The Cambrian News and Merionethshire Standard

ABERYSTWYTH MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS. ratepayers of Aberystwyth who take interest in the affairs of the town ought to read carefully the report ot what was said and left unsaid at the Council meeting- on Tuesday. We are not going to enter into details about an incorrectness" in the Abstract of Accounts. What was said about the matter, it seems to us, leaves the incorrectness in a very unsatisfac- tory state. The discussion raised by Captain Dough ton's reference to it certainly ought not to have been neces. sary, and quite apart from the inci- dent, and what it means directly and indirecHy, it is obvious that the fate- payers have not been rightly treated by the Council. It is absolutely clear that the ratepayers ought to have known all that there was to know. Nobody wants anybody to be blamed, if blame there is not, but it is scarcely correct to say that there is no secrecy in reference to municipal affairs which are dealt with in committee and be- come subjects of discussion at street corners. One of the great dangers of the sort of incorrectness that was brought to the front by Captain Doughton on Tuesdav is that in- dividuals may be blamed who are not really in any .way involved. It is not for us to lecture the mem- bers of the Council as to the wajs in which they deal with public business, nor is it wise, perhaps, to bring things up for public discussion in the Council which, for unknown reasons, are kept from the ratepayers. In our opinion, the ratepayers ought to be treated as worthy of full information in reference to arrears of rents,, rates, and every- thing else. As reg-ards* rents and rates, for rnstarice. Suppose these are rents and rates which have been due for more than six months, those arrears ought to be dealt with, as it is obviously unjust that those who promptly pay their rents and rates should also have to pay interest on the arrears which cause an adverse bank balance. What the public want to know is not whether on a certain dav in the year the arrears are more or less than on the corresponding day of the previous year, but what the arrears amount to which are more than six months old. Mr. Llewellin said that a list of all in arrear for more than twelve months had been laid before the Finance Committee. What we want to make clear is that suppose a person was in arrear for a rent which was due half a year ago and then became liable for a rent which only became due last week, he would not be a year behind for the whole amount, but if he never paid one half-year's rent until the next half-year's rent was due, the ratepayers would have to meet bank demands which prompt payment would prevent. If those liable for rents are always six months in arrear those who pay promptly, however poor, have to pay interest which they ought not to have to pay. Nothing was said on Tuesday about the approaching November election, when it is supposed that all the members will retire. Even the extension of the borough boundaries was not men- tioned. The silence of the members of the Council is very remarkable, and also interesting, When reporters are not present, as they are not present at committee meetings, there mav be nice little discussions which become street, corner gossip, and in the end become exaggerated or distorted versions spread all over the town. In about three weeks the whole municipal system of Aberystwyth will be altered by the town being divided into wards, by the number of aldermen and coun- cillors being increased, and by bring- ing in .a large area that is now outside the borough boundaries. It is possible that nobody inside or outside the l Cou-ncil knows what Is going to be done either by the ratepayers or their representatives. It is also possible that the borough extension scheme will be postponed and that there will be no municipal contest at all this ye«r. We are not going to say 'what the ratepayers should uo, but they and not the members of the Council or the Cor- poration officials are responsibe for the condition of the town financially and otherwise. If there is to be pro- gress there must be a municipal awakening of which, at present, there are no indications.

