The Cambrian News and Merionethshire Standard

ttht Friciay, Nov. 20th, 1914 A NEW START. JUST as in the progress of a man by t x 9 walking" step follow step, so in munici- pal affairs any one kind of action is almost invariably and inevitably suc- ceeded by further action, much of which is foreseen and premeditated. Other succeeding action is often unforeseen and unpremeditated and indirectly leads to unexpected re- sults. The extension of the borough boundaries at Aberystwyth was under- taken for two main reasons. One main reason was a matter of justice between ratepayers of the borough and householders and owners resident immediately outside the borough who were enjoying practically all the advafntagesi off the borough without contributing to provision and upkeep. The other reason was to increase the I power and prestige of the town by an addition to the population, even though the addition was not great enough to give the Corporation greater powers in dealing with educa- tion and other matters conferred on boroughs of 10,000 inhabitants and upwards. One of the indirect results of borough extension which was per- haps unpremeditated and unforeseen was the reconstruction of the Town Council and, in that connection, the retirement of two of its. oldest, most prominent, and most experienced j members—Alderman Peter Jones and Alderman D. C. Roberts. Another indirect result of borough extension is the infusion of new blood and, it is to be hoped, "other minds and other 11 minners into the Council itself. We go all the way with the resolution unanimously passed by the Council at its last week's meeting regretting the retirement of the two alclermen. Alderman Peter Jones, who entered municipal life about the vear 1874, brought to the affairs of the town shrewd natural instincts, arf almost in- tuitive perception of facts, an acumen of judgment and a terse and convinc- ing method of expression. Though we cannot altogether agree with the writer who declared that home-bred youth have ever homelv wits," we can 'I conceive that, did heredity or environ- ment otherwise ordain, there was no position in the forum or in the senate at home or in the colonies wirch Alder- man Jones might not have secured and adorned. Alderman Roberts brought to the affairs of the town the authority of a family dating back to the days of the old Court Leet and connected with the highest religious aspirations of a large proportion of the community. Personally also he brought to the administration of municipal as of all other affairs a transparent honesty and an unquestioned integrity. In the practical working of the municipal ship Alderman Roberts perhaps m;ght be best described as the ballast rather than a propelling force. There were also one or two other members who by long service and intimate knowledge of municipal affairs natur- ally occupied a dominant position in the p Council. The result was, however unpalatable it may be to them, the tendency of thp ot'ifr members to ¡ allow the dominant members to do the thinking and take all the responsibilitv and to arrange themselves around their particular leader in support or opposi- tion, which unfortunately has not always been on the merits of the ques- tion involved. Whenever a private "member" happened to think out a scheme of improvement or of progress he could rarelv enrrv it through with- out enlisting the support of the leaders, and the hopelessness of the attempt without that support ;;n many cases undoubtedly led to the abandon- ment of all attempts. The fact is unquestionable that members have been in the Council for years without being able to put their finger on a single thing which they have initiated and carried through. The position which the Council has occupied for years may be put by an illustration which will be familiar to the people ol Aberystwyth and particularly to the sea-faring portion of the inhabitants. In order to enter the Harbour it is necessary to keep certain landmarks in line, or the boat will get on to the rocks. In the Council Chamber it was necessary to get the leaders into line before any scheme could be siafely navigated and, such is the inertia of public bodies not only at Aberystwyth but at places all over the kingdom, that public men too often prefer to proceed on the line of least resistance and will not trouble themselves to force things through. With a reconstructed Coun- cil, additional members, and new blood, the opportunity has arrived for bringing about more democratic con- ditions. As Mr Barclay Jenkins put it last week, the regrettable retirement of two of the most prominent members of the Corporation will throw on to the other members the greater necessity to think out schemes for themselves, to make themselves acquainted with all the facts, to act on their own initiative instead of blindly following the lead of others, and to apply to the affairs of the town the princioles and capacity which make private businesses suc- cessful.

