The Cambrian News and Merionethshire Standard

[ TIDE TABLE (ABERYSTWYTH) FOR JUNE. Date Time ft. in. Date. Time. ft. in. 1.- 12 22p.m 14 2 16.- 12 34a.m 14 0 2.— 12 53a.m 15 1 17.- 1 29 13 2 3.- 2 2 14 10 18.- 2 28 12 7 1 i? J5 in •" 19 3 28 12 8 10 ••• 20,~ 4 30 12 11 n'~ £ J? 67 "• 21~ 5 26 13 8 7.— 6 11 17 5 22.- 6 14 14 8 N8.- 7 3 17 11 23.- 6 58 15 4 9.- 7 51 H8 3 24.- 740 16 1 10- 8 39 *18 3 25.- 8 21 17 2 11.— 9 23 17 8 26.- 9 5 -177 12.- 10 5 16 9 27.- 944 *17 7 13.— 10 44 15 8 28.— 10 27 16 10 14- 11 26 14 5 2S.~ 11 13 16 3 15.-12 10p-.ml3 5 30- 12 2p.m 15 6 N New Moon. "Highest rises of Spring Tide. N.B.—The above times refer to local winter times, and one hour must be added during operatjon of summer tune. Wallace E. Whitehouse, M.Sc.

.4. WELSH EDUCATIONAL AFFAIRS. The annual report of the Board of Education for 1916-17 ouiitains some very striking facts relative to Wales, and as it may be ordered through ai.v stationer for sixpence it comes within the reach of all who are interested in a subject of great importance. On the course of education throughout the kingdom it is interesting to note that school gardens have become exceed- inglv popular, that the war savings, movement owes much to the teachers, and that there is a gradually-extending use of the schools as play centres. On the other side there has been a decline of twenty-eight per cent. in the number of children medically examined, but the work of treatment has been well maintained. A very gratifying fact is the decline in the number of children being fed under the Provision, of Meals Act. The figures were 1915, 422,401 children fed; 1916, 117,901; and 1917, 64.613. At the* present time fewer children are being fed than when the Act came into operation, and this proves conclusively that when the people have higher wages-even though the prosperity is artificial-the children are better cared for. The report on the elementary schools of Wales states that the drain on the services of the men has led to the employment of supplementary and un- qualified teachers. Extraneous war activities have also called heavily on the staffs and breakdowns have been frequent. A serious paragraph is that dealing ,with attendance, the report stating "Irregularity and unpunctuality are noticeable, as well as a weak- ening of discipline owing to the absence of parental control. In the mining districts the depletion of male staffs has caused difficulties in the maintenance of discipline, and children have tended to leave school at the earliest possible date." It is added that from the co-operative and citizenship standpoint the war has brought some valuable lessons. Equip.. ment has suffered severely and accom- modation, too, has been unsatisfactory in many instances. Special attention is devoted to the Abergavenny scheme of potato growing on the field prin- ciple whereby the children raised 210 tons and also to the Cardiganshire War Savings record, tribute being paid to "one of the Board's inspectors, and the Secretary of the County Education Authority." There is a call for good teachers of Welsh, the supply not being equal to the demand but great improvement has been shown in the quality of the teachers of Welsfi leav- ing training colleges. Only two new Council Schools were opened in the Principality, but five Council and two voluntary schools were closed. Com- paring 1917 with 1903 Council Schools have increased from 926 to 1,246, but voluntary schools have declined from 800 to 637, there being an increase in the total number of schools from 1,726 to 1,883, and an increase in the accom- modation from 462,296 to 550,958. Higher elementary schools are 14 in number, and each year shows a steady increase in the number of scholars being 3,421 for 1917, against 3,203 in 1916. The general age of these scholars is between thirteen and four- teen. When all the schools are grouped there is a rather startling decline in the number of scholars on the books. The highest point was reached in 1915 when the number was 471,721, but in 1916 that figure fell to 469,789, and there was a further decline of 6,885 in 1917, bringing the total down to 462,885. Instruction in special subjects held its ground and no authority which gave instruction in a special subject in 1915-16 dropped it in 1916-17 but there is still room for progress. Gardening was taken up by one centre, i;d 103 schools which previously had not dealt with it and five more urban authorities began work on. this subject. In the past three years there has been on the whole an increase in the number of centres and schools giving special instruction, but in cookery, laundry work, etc., the advance has been somewhat erratic. Secondary schools have in 118 schools 20.099 pupils, as. compared with 19,203 in the previous year, and it is stated that the increase was almost entirely confined to pupils under six- teen, the numbers over that .age tend- ing to be stationary or to fall off. The war conditions are blamed for this and it is proved by the fact that in October, 1914, there were 185 pupils over eighteen, in 1917 the number was only seventy-six, of whom only seven were boys. A valuable chapter deals with continuation and technical schools, and sets out the rapid progress of the in- dustrial areas. Worthy of the most careful study-, the Report has been very well written without a superfluous word and with- out unnecessary comment. The facts speak for themselves and there is warm reference to the sympathetic and help- ful manner in which educational prob- lems are dealt with in the Report of the Commission into Industrial Unrest which the Board of Education hope will receive "the most careful consideration of all concerned with the administration of higher education in Wales." _4_

EDITORIAL NOTES. Twenty Carnarvonshire farmers have been summoned for refusal to plough the quota of land assigned to them. We have yet to hear of definite steps being taken against farmers in Aberystwyth Union. Up to the present the Agricultural Committee has contented itself with uttering threats. ♦ • • It appears that coal will be a scarce com- modity during the next winter in consequence of the calling up of an additional 75,000 skilled men for the army, entailing a reduction in output of twenty million tons a year. A coal rationing scheme is now being elaborated by the authorities. If this succeeds, as wen as the other rationing schemes which have now become part and parcel of our daily lives, no one will have serious cause to grumble; but in any event the period when the owner of a banking account will be able to obtain a truckload or two of coal, while his more in- digent neighbour is unable to secure sufficient coal for one fireplace is nearing a close, and rightly so. The Rev. H. Barrow Williams, Llandudno, in the course of a discussion on the exclusion of the Bible from the schools at Rhvl, said "The churches, in their fear of something which might have happened, had gone further than they intended in the direction of excluding re- ligion from the elementary schools. He was not prepared to trust the future of the country which they all loved to generations of txys and girls who were ignorant of the Book of God." The Secretary reported that at a conference at the House of Lords, some weeks ago, of ten representatives of the Church and ;n repre- sentatives of Nonconformist churches, to dis- cuss the question of religious instruction in the schools, a sub-committee was appointed -to go into the matter and prepare a syllabus, which it was hoped would be acceptable to both parties. This is satisfactory as far as it goes as it indicates a change of attitude on the part of Church militants. If sectarianism had been excluded, Bible instruction satisfactory to reasonable men amopgst Conformist and Non- conformists would have been brought into opera- tion many years ago.