THE PROBLEMS OF SMALL HOLDINGS. THE problems of small holdings are not becoming smaller in extent or fewer in number tha "i they were at the start. The chief small holding prob- lem is really a human nature problem. The question is not yet settled as to what are small holdings. Where the holdings are within easy reach of centres of large population an acre or two of land may enable the holder to make a living by converting it into a garden and erecting glass houses. 1 6 t, Where there are no large towns acces. sible, and where railway transit is monopolised, the small holder with an acre or two of ground is powerless. In sparsely-populated rural districts, where the soil is poor and thin, the small holdings would have to be thirty C or forty acres in extent, and then the tenant would probably not be able to make a decent living. In villages and rural districts small holdings up to five or ten acres enable, the local tailor, or smith, or joiner, or publican, or shopkeeper, or postman, or other worker, to eke out a living by providing themselves with vegetables, and being able to sell a few fowls, eggs, flowers, and, perhaps, a little fruit. The subject has come Lp during the past few years in all sorts of ways, and the conditions vary so much that no plan capable of general application is possible. A local retail dealer in fruit and vegetables may make a small holding pay, but a labourer who is not entitled to an old-age pension, and is not well enough in health to secure constant Work, may utterly fail to achieve success. We have found over and over again in dealing with small holding questions that would-be small holders want to pick out the best and most convenient field of a farm and to pay even less than, the average farm rent for it. The whole subject is exceedingly difficult to deal with, as county councils and other bodies have found out. We make no pretence to solve the small holdings difficulties. What we want to show is that all over the district there is the same need, the same desires, ;)I)d the same obstacles. What are wanted in Wales are larger farms, so that there might be real differences between the three acres and a cow holder and the holder who is supposed to be an average farmer on a thirty-or forty acres of thin, poor soil. If the State was alive to its own agricultural possi- bilities, thousands of acres of waste Crown lands in Wales could be enclosed, drained, provided with roads, and brought into tilth. More thou- sands of acres of land could be re- claimed by draining the bogs at Borth, Tregaron, and other parts of Wales. Many more thousands of acres of land could be 'reclaimed from shanow bays, river estuaries, and flooded wastes. Instead of doing anything of this kind the land all around the coast of Wales is being eroded by the sea, and the State does nothing. Why does it not do anything? Carnarvonshire County Council some time ago purchased the "MaJryn Estate in order to provide small holdings. Last week, in his report to the Small Holdings and Allotments Committee of the Carnarvonshire County Council upon the Madryn estate, farm, and school, Mr. E. J. Cheney, of the Board of Agriculture, pointed out that the position of the small holdings scheme is likely to provide th" Council with a cause for anxiety for some years to "come, and at present the question is not whether it is possible to increase the rents, but whether the existing rents can be maintained. A large proportion of the estate appears to "consist of poor 'hungry' land, "evidently suffering from years of neglect and the depredations of rabbits, and many of the tenants who adopt old-fashioned methods of farm- in- can only be making a very in- different living." There are other difficulties, as the Inspector pointed out. It was diffi- cult," he said, to make an accurate "stimate fiom the conflicting- state- ments presented, but it appeared that the property was let now to sixty tenants, a farm school, and to seven persons hiring accommodation land, and the fixed annual charges might be taken as being approximately the "same as the annual income. He suggested that until the scheme had been placed on a sounder footing and, the tenants had adopted improved methods of manaiging- their holding's the Council should consider whether it would not be prudent to defer In- "currÍng any further expenditure on equipment." The Inspector's report was not with- out a cheerful side. He said that the existence of the farm school is likely to prove the salvation of the small holding scheme. What we want to show our readers from the foregoing extracts is the fact that County Councils who undertake to provide small holdings have .to face antiquated methods, impoverished soil, gross personal ignorance, and other diffi- culties and obstacles, for which neither the County Councils, the Agricultural Department, the State, nor anyone else is responsible. What has to be contended with is human nature—mere human nature- and natural conditions. The assump- tion is that the human creature is of importance. If there ;s anything in the world that is made plain, it is the fact that the human creature is of no more importance than worms, or flies, or weeds, or drops of rain. The diffi- culties which the Carnarvonshire County Council have to deal with are the same difficulties, with variations, that all the County Councils of Wales have to deal with. The personal atti- tudes of the would-be small holders arc wrong. The ancient legal conditions are wrong. The aims of the local govern, ing bodies are probably wrong, seeing that they want to meet needs which, apparently, nature leaves to the in- dividual. There are large numbers of in- dividuals who arc not only willing, but ,eager, that somebody else than them- selves should provide for their main- tenance. You, we presume, maintain yourself. There, are others who take it for granted that you ought to main- tain them also. This thought or feel- ing is what lies at the back of a great deal of the small hofdings difficulty. Our tendency has been to give up the difficulties of small holdings, for it is simply ridiculous to expect thrifty, hard-working honest workers to enable the other sorts to have easy times. We may be told that those who make unreasonable demands in reference to small holdings are more or less mentally or physically incapable. This may be so. Our answer is that nature says in ways which cannot be denied that those who are incapable must go. It is surely not the chief object of the present population of the world to rear a coming generation of incapables. Small holdings are, no doubt, an ex- periment. Carnarvonshire has done great service to Wales, and the Board of Agriculture s Inspector has rendered the whole of Wales a great service bv the report which he has presented to the Carnarvonshire County Small Hold- ings Committee. W c may be wrong, but in our opinion, under present conditions, the remedy for small holding defects rest mainly with the landowners of the country. What is the use of asking local governing bodies to remedy land defects which the owners of land, the tenants of land, and the State itself can easily remedy.