THE HEROISM OF CIVIL LIFE.. [FIRST PART]. IT is impossible when once the idea has entered the mind not to be deeply « impressed with the unremembered, un- t corded lives of the millions upon mil- lions of men and women who have done the world's ordinary work and borne the world's ordinary sufferings and sorrows from morning until even- ing every day throughout the cen- turies. To them there never came any public recognition, or sympathy, or honour, or even barest individual mention, and yet each one had to live his or her own individual life as dis- tinctly as the most famous or infamous of earth's children. The peoole, the masses, the multitude lived and died without recognition of their individual scp-arateness and were unrewarded and unknown, except in some rare instances which serve only to show how deep and complete is the oblivion that rests upon them. Their successors in these days pursue the obscure round of arduous or mon- otonous toil—in the great majority of cases for barest means of subsistence. It is more than many of them can do to serve the body's clamorous needs by toil so severe that the body itself is slain in the struggle to provide it with mere food and shelter. Every national calamity presses upon them. In the absence of work they starve or become paupers or criminals. Their present is without joy or brightness, and their future is without hope as far as this world is concerned. These toiling, suffering, silent, nameless millions who, generation after generation come and go almost as silently as shadows, are real men and women—as real in every sense as the few who stand out clearly against the dark background of time with personal distinctness. They are not shadows. However wide- spread and general the calamities and sufferings which they experience, they do not suffer in crowds, but individu- ally. Each person has a centre of life of his own, however narrow, and all that life means comes to him just as it comes to those who forget his separateness. Each individual in the countless un- regarded throng" is thrilled with pleasure or agonized with pain, and has a distinct world in which the whole tragedy and comedy of life is played cut in all its parts. They arc -.ri the main dumb, but they feel as acutely as if their names were enrolled in the annals of farpe. In periods of ex- treme agony and distress they make articulate cries, and sometimes under a common impulse of pent-up agony or despair they act together as if moved by a sovereign wUl and destroy the 1 growths and developments of ages, they themselves being the first and often the only victims of the disaster created by their own mad fury. Listen to the tramp, traln), tranr,> 'of their million-footed legions. They i march down the echoing corridors of time to battlefields and arc slain by imyriads in causes of which they know nothing. They dwell in beleaguered I c;ties and die of hunger and disease. They tramp, tramp, tramp monoton- ously down a thousand avenues to every form of loathsome death. Look into their despairing evps. Look at their sorrowful faces. Listen to their lld es as they meet their fellows in mortal conflict. Thev rise against j their oppressors, but are induced to slay each other The red blood flows ceaselessly and is lost for ever.,in the dusty ways of de:1th where the smothered tramp of the people seems to beat time to the sharo crv of their own agony. The world is attracted by ostentatious conflict in wirfch armed hosts meet as it is not attracted by mortal strife in the arena of civil life. How much of the world's work is done by the nameless millions who are kept at their unrelieved drudgery by ever-impending hunger? The labour may be so exhausting that the body is utterly unable to bear up under it, but as long as life lasts the work has to he performed, perhaps under the tyranny of taskmasters whose chief qualification for their office is absence of pity or compassion. Only the day labourer who is one of a gang knows to its full extent, per- haps, how the body is strained and exhausted and speedily worn out. There is still in these days a slavery awful to contemplate even in this Christian country where on one day in seven the theme of thousands of preachers is the love of God towards people who never hear of God and who would not believe in His love if they did hear of Him. To these oppressed workers the world is devil-made and hell-cursed. They themselves are often unmistakably cruel to each other, and they make life far harder than it needs be. The strong tyrannize over the weak and work is made a torture that embitters existence and only ends with life itself. In quarry, factory, mine, and forge the slaughter of the workers without any definite cruelty or oppression is continuous. Every year thousands of workers are slain as certainly as if they were blown from the mouths of cannon. Forced on by rivalry—-com- petition-those who carry on great industries tend to raise the minimum of toil demanded for the means of bare subsistence and the weak are driven mercilessly to the wall. The workers themselves, who form the great bulk of the population, demand cheap com- modities, and are their own slayers in this as in other ways. In all this grinding, wasting labour there is room alike for noble heroism and untold suffering of which the world never hears any more than it hears of the strife that goes on in the world of I "C revealed by the microscope in a drop of turbid water. The labourer who is only counted as a "hand" continues to patiently I go forth from his hovel home long after he knows perfectly well that h i is stricken with fatal disease. He feels that he must work and he goes on working, not only without murmur or complaint, but even without reveal- ing his condition to his friends or to his family until at last he falls dying by the side of his task. He is carried away and another takes his place to be also carried away in his turn. No railway, no road, no mill, no quarry, no pile of manufactured goods, no dwelling place of man, or house ot God, no product that is sold in the market places of the world exist except at appalling cost of human life and by the daily exercise of much unsuspected heroism. In civil life men face fearful odds every day without even suspecting that they are brave and'without the ex- citement of praise or the prospect of reward. The civil battlefield makes I demands not less, but greater, than Z, military battlefields. (To be continued).

