Penarth Chronicle and District Advertiser

Notes and Comments. BIBLE—VICE—BEER. THE Penarth School Board Election, 1895, is now a matter of history, and the Election of Chairman and Vice-Chairman has also been recoided. Some hard things hare been said about those who provoked the contest, some alleging it was the result of the aetion of one party and others putting the credit at the doors of a totaUy different party, but, although some Unie- nominationalists, being dissatisfied with the views of Mr Carslake Thompson) resolved, two or three weeks before the election, to oppose his return, yet other gentlemen, prior to this move, were in the field, and were canvassing among their patients, and others for support, so that to put the blame on the shoulders of any part of the Undenominationalists of the town is a mistake, for without such action as they took, the probability is that a contest would have been forced, and everything points to the suggestion that it was a carefully planned scheme on the part of the Church party and Conservatives to obtain, by strategy,, a majority on the Board, thereby gaining that povwr, which it was well kno vn was coveted, of being uble to secure from their own men, a Chairman and Vice- Chairman, thus practically becoming masters of the Board, under all and every condition. They played their cards well, whilst the Liberal and Nonconfor- mist Electors of the town, failed to realise their ] danger, and were not sufficiently organised or united to assert their power. Caught nappmg' they have suffered defeat, and now in things educational as well as political, we are under Tory rule- At the first meeting of the new Board, held last week, the posi- tion of Dr Aitken was revealed. Prior to the election he led the Ratepayers to believe he was an Unde- nominationalisti but elected, lie is seen in his true colouis, At last Thursday's meeting he was hand in glove with the Church party, and in every matter gave them his support. What is the position to-day ? In plain words the Board is ruled by the Bible and the beer-barrel, with Vice" between them, and even the Bible representative, according to ru-nour, is tainted, for it is whispered that he has shares in breweries, and is consequently interested in the liqpor traffic. Mr Lloyd is a true representative of the beer-barrel—a brewer's agent. Truly things have come to a pitiable pass! What can be expected of the future of our town or of our children ? Mr Jenkra Llewellyn who has occupied a seat at the Board. fot the past eighteen years, was folly entitled to the Chairmanship. His length of service, the interest he ban always taken in the school*, big position as Vice- A