UNEMPLOYMENT IN MERIONETHSHIRE. THERE is to us something very pleasing and satisfactory in the ways Conserva. tives and Liberals, Conformists and Nonconformists, in Merionethshire work together for the good of the whole community. The need for work in that county, owing to the slackness in the slate trade and other trades, is very great. At the last meeting of the Festlniog- Urban Council the Unem- ployment Committee reported that a letter had been received from Mr. Haydn Jones, the county member, enclosing- communications from the Road Board and the Local Government Board regarding the proposed free grant bv the Road Board to Merioneth- shire of seventy-five per cent, of the cost of works to be carried out to furnish work for the unemployed. Mr. Havdn Jones was thanked for his- able services in the matter. He does very good work. An afforestation scheme is receiving- favourable attention, and Mr. W. H. More, the Crown. receiver for Wales, had written to say that the matter was receiving attention and that hi-would do the best in his power to assist It. The Merionethshire County Council has wisely decided to proceed with schemes for the improvement of rcfads, and landowners and others inter- ested have shown that they were willing to give whatever assistance was in their power without asking for compensation as leaseho'ders for what land was necessary. It is to be hoped that not only will the roads be improved without any great cost to the ratepayers, and that work will be found for the unemployed, but that by co-operation from end to end of Wales the demand for Welsh slates, the best roofing material in the country, will be increased, and that the slate quarries of North Wales will soon be able to give employment to a largely-increased number of men. Mr Ffaydn Jones has done much, and we believe that he can do more and will do It, quite regardless of what may be thought or said about him. The wrar is having- terrible and far-reaching in- 'dJrect effects, but if the people in each county can be brought to co-operate with each other much can be accom- plished. It may seem absurd to sõme people to expect the Marquess of Londonderry, Lord Penrhyn, Sir Watkin Williams-Wy-nn, and other noblemen to work with Mr< Haydn Jones, but there is really no reason why they should not work together for the advantageof the whole of the industrial population of the Principality. Years ago we fought hard and long- for the late Lord Penrhyn, in his quarry dis- pute, to his Lordship's great astonish, ment. What we want now, and what is indicated in the report of the Fes- tiniog Urban Council proceedings, is that there should be united action in Merionethshire and the other counties of Wales to prevent distress among the industrial population who are mainly helpless. In .Newtown, Montgomeryshire, for instance, Colonel Pryce Jones, M. P., has an industry. The Welsh Industries Association could assist that industry Why does not the Association give that assistance? We do not know. A thousand additional workers could be employed in the Newtown flannel factories if there was co-operation, but the Welsh Industries Association, as far as we know, does nothing, and does it very assiduously. We ourselves, at Aberystwyth, have a printing industry, and yet the Welsh Industries Association gets its printir.