SLATE TRADE AND PORTMADOC HARBGUB. THE slate trade of Festiniog- and the shipping trade of Portmadoc, which depends almost entirely on the former, enjoyed a lengthy period of unexampled prosperity following the Franco-Prus- sian war in 1870. After the boom the slate trade continued to be active for a number of years, but in 1905 a depression started in the slate industry throughout North Wales until the latter part of 1909 when trade showed signs of revival. The revival continued during- 1910, but subsequently some- thing happened which affected the in- dustry and caused a renewed depres- sion which has grown more and more severe, with the result that to-day the number of men employed in the North Wales quarries is barely one-third the number employed twenty years ago. It has been stated that in 1911 one-fifth of the entire population of Carnarvon- shire and Merionethshire was entirely dependent on the slate industry, and a further two-fifths were mainly depend- ent, whilst indirectly the whole com- munity was and is intimately affected by the conditions of the trade. It is not easy to trace all the causes that made for the great boom in the slate trade after 1870, but men who have studied the question closely express the view that the Welsh slate trade will experience another great revival at the end of the present war, assuming, of course, that the Allied Armies are victorious. We have not the slightest doubt but that they will be victorious. If Portmadoc is to share the advan- tages of the anticipated revival in the slate trade, as it did in the revival after 1870, it, is abwlutely essential that, Portmadoc Harbour channel should be radically improved. Unless there is radical improvement then it js prac- tically certain that trade which should come through Portmadoc will be diverted to other places, and Port- madoc industrially will have to be chalked up in the list of dying lowns. We are convinced, however, that there will be radical improvements. There are, it is true, difliculties in the way; but we believe that most of these diffi- culties have been already overcome and that the main obstacle will be removed if the Provisional Order which the Portmadoc Harbour Committee is seek- ing and which was discussed at the last meeting of Portmadoc Urban Council, goes through successfully and the Harbour undertaking is transferred from the Tretrsadoe Estate to a harbour trust. We appreciate the difficulties in the way of Tremadoc Estate carrying out the required improvements to the harbour channel, and therefore hope that the Provisional Order will go through, for the difficulties facing ,i harbour trust are nothing" like the dJili- culties facing the owner of Treonadoe JBstate, who is a life tenant. We be- lieve that Mrs. Davidson, the life tenant, and the Estate Agent, Mr. Davxl Breese, have and will give the Harbour Committee every assistance in making the improvement scheme of the Committee a success, and we are equally convinced that Portmadoc Urban Council will also give the Com- mittee every support. The desire of the Council to co-operate was shown conclusively at last week's meeting of the Council. The Council feels that it should have more members on the pro- posed harbour trust, and we have no doubt that the Harbour Committee will make every effort to meet the Council i in the matter of representation and on any other points of detail. Mr. Jonathan Davies, one of the best public public men in North Wales, who has been prominentV identified with the promotion of the Harbour Scheme, informed Portmadoc Council last week that the intention was to lease or purchase the harbour under- taking from the Estate and to com- mence the improvement of the Harbour this winter. The estimated cost of the improvement works is i'7,360 but the Provisional Order provides for a sum of ;CS,ooo, of which the Development Commissioners will give £4,000 as a free grant. Another £ 2,000 will be given by other parties, and Portm idoc Council has consented to become re- sponsible for the repayment of princi- pal and interest on the remaining ^"2,000 and to the insertion of a clause in the Provisional Order empowering the Council to advance a sum not ex- ceeding ^5,000 in the unlikely event of the improvement works costing more than £ ,8,000. Under the scheme the sums advanced by the Council will all • be taken over by the Harbour Trust as a loan charged on the harbour revenues and assets immediately the trust is constituted. The risks which Portmadoc Council has to run are therefore two-fold. In the first place, the Provisional Order may not go through, and unless a guar, antee is given to indemnify the Council —and apparently there is no such guarantee up to the present—the Coun- cil will have to pay principal and in- terest on all sums it advances