Welsh Newspapers

Search 15 million Welsh newspaper articles

Llangollen Advertiser Denbighshire Merionethshire and North Wales Journal

The copyright status or ownership of this resource is unknown.
Hide Articles List

9 articles on this Page

Notes of the Week. I

News
Cite
Share

Notes of the Week. I Reconstruction in the Church. Few will question the 1 statement that'the Church I is to-day as ripe for re- construction as the World. j But "reconstruction" is ,t I Jblessed word, which may mean anything ¡ or next to nothing, and the important thing j is to be clear as to what it is to involve j and how far Churchmen are prepared to I take their courage in both hands in bring- ing it about. There are those, for whom the report of the Grand Committee (pre- sented to the Representative Church Coun- I cil last week) speak, who appear to believe it can be accorn"! d by what has come to be popularly ,i d the Enabling Bill/' I —to facilitate legislative measures in Par- liament for Church reform but their num- ber does not include some very influential Churchmen, who, without being advocates of disestablishment, regard that proposed panacea for the Church's'greater liberty as not only incapable of achieving its advo cates' rather timid aims, but actually mis- chievous. Without stopping now to dis- cuss whether such a measure would or would not prove the "first act in the tragedy of disestablishment, to quote Bishop Ryle, we think the Bishop of Hereford was on firm ground in suggesting that the very claim for self-government implied an adverse judgment on the national sys- tem, for self-government in a National Church was government by the national I authority. Self-government in a denomin- ation was government by its own members; and though he, too, talks of the dangers of disestablishment," he clearly realises the very present peril to a spiritual com- munity which is involved in a scheme that would make Church reform a matter for extracting election pledges from Parlia- mentary candidates and for the "lobbying" of Members. His alternative is a Royal Commission to prepare the way for legis- lation, leaving Parliament to follow its own precedent in seeking to remedy the defects of the Establishment. But this is still to I keep the Church virtually under the heel of the State. Even the question of the eccles- iastical franchise seems to have been dis- cussed, last week, with one, eye on the House of Commons, though if that helped to the broadening of the basis of the elect- orate it was no disadvantage ill itself. The whole scheme of Church reform, however, depends on Parliamentary sanction, which must be an irksome reflection to many spiritually minded men and we are con- vinced that no real and satisfactory measure of autonomy, in matters where autonomy would revive and stimulate popular interest in ecclesiastical government, can be ach ieved. Until those who crave for liberty I are prepared to regard disestablishment neither as a "danger" nor a "tragedy," I but as an unqualified blessing to the I spiritual life of the Church. The Disappearing Salmon. Those who fish the Severn, the Vyrnwy and the Dee, and hardly less directly those of us who appreciate the fruits of their labours when they appear on the dinner table, will nnd melancholy interes in the gloomy out- look for salmon fishing in our inland waters ipourtrayed at a conference of represent- atives of the fishery boards at Manchester • last week. It is, we believe, the first meet- ing at which representatives of the fishery boards of England and Wales have met to ldi15CUSS the problems common to them aU. and the principal problem at the present time seems to be how to preserve any salmon to catch. Certainly salmon fishing in our Welsh border rivers is not what it once was. How far an improvement of affairs is within range of the fishery boards to bring about we do not know, but Mr. J. I A. Hutton, who speaks with authority on the subject, does not seem to think much of future prospects under the existing system. There appears to be considerable force in his suggestion that our inland waters must be treated as a national asset and so man- aged to produce the greatest possible amount of food, and to effect this he pro- poses a systematic regulation of over-fish- ing, whether by nets or rods, the drastic putting down of poaching of spawning fish, the removal of obstructions preventing fish reaching the spawning beds, and the curtail- ment of pollution as far as possible, having regard to the value of the industries in- volved. It is quite clear that unless some such general policy is adopted we are in danger of a very serious depletion of what might be made a valuable source of whole- some and attractive food supply, and we do not see how that is to be averted with- out some measure of State action. If the Government finds it desirable to control railways and roads and canals, why not rivers also, including, of course, fisheries ? < At present the care of fisheries is tacked on, almost as a titular afterthought, to the Board of Agriculture. Perhaps a separate i Board of Fisheries, with its own Minister, as was suggested at Manchester, is too much to expect even in these days of rapid departmental multipLication? but cer- tainly the welfare of our fresh water fisheries is not a matter we can afford to continue to neglect, and present conditions qrgently call for drastic action. Cannot our local county councils and other public authorities bring pressure to bear on Whitehall and Westminster? •- Butter, Milk and Cheese. Whatever advantage Den- bighshire may gain by the scheme for popHiarisinq ? cheese'making on scientific i I principles an the county, we are atraid tfte Agricultural Organiser takes a very optim- istic -view.when he says it will not seriously affect the milk supply. Mr. W. G. Dodd, ?f Nlr. W. (. D(.)t i i l who can speak with some authority on food supply problems now, foreshadows a far less cheery outlook, and, even if milks not affected, butter is certain to be. Butter, indeed, is bad enough now, what with the, high prices commanded for milk and the ";Is,! with which it is collected, and if cheese is to enter still further into competition with the dairy we are afraid it is only too pirbable, as Mr. Dodd says, that we shall all have to be cheese-eaters and regard butter as an Unknown quantity in "future." At any rate, if we must do with- out butter, we ought to be able to get chee-f without difficulty. But can this be saigL to be ■ the case even in all agricultural areas ? A Ruabon 11 Discovery." It is now (i?coverp d ts.? It is now discovered, stated at the Denbighshire Education Committee on Thursday, that Ruabon county school for boys could be converted in tn a dual school without an amendment of the present intermediate education scheme, and a girls' school can be estab- lished in temporary buildings at once. And this, after years of raising of all sorts of objections and the encountering of "blocking" motions! There "does not appear," in fact, "why an application "should not be made for the recognition "of the Higher Elementary School in the "same way. Both could be incorporated in the county intermediate scheme as "soon as it was ready." Then, for heaven's sake, let there be no more un- necessary delay in getting it ready! Ruaboh has waited far too long for adequate educational facilities, and an apology seems I due to the district from Mr. Dilly and Mr. Dally, who have hung up the project all this time without, as it how appears, the I slightest excuse.

Local Will. !

! North Shropshire Hounds.

[No title]

Advertising

: I ILlanfyllin Town Council.…

--i BASCHURCH. II

[No title]

PERSONAL.