-r done in Londop We do Lot want to make a specjal appeal for ourselves, as there are printing industries elsewhere- in Wales, but we ask our readers all over the Principality what is the use of talking about the promotion of i industries if the associations that are H supposed to promote them send their work to London, or Yorkshire, or any- where else beyond the borders of the Principality. Take another industry as a sample of what we mean. There is not one of the four nations of the United Kingdom that has more distinctive national household furniture than Wales. Is the manufacture of Welsh furniture encouraged? Certainly not. It is made in England, and the following rhyme strongly applies to it: "They made the front upon my word as fine as any abbey, but thinking they could "cheat the Lord they made the back part shabbv." Further, there are possible agricul- tural, gardening, and dairy industries for Wales, but Wales is so handicapped by the great railway companies of England that it costs less to send certain growths and produce from re- mote parts of the world than to send them from Wales into an adjoining English county. We have given the instance before, but there is no harm in repeating it. A South Wales col- liery proprietor bought some pit props from a Dinas Mawddwy landowner. They were sent over the Dinas Maw- ddwy line to Moat Lane. Then they were sent over the Cambrian line to Aberystwyth. Then they were sent over the Manchester and Milford line to Pencader, and then over the Great Western line to Cardiff. The result was that the carriage cost far more I than the props were worth, and they were allowed to rot at a railway siding. What is true of those pit props is true in other respects of the arrangements of the great railway companies all over the country. There are markets and fairs held at Tregaron, Lampeter, and other places. The great railway com- panies charge passengers higher fares on market days than on other days. We ask Mr. Haydn Jones, the County Councils of Wales, Mr. Lloyd George, and anybody else outside idiot asylums how rural industries are to be encouraged by a transit system of this sort? What would be said by the people of the country if a letter posted at Commins Coch was charged a penny to Aberystwyth, another penny to Carmarthen or Welshpool, and more pennies all the way to Australia, until at last the cost was ten or twelve shillings. The whole railway system of transit, as it affects foreign countries in relationship to this country, is rotten—absolutely rotten, but nolhing- can be done, as far as we can see, to secure reform without nationalisation. It costs very little more to send an empty train than a full one, and it costs less to carry passengers who can walk than gfoods that have to be carted and handled from start to finish, but the railway companies charge far more for the creatures that can deliver them- selves than for things that have to be carried. What we want to sho.v is that un- employment in Wales, the lack of in- dustries, and the consequent distress, are due to the fact that Welsh indus- tries are handicapoed by the large rail- way companies in their own interest, and that no improvement is possible until the whole railway system is re- organised, as it certainly will have to be reorganised. There are all sorts of difficulties to be dealt with in Wales and, we have no doubt, elsewhere. A landlord wants to enclose his land so that it may be cultivated. The State refuses to join, and this means that the landowner, if he goes on with the scheme, has to enclose the Crown lands. A local gov. erning body wants to pose as a health and pleasure resort, and the Local Government Board does not enforce drainag-e or water supplies. A town wants to prevent hawking and other things on the sea beach, and the State I comes in with its rights and does nothing. A town wants to advertise itself as a health and pleasure resort, and because a rate of a penny in the pound in London would raise perhaps a thousand pounds the pleasure resort is restricted to a penny rate which brings in vCi5 or £20. A newspaper like this publishes two editions and the State makes it pay two fees. A daiiv paper publishes eight or ten editions a day and has to pay only one fee. We could give a hiftidred additional in- stances of red-tape incapacity, but we have probably said enough to show that the law is a hass and that existing State arrangements are as mad as the war which the German Emperor has brought about.

