The Aberdare Leader

ENGLISH BAPTIST FELLOW- J SHIP. { ADDRESS BY MR. CHILD. I The meeting of the English Bap-| t'st Fellowship at the Higher Standard School, Aberdare, on bun- 'lay evening was conducted by Mr. If.' L. Child, who delivered a bnel, pithy address to the children. After- wards he sopko from the words in 1 Cor. 9, 24, Know yo not that they which run in a race run ail, J'.ut one receiveth the price, I ouching upon the question or re- ''g'ious intolerance, Mr. Child sa.ul that we were not bound to acce-pl unv new svstem of thought, but on the other hand we should not sm j gainst the light by refusing to re~ ('0'„'nise any theory because it was j Tiew. If we believed in the unity of truth, we would acknowledge that God spoko to us through *^ncies, and that revelation. not confined to a single medium- Mr. Child went on to speak on the place of earnestness in life. It was essential to success in seculai a. well as in religious lite. Lives Sreat men taught us that they nejer undertook anything in a half-heatt- <"d fashion. Whatever their hands tourul to do they did it with their 'tiight,. They believed firmly m a set purpose and were read to mate sacrifices in order to attain it. ligion was the art of noble living, and before we could be a success in religious sense, we must have De~ lief in this nobility. Another essen- tial of a successful religious lite wa t'onseeration. The greatest thing we "()"Id do was to give ourselves whole- heartedly to the one purpose of life. If we earnestly believed in the eall of God we should win the prize re- newed to in the text. 'I he church which assembles at tin- Higher Standard School, although but of recent formation, has aLroaair good membership, and the mem- hers display a zeal and activity which larger congregations woul<l ao well to emulate.

THE LATE MR. W. THOMAS, J.P. The funeral of the late Mr. Wit- liiiia Thomas, J.P., M.E., of OakhiU. Aberdare, took place on Thursday -U. the Aberdare Cemetery, and was 111-ictly private. The omciating clergymen were Dr. Green, M.A., Archdeacon of Monmouth, and the Hev. Joseph Morgan, B.A. (Vicar I)t Al>eraman). The chief mourners were Eev. W. Thomas, Mr. Ernest Thomas, Mr Harry Thomas, and Mr Gertie Thomas (sons), Mr. S. T. Jol- iffe (brother-in-law), Mr. 'W K. ■1"horuas, and Mr. E. G. Williams 'nephews), Mr. Walter Parrieh md Mr. Southwood Parrish, together with Colonel W. D. Phillips, Dr. Martin Jonas, Mr. David Jones, Mr. William Jones, Mr. Walter *nd Mr. Charles Kenshole (Hