wise emigration schemes, in giving greater chances to women, and in numberless other ways the present Liberal Government can make itself distinguished above all the Governments of the century, even if it is not able to pass a single measure of what is called first-class importance. What it is in the power of the Government to do on a large scale it is in the power of every local governing body to do for its uwn district in its own department. Local govern- ing bodies have practically power to do whatever they are not strictly forbidden to do, and from the House of Commons down- wards the liberties of the people have de- pended on wide interpretations being given by public bodies to their powers and privileges. Courts of Quarter Sessions, Vestries, Boards of Guardians, School Boards, and many other bodies have been superseded because they did not seek to widen their powers, but either sank into mere adminis- trative bodies or became quite useless even for the narrowest administrative purposes. We see the danger that County Councils will do nothing that ijhpy are not com- manded to do, and as little as possible of that. School Boards have fallen far below their powers, and are almost as dead as the fossils found embedded in ancient rocks. Boards of Guardians would never have been abolished to make way for district Councils ] if they had grappled with social and sanitary I evils in a masterful way. The wooden little squire and the ignorant farmer took narrow views of the powers of Boards of Guardians which became mere dispensers of doles, and the result is that they are to be superseded. There is scarcely anything that the country requires that Boards of Guardians have not power to do, but there has been lack of administrative capacity and a miser- able, morbid desire to save the rates" by underpaying officials, while thousands have been wasted in degrading the people. No- where, perhaps, does the ignorant, narrow- minded, bat-eyed person play greater havoc than when he finds himself on a Board of Guardians. We hope the Government will go on in the path of administrative reform, and that every publie body will seek io widen and strengthen its powers instead of seeking to contract and weaken them.

THE POOR LAW COMMISSION. A Royal Commission hay been issued to i inquire into the relief of the aged poor. Lord ABERDARE is to be the Chairman because he is a safe man who is not in the slightest danger of doing or saying any- thing original. The PRIXCE OF WALES is put on to give the Commission social flavour. Mr. A. C. HUMPIIREYS-OWEN is put on, no- body knows exactly why, but there he is, and he is not likely to do any harm if he does no great amount of good. As Mr. ALFRED THOMAS, of Welsh Confusion Bill notoriety, has a fad about Poor Law administration, some people want to I know why he has not been put on. He has been mercifully kept off, and for this mercy we are duly thankful. The mistake in the formation of the Commission is that no woman has been put on it. Women are being pretty plainly made to feel that they are to expect nothing from this Government. "VY omen are rightly served. They went out of their way to make it clear that they would work for Liberals however Liberals might snub them, and so they are ignored in the formation of this icornaiission which affects women and their children far more than it affects men. As I regards the subject the Commission has been appointed to investigate, it will be found to be a large one, with ramifications in all directions. One thing is clear at the start, that if millions a year were not wasted on the drunken, the lazy, and the thriftless ,there would be plenty of funds tQ provide amply for the aged poor and for the deserving poor who are not aged. In Wales, where work is plentiful, where secondary em- ployments are numerous, and where the people are sober, thrifty, and religious, pauperism is higher than in England, including the great cities of the country. Pauperism is no more a disgrace among the Welsh poor than among the English aristocracy, who both take their 1, pensions" as a right, the one from the National Exchequer and the other from the parish fund. We believe, and have often urged, that the relief of the aged poor cannot be accomplished by any one system. The great trade and friendly societies could do much of it a great deal better than the Government could do it if they were encouraged and enabled to obtain per- manent annuities. The people themselves would do a great deal individually if facilities were afforded of the kind now so wastefully provided by some of the collecting insurance societies. Employers of labour again could du much if Government gave facilities. Then it would not be impossible for the Poor Laws to do the remainder. Nothing should be done to reduce the promotion of thrift, but a great deal might, be done if the fact were once realized that every working man spends both his interest and his capital during his working lifetime. What he saves is saved at enormous sacrifice and with great difficulty. A working man is maintained during his childhood and youth. He is taught a business and at last earns a wage. If he dies in early man- hood all that h' cost in maintenance and training is lost, aad his wife and children, if he has a wife and family, are thrown upon the pablic for support. If the man lives into old age he is not able to save much. It can easily be shown that during a working life of fifty years an artizan, labourer, or mechanic pays in excessive prices the money he ought to have been able to save. In buying food in small quantities he loses from five to ten per cent. more than is demanded from those who are able to buy hrge quantities. In clothes, again, the profit is greatest on the cheap goods bought by the poor. In house rent again there is a payment of five per cent., and sometimes of ten or fifteen per cent., in excess of what is paid by the well to do. Taken all round a working man loses ten per cent. on his earnings simply because he is poor. This amounts to about £ 250 without interest in a working life of fifty years on a wage of only a pound a week. It is this ten per cent., extorted from the millions of the working population, that enriches the distributors of commodities, 1- while tne maKers and producers of them starve. A working man and his wife bring up a family by making sacrifices which only the poor understand. The man dies at sixty or is worn out, and his children, who are as poor as he was, are compelled to main- tain him and his wife. In the man's youth his children were a drag upon him, and in his old age he is a drag upon his children. Until quite recently the condition of the poor was not deemed a subject which con- cerned Governments, but since labourers obtained votes, and now that they are edu- cated, it is not safe to leave them to face old age with nothing but the workhouse as a resort. There is no real difficulty in the way of each community providing for the aged poor who have met with disaster, if care were taken to enable the people to make provision for themselves while they are able to work. There are many sides to this great question, and we think it will be found that one of the best ways of pro- viding relief for the aged poor is to give the poor facilities and inducements to pro- vide for themselves.