THE AGCOMPLISHEB. LAST week we published some verse in 3 leading article on Mr. Lloyd Geprge. We suggested that a Welsh bard might translate the lines into Welsh. We have received the following :— UN o BOBL CYMRU. [Lled-gyfieithiad o ddemyn barddonol Seisnig allan o'r "Cambrian News am Hydre 2il, J914, o waith Mr. John Gibson, y Golvgydd.J Hiraethwn am roi croesaw i Llwyd Sior, Yr hwn yn ddilys yw ein penaeth mawr, Ein cymvvynaswr cryf, un gwyd ein gwlad, Un frwydra drosoin, a'n hachosion gwyd, Ysgornia eiriau llechgwn sydd o'i 61. Ein dyheuadau a'n gobeithion wyr, A chais ei orcu eu cyflawni oil, Ni phrisia dal er cymaint wna o'n plaid. Ymdeithia mlaen er gwaethaf dinnyg cas, I uchelfannau uwch na thybiodd neb. Dymunem ddangos i'n gwych benaeth mawr Ein cariad ato am ei ymdrech brwd, Datgana Gwalia oil mewn geiriau twym Mai fel y teimla ef y teirnla hi, A hwythau'u, alon, er eu sen a'u gwawd, Raid wybod mai cu arwr Gwalia yw,— Ei chryf ddadleuwr, ynddo rhydd ei chred, Gorchfygn yrt mhob bnvydr ddaw i'w gwrdd. Rhydd pobl y Dywysogaeth 0 bob cwr Eu cydnabyddiaeth lawnaf i Llwyd Sior, Fel ag y gwel eu bod hwy oil o'i du, Ac mai ei frwydran ef yw'r tiddynt hwy. Ni wyddant yn mha ffuif y rhed eu serch, Neu beth fydd ddoethaf iddynt ddweud ncu wneud, Ond caffed wybod mai ei ddilyn wnant,— A'i arddel megis un o honynt hwy,— Eu doeth arweinydd, a'u gwaredwr cryf, Na pblyga byth i wawd, na dig, nac ofn. GWILYM Ardudwy.

EDITORIAL NOTES. The Hon. Hugh Mapier J>ou^las- Peiifiant (Lord /Fonrhvn'-s second son) has been gazetted second lieutenant in the 2nd Dragoons (Royal Scots eys). Major David Davies, M.P., is with the Territorials at Northampton. <1 t. Owing to the large number of important public meetings ,all over the district, we have had to postpaid editorial notices. The Prime Minister addressed a. great meeting last Friday at Carirlff on. the causes, of the war. He was received with intense enthusiasm. We stated our case several weeks ago in reference to provision in Wales for rcfugees, recruits, prisoners of war, and other things. We are not going to urge this or that course. It is now for the places in tho whole district to take action. The wa.r is, apparent:tv, going on just as usual. The only fact that is made quite clear is that the daily newspapers do not know anything about it. Prayers for peace seem to have been abandoned. Min- isters of religion are joining the fighting forces. Wales is certainly not going to he behind the other three nations of the United Kingdom in supplying fighting forces. There are among those who are doing recruiting work men who six months ago would not have been expected to take part in this kind of activity. It is said that the Pope is working per- sonally to bring about peace and with that object has already exchanged letters with the Austrian Emperor. "Would not an appeal to the German Lmperor have been wiser; but there is another form of appeal in which the Pope of Rome might reasonably be expected to put his trust. Mr. Asquith, in his eloquent speech at Cardiff last Friday, said that Wales is a "single and indivisible entity with a life "of its own, drawing its vitality from an "ancient past." This is just what Cardiff does not like. Cardiff pretends to be all Wales and wants all there is and ten per cent. besides. "W ales is not going to lie bossed by Cardiff. There is danger, it is said, of the town of Lauterbrunnen below Miirren, in the Bemese Oberland, being buried under a heavy landslide. All the slopes have been giving way, and huge boulders have de-' scended to within a, short distance of the houses. The inhabitants are fleeing in panic and half the place has been evacu- ated. This is another case where appeals, however earnest, would be in vain. The ways in which India, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, and other Partes of the British Empire have come to the assistance of the United Kingdom in the war for the protection of (Belgium must have astounded the war-makers, if they are in a condition to realise what is being done. Canada has given fifty thousand tons of flour, seven hundred thousand bushels of oats, and ten thou- sand tons of compressed hay. These are not all the gifts, nor all the forms of help. Lleyn Rural Council has a good deal of work on. halldjn reference to housing, ater supplies, roads, and other matters. What is needed is that the Council should take one job at a time and trust its own officials and the people generally. With good roads and an efficient motor service. Lleyn district ought to be as popular as any other district in North Wales. What is necessary is that the people should t:e7 lieve in themselves and not. try to save sixpence at the loss of ten shiiibigs. It has been decided by the Town Council of Pwllheli to adopt a scheme which will develop certain parts of the town, and pro. vide work for the unemployed during the winter months. What