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I Penoyre Hospital.

3n Metnariam.0I

THE REGISTER.

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THE REGISTER. Considering the limited time at their disposal we think the Breconsiiire County Council (upon whom the powers are conferred) acted very wisely in laaking the re-arruBgements cf polling- districts end places in the newly formed Brecon and Rad- nor Parliamentary constituency. With others we should have liked it better had more time been given for so important a work, and.that a. com- mittee of a. representative character could have gone into the matter thoroughly and brought up a. report which would have given the Council a lead, and upon which they could have acted with confidence. As it was, the Bepresentation of the People Act was not passed until the 6th of Feb- ruary, and since it was enacted that the Council having power to divide the constituency into poll- ing districts and polling places, should do so "not later than one month after the passing of di £ Act," and as a complete copy of the Act was not obtainable until a week or two before that date, it is clear that the business had of necessity to be more or less hurried through. Under the cir- cumstances it was a happy suggestion by the Bre- conshire Council, that the old Parliamen.tary Schedule should be discarded and the more re- cently arranged one for County Council purposes put in its place. Brceonshire members immed- iately took the opportunity of recasting the defined boundaries of these as far as possible to meet the requirements of t-he new electorate. After a tiring all-day sitting the Council, in this direction, did some really useful work. Unfortunately, the circumstances did not permit Radnorshire having the same opportunity, but that this will come is ensured by a clause in the Act which provides that a local authority, or 30 electors, can make applica- diort to the Local Government Board to rectify uny existing arrangeaients attaching to the poKing facilities which now stand on the County Council electoral basis. Willi the addition of many thous- and names to the: Register, and for the first time the -appearance of women voters in the lists, it was obvious that the old unfair conditions could no j longer be allowed to exist. With a greatly larger electorate must also come greatly increased facilit- ies for recording the vote, and so far as the Brecon and Bad nor constituency is concerned, we believe the spirit, as well as the letter, of the Act, will he carried out "in such manner as to g-c to all electors such reasonable facilities for voting a-s are practicable in the circumstances." As we have said already, good work has been done in this respect, so far as Breconshire is concerned, last week. Some of the conditions prevailing in the.re-as of Cwmtaff, Penderyn. and Xantddu. for in t,a,i)ce, even under The County Council register, were positively absurd, and, as one County Councillor pointed out, approached the ludicrous. To ask a voter to walk 16 miles (to. and fro) to record liis vote was tantamount to disfran- chising him. The County Councillors for those and other divisions did a real service to the public in their strong and successful advocacy in favour of the needful alterations. The making of the new Begister is a huge task. We note tha-t by Order in Council, the first registe.r is to come into force on October 1st next, and the registration dates, etc.. will be as follows :—End of qualifying period. April 15th: publication of lists, June 15:h last day for objections to electors' list, June. 29th last day for claims, July 5th. To keep this time table will entail some strenuous work on the part of those responsible for the 'production of the Begister.

|Mr. Sidney Robinson, M P.

I Brecon Town Council.

I I Builth Wells Townsman.

j BRECONSHIRE RECTOR. I——————

IBrecon and Radnor Farmers.

IHEREFORD MARKET.