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Editorial Notes

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Editorial Notes -+-+- The Abstract of Accounts for the Rhondda Urban District Council for the two years 1904-1905 has just come to hand. It requires pretty close study, and only an accountant can with any show of dignity and influence criticise it. To the amateur it is a very wide and intricate field of investigation. It must be remembered that the name Rhondda Urban District has become settled. For a long time, the name Ystradyfodwg clung to this area, but the ecclesiastical name had to give way to the geographical, aid in every way, the more pronounceable name—Rhondda. Well, that is a good thing. In all con- science it is too b.g for a. mere Urban District. It has all the fundamental claims that make fl' a plenary powered Corporation entity. We have not the figures at hand, bit we can safely say that there are no Urban Districts larger than the Rhondda n the British lsles. -+- It is about time that the Rhondda should get a Char.er of Incorporation. There will be no difficulty, and then it will have powers wiich would release its big area from the restrictions and annoy- ances of a County Council which is notoriously worked on the most bureau- cratic methods. The friction between the Rhondda and the County is interminable, and a great deal of it is due to the official element of the County. If the Glamorgan County Council hac shed all its auto- nomous areas and further sub-divided the remainder into two parts, there might be a chance for the lepresentative element to get near its OVn legitimate work. Indeed, many of ths County Councillors of Glamorgan can lament as Canon Jephson lamented when he left, the London Education Committee. The fol- lowing lines of the Canon are apropos of the funereal impotence of a Glamorgan County Co-uncilloi- The sons of Zermah are too hard for me," Thus David muttered in his misery. He thought that he was King, but" every,, day Joab and Abishai had their way. So every man upon the Council finds He must submit to. hard official minds. The clerks make members one 'and all obey, The Council's ruled by those who get the pay. Then, like poor David, I am fain to flee; The sons of Zeriiiah are too hard for me." -+. -+- Very true, indeed! Is that not the case with many 1 Glamorgan County Councillor? The Committees are run by a very few, and the motive energy is the official. This is, always inevitable where area and distance make an accessible centre impossible. It would, therefore, be an administrative relief to Glamorgan for the Rhondda to go on its own, and certainly it will be better for the Rhondda ,0 manage its own concern with all the Home Rule it can. The remedy, there- fore, is Incorporation powers., and let us hope it will sooa) be here. We have the men and we havc the means, too. What is wanted is more enterprise and a fuller public spirit. Surely, a population of 124,988 should command the most generous form of locd government allowed by a British Parliament. -+- The Abstract is full of interesting details, and we shall find in it a store of information to be retailed from time to time. The fulness of the various state- ments particularising all the departments shows that the accountant (Mr. Hopkins) has a most onerous department to super- vise. The Government audit, of such an undertaking as the Mance of the District Council reflects a searching ordeal and vigilant regard for he people's finances. The official fidelity is guaranteed even down to the sextoiis for sums varying trom £ 200 to £ 50, The auditor finds it necessary to suggest extension of the guarantees to the bead-teachers, of the schools who are the responsible recipients of large sums monthly. It is creditable to the profession that, notwithstanding the large number monthly entrusted with large sums, that no eflse of breach of faith has happened in the history of the dis- hict. Indeed, this inay be said through- out the country. Tliere is only one case of surcharge, which ifas, on appeal to the Local Government Board, not sustained. This, again, speaks well that our Coun- cillors are not prone to jaunting need- lessly at the expense of the people's purse. -+- The Daily Telegraph says: We trust we shall hear no more rub- bish about the Mandate which Mr. Balfour was supposed to have lacked in 1902, and with which Sir Henry Camp- bell-Bannerman is alleged to be endowed in 1906. Mr. Herbert Pa,ul is a, qualified authority on matters of Constitutional history, and no one disputes his Redi- calism. He has told us that the man- date theory is unconstitutional, and that it is nonsense. Even if the reverse were true, we assert that the Prime. Minister has no more a mandate to introduce the Bill of 1906 than Mr. Balfour had to bring in the measure of 1 1902. He has 018n less, for the strengthening of the financial position J of Voluntary schools had been the pro- minent item" in the Conservative < programme during two out of the three last elections. Thin is a frank enough admission that in the third of these three elections the 1 strengthening of the financial position of «• Voluntary schools" was not. a prominent J item in the Unionist programme. And this admission exactly fits ill with f the case we have always made as to what is called the "mandate." We assert that in 1900 the Unionist leaders deliberately appealed for the support of lion-Unionists by assuring them that they could vote 1 Unionist without prejudice to their j opinion-5 on domestic1 issues- Very likely 1 this was not Constitutional, but that is beside the point. A promise was made which could have been kept and ought to have been kept, but which was not kept. The Education Act of 1902 was a flagrant breach of faith with the electors, in view of the pledges of 1900. On the other hand, we assert that when in January, 1906, the electors gave the Liberal Government a large majority they knew that one of the first measures of that Government would be to introduce an Education Bill to give popular control and abolish tests for teachers. Mr. John Burns' speech last week, at the Westminster Conference on Infant Mortality, is really sober reading, and should command the most serious atten- tion of the public authorities of the coun- try. The grisly fact of infants dying before their time was an appeal to action that no public representative should view with unconcern. It is very largely pre- ventible, and, sad to think, that as the nation prospers, infantile mortality in- creases inversely. It is a terrible reproach to a nation that 120,000: children under twelve months of age die year by year in England and Wales, and that a large number of these are preventible. They are sacrificed not to man's inhumanity, but to neglect, carelessness, foolishness, and ignorance. The motherhood of the old days is departing. Breast-fed children are fewer, and canned milk and milk supply not always uniform in quality is the lot of the infant of the present day. Mr. Burns was not a whit too strong when reprobating the alcoholic, parents — "Bad though liquor was for the child, and penalising to the father, alcohol in the mother, and especially in the expec- tant mother, was one of the most serious tragedies with which society is confronted. It produced not only sterility, abortion, and premature birth, but, what was worse, debility in the children who survived. Children of alcoholic parents were handi- capped in the race of life simply because of the transient folly and temporary satis- faction of one of the most stupid and physically demoralising anoetites with which we as a nation were cursed in nearly all classes of society. It was not an accident that overlaying of infants was twice as high on Saturday nights as any other night of the week, Monday coming next, and Sunday being third. The nation is just now in the throes whether dogma or no donut should be taught. The science of motherhood is obviously more urgent. Our Local Authorities have a wide educational field here, and prac- tical teaching in home matters ought more largely to be taught in the final stages of the elementary period of school life.

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