ABERYSTWYTH CORPORATION LEASES. WE are glad to hear that the members of the Aberystwyth Ratepayers' Union, hrlVing been convinced that the more gravel is taken away from the beach the more there is left and the better it is for everybody, | are going to give attention to the question j of Corporation leases. It is a long while from 1874 until 1893, but we are delighted to find, even after a delay of nineteen years, that the ratepayers of the town are going to take interest in the question of leases. We are often told that it is a shameful thing for great landowners to confiscate the property of leaseholders who have built houses and other premises on their property. It is an equally shameful thing when a Corporation robs a leaseholder by confisca- ting his property. It makes very little difference to the man who is robbed whether he is plundered by a single landowner or by a Municipal Corporation. We say that the Corporation of Aberystwytb have no right whatever to the buildings erected on leasehold land. All the Corporation are entitled to is any increased value there may be in the land itself. It is the land and the land alone that belongs to the Cor- poration, and they have no right to charge ex- tortionately for that. But the members of the Aberyatwyth Town Council have had several cases before them in which they have not only claimed a right to charge for the buildings, hut have then insisted that the buildings should he pulled down and new ones put up The case of the Misses OWEN. is notorious. 7he course pursued was so monstrous that we believe it has been abandoned in some sort of half-hearted way. There is an old house and shop in North Parade which is to be treated as a site, and a renewed lease we understand is to be granted as if the building which is to be pulled down did not exist. We also understand that the monstrous injustice pursued in reference to the Mary Street premises is now recognized, but in that case the charge for frontage has been put up so that the owner of the premises would be got ,it just as effectively as if the old scandalous system of charging for the building and then insisting on its demolition had been pursued. The principle for which we have so long contended has now been conceded, but wh-ther justice will be done to the owner of the Mary Street premises is doubtful. We contend that the ground rents have been put up in some parts of Aberystwyth to such a pitch that rebuilding has been made impassible. The effect of this idiotic policy has been to raise the value of freeholds to a fabulous extent. The worst, most exacting, most rapacious landlord in Cardiganshire is the Corporation of Aberystwyth. The Misses OWEN were simply forced to nccept an inequitable arrangement. The owner of the Mary Street premises could not be forced, and finds it cheaper to leave the premises alone and lose what they cost him than to attempt to rebuild. Within the next fifteen or twenty years scores of thousands of pounds belonging to people who built houses on Corporation land will h transferred, partly to the coffers of the Corporation, but mainly to the pockets of owners of freehold property in the town. The present policy of the Corporation will prevent the town from being rebuilt, for who will first of all pay for a renewal of his lease on he rateable value of his premises and then knock them down and rebuild them 1 The ownfr of the Mary Street premises does not expect justice from the majority of the mr-mbers of the Town Council, but the Misses OWEX have done nothing that they should be made to pay what is obviously unfair. The late Mr. JOHN JAMES escaped the monstrous claim of the Corporation by one of his well-known evasions, and because he evaded the injustice some of the local Solomons say the house on the Terrace is not a case in point. The case is so simple that a child ought to be able to understand it. There is a house built on Corporation land rated at X20. It is an old house and needs to be rebuilt. The owner goes to the Corporation for a renewal of the lease of the ground on which the house is built. The Corporation first of all reckon the charge for renewal on the rateable value of £ 20, and then tell the applicant that he must rebuild the house Nothing rnorli preposterous or ridiculous could be imagined, and the absurdity is not less because the Corporation have substituted an excessive ground rent for the rateable value. Some of the members of tli3 Town Council have at last seen this, but instead of giving way like men they have increased the charges for frontages by a shilling or two shillings a coot so that the rental capitalized is equal to the value of the fee simple. This is made clear by the fact that the ground rent for working men's cottages in certain part3 of the town would come to three or four pounds a year each We are very glad the members of the Rate- payers' Union are going to discuss this im- portant question. The owner of the Mary Street premises has been represented as corruptly interested. Having got the prin- ciple contended for recognised he may now get rid of the premises, and do what. others are doing, seek freehold premises at any cost. Anybody else would probably obtain more reasonable terms- In our opinion no good will be done as long as members of the Town Council can use the power they possess to grant or withhold leases to har- rass rivals in trade, and to put political opponents and personal enemies to incon- venience. The Town Council have now ad- mitted that their former policy was wrong. The charge for frontages will eventually right itself when there is no personal bias at work.