is being done at Pwllheli should, if possible, lie done in many other places. The people who have been hard hit mid who cannot easily be helped are hotel and lodging-house keepers. Mr. Evan H. Davies ought to be helped to advertise W ales so as to bring as many people as possible here during the winter months. Lady Londonderry has been delivering a speech in Belfast. Her ladyship said that the Ulster question was only in abeyance. Times might come very quickly when all their energies would have to be turned back from looking after the comforts of troops to their original purpose, namely, to be an auxiliary to the fortes which after the war Ulster would direct in a fierce attack 011 the entrenched position of Home Rule. We have nothing to say except that to some pious people Home Rule for Ireland is evidently-a far more hideous thing than even a bloody war! ? The Finance Committee presented a resolution to the Carnarvonshire County Council, last week, that in view ef the depression as the result of the war that it was not prepared to provide funds for evening classes in the county for the ensuing year. A deputation interviewed the Council, and Mr. Issard Davies moved an amendment to the Finance Committee's resolution. He said that while the pro- posal would be a saving of £5.X) to the rates there would be a loss of £1,000 in grants, and the loss to the teachers would be £1,700, which was not regarded as a tax which ought to be suddenly imposed upon a particular section of the com- munity. The amendment, after a long dis- cussion, was carried by thirty-one votes to nine. The fostering of hatred between the people of Germany and of this country by some of the daily papers is most deplorable. There is, alas, war, which has been made, not by the Almighty, but by the rulers of the people. AN hat the world has to learn, and what we think it is going to learn, is that war must be rendered impossible by international combinations which will prevent war or punish the war-makers as burglaries are prevented or the burglars are punished. In future any community that makes war should he dealt with in drastic ways. It is monstrous that nations should make wars, and then appeal to God to prevent them or to give victories to this side or that. Surely that is not re- ligion, but a hellish system that ought not to exist. Sir Edward Carson is playing the fool, we think, in stiH continuing his threats of civil war against Irish Home Rule passed by the Government. We do not think that he is quite responsible when he says that "they will not stop at any means to "prevent the Home Rule Act applying to "Ulster." He also says that he hates Home Rule. This may be so, but each of the four nations of the United Kingdom is going to have Home Rule as the only way of getting national business properly attended to and to secure united action for the well-being of the four nations. It would he useless to try and lecture Sir Edward Carson. Ulster has done well in face of the war, and we believe will do equally well in reference toO. the future strength and prosperity of Ireland. Sir 'Edward Oarson land others of his sort will be dealt with when it is necessary to deal with them. Those vain creatures who seek some sort of remembrance by carving their names or initials on wooden seats and bridges are met by a notice which the Lake District Tourists' Association has affixed to a foot- bridge over Green GhyIl Beck—" Don't cut your friend."• "W e think the notices should be "Don't cut your wooden relation.' A few prosecutions in this district would do good. The Prince of Wales Fund has got beyond the sum of throe million pounds. This large sum has been subscribed in two months, the fund having been opened on the 6th of August, when the Prince of Wales appealed to the nation. There can be no doubt that much more money will be needed as the war is prolonged. Labour is becoming scarcer, and all sorts of in- dividual needs are increasing and intensi- fying. The annual leport for 1913 of the state of public health in the seventeen sanitary districts into which Carnarvonshire is divided, makes clear the fact that the housing problem in the county demands very serious attention which it does not get. What is to be done we do not know, and nobody else seems to know. Nothing effective is possible until the people them- selves awake. What is true of Carnarvon- shire is true aU over Wales with very few exceptions. There has been very little rain during the week. The weather has been favour- able for visitors, but visitors M-e now scarce, a.nd up to the present time nothing has been accomplished in tho way of making up for the August slump. Very likely not much can be done, as the people all over the country are feeling the effects of the war. Business is slack, but there is, happily, an abatement of panic. Farmers ar;3 having a favourable time as far as their work is concerned, and