for the improvement works. If the total amount advanced is ;(.2,000, then the sum which the Council will have to become responsible for in the event of the Provisional Order not going through will be ^104 a year for thirty- years. The second risk occurs if we assume the successful passage of the Provisional Order. In course of time the Harbour Trust may find the harbour assets and revenues inadequate to meet liabilities, including the loans taken over from the Council In that case the responsibility of repayment of principal and interest on such loans will, if we understand the position correctly, revert back to the Council. If the Provisional Order goes through and the harbour revenues and assets are adequate to meet loan and other charges, then the ratepayers will have the pleasure of knowing that ^8,000, more or less, has been spent in the much-needed improvement of the Harbour and that the control of the Harbour undertaking has been trans- ferred to a harbour trust without the ratepayers of Portmadoc being called upon to pay a penny for such improve- ment and transfer. We are assured that the possibility of the improvement works costing more than ;CS,ooo is very remote. It is intended, as we have said, to start the improvement works immediately, and a large, if not the greater portion, of the ^8,000 will have been spent before the Provisional Order goes through, for it is not expected, judging from past experience of Parliament, that it will go through before next May or June. Whilst realising that most of the ;CS,ooo will be spent on labour in the town, .ive feel that the Harbour Committee and the Council should hit upon a plan which will ensure that the ratepayers arc not called on to pay all, if any, of the £1,?4 a year for thirty years which they wIll become liable for in the event of the failure of the Provisional Order to go through Parliament. Then, again, if the Order does go through, there is the remote possibility of the requisite im- provements not being carried out for ^8,000. We know that the Harbour Committee has secured the services of an engineer of great repute in the work of solving harbour problems and we have every confidence in the Com- mittee's expert, but unforeseen obstacles may arise, as they have arisen in connection with harbour works else- where, and we think the Council should secure independent expert opinion on the contemplated improvement scheme. If the Council does not see its wav now to seek independent expert opinion on the improvement works it should cer- tainly do so if the unexpected happens and the works cost over ^78,000 and the Council is called on to advance more money. The Harbour Committee has done- great work already, and we hope and believe that the members of the Com- mittee can continue to count on the co-operation of the Tremadoc Estate, the Portmadoc Council, and the rate- payers, and that the harbour scheme will be carried to a successful con- clusion.

t = EDITORIAL NOTES. The abstract of accounts cf Pwllheli Corporation shows a satisfactory feature in an excess of income over expenditure, which was applied to the reduction of the heavy bank overdrafts on revenue account. It is wise policy on the part of public authorities not only to reduce over- draft but to wipe them off altogether. The financial position of certain intermediate schools in Wales is serious, and will become unbearable unless larger grants are received from imperial funds. With the war expendi- ture to be provided for, the outlook for increased grants is not promising. It is feared that the schools will have to re- trench their resources to extremities. What will the Central Welsh Board be able to do? An important letter has been received from the Development Commissioners in regard to, the scheme for the improvement gf Portmadoc Harbour. The sum in- tended to be applied to the improvement scheme is CL),Cool, half of which will be a freo grant by the Commissioners. The Council have wisely agreed to undertake the financial proposals which they were asked to do. Mr. Jonathan Davies is one of the moving spirits in promoting: the scheme. It is hoped to proceed with the improvement- works this winter1 and so find work for the unemployed. Wonders never cease. The Local Gov- ernment Board has actually held an in- quiry into an improvement scheme and given its formal sanction to the scheme within a fortnight of application being made, for inquiry. It was Pwllheli with its Parade extension scheme that per- suaded the Board to temporarily extricate itself from its red tn.pe entanglements. The Town Clerk said at Pwllheli Town Council meeting that such expedition must be unique in the history of the Local Government Board. We quite 'believe it, hut then,, every town has uot Mr. Evau R. Davies for its town clerk. l