what- ever else happens, prices for their stock and produce will not go down. An announcement is made in the news- papers that the trustees of the Rockfelier Foundation announce the inauguration of an investigation into labour and industrial relations for the well-being of mankind throughout the world It is said that the investigation will last for years. The Foundation endowment of 100 oillion dollars will be at the back of this scheme for the well-being of mankind throughout the world. A mere trifle of two er three hundred thousand pounds is not likely to accomplish much in the face or human attitudes revealed by the*existing war and the undisputable and universal fact that human beings increase to the point. of starvation. There is far more at the back of the misery of the world than labour and industrial relations. There may be no adequate reason why women should not resort to war as men resort to it. The horrible results would be greater and more generally and in- tensely realised if women were mutilated as men are mutilated, and women would be subjected to wrongs that men are free from. A writer in a paper says: "I can "see no reason why able-bodied women "should not serve their country in the "field as well as at home. As a matter "of fact, they have frequently done so; "history teems with examples of militant "females who won distinction on ther field of Jmttle fjJ(;.ffi HootT^ ttbW1). 1rc hope womou will cic their utmost to pi event war and not to increase and in- tensify its horrors. There are now some Belgian refugees at Griccieth and Aberystwyth. It is to be hoped that noetfort..s will be spared to make greater use of this part of \ra,jes so as to enable the people to rec-ovcr from the slump of visitors in August. A good deal of interest is manifested both in Al)er- ystwyth and Criccieth, and the Belgians are being treated with great kind- ness. The war panic is gradually dying down, and business is being resumed to some extent. Local governing bodies hotel and lodging-house keepers and business men generally, can do much to attract people, and it would be wise to offer special terms. The Cambrian Rail- ways Company is doing all that is possible to relieve the situation, and we think there is a strong general desire all over the district to co-operate with the Com- pany. A good deal is being said at the present time abouf: the desirability of establishing a. beet sugai industry in this country. It is said that sugar beets will grow in this country and that eighty per cent. of the sugar consumed! in the United Kingdom is beet sugar. Whether the State ought to do something to promote the establishment of this industry is a question wé will not now discuss, but there is no reason why the Welsh Industries Association, whose patrons are the King, the Queen, and Queen Alexandra, might not do some- thing in this direction. We have great difficulty in getting to know anything about the action of the Welsh Industries Association, but it is nominally correct, and there is no reason why it should not promote new industries in Wales and try to make existing industries more successful. The further growth of osiers and the establishment of more basket-making in- dustries would be a step in ad vance. Then there is the. slate industry, the Welsh flannel industry, and other industries. What is wanted is something more than little shops to sell bogus Aberystwyth pebbles made in Germany, and what is called "real" Welsh flannel made in York- shire. -'V Holyhead is in trouble, needlessly or otherwise, about its morals. Young women, it seems, walk about the streets late at night, and one speaker at a meet- ing said that a large number of y >ung girls were addicted' to the bad habit. Another speaker referred to the evil which accrued from the senseless wanderings of their young people and said that many of their young Christian people were not frea from blame in the matter. Another speaker said that whilst on the way at half-past ten one night he was greatly dis. tressed to see some well-dressed and seem- ingly respectable girls sliding down the pavement hand-in-hand with some soldiers. How shocking! Another speaker said tl.at young girls were to be seen on the sireets at midnight, and even later. The behaviour of some of them was nothing short of scandalous. It was suggested that the ladies present should act as detectives. This was objected to. It was finally decided to draw the attention of the churches to the matter, asking the pastors and officers to make references thereto on Sunday, not. withstanding that a previous speaker had said that no amount of preaeliing would avail, as the people they wanted to get at did not go to church or chapel. Is not the evillmore imaginary than real? Why are the ministers and other persons who these young women out in the streets late at night there themselves? That, of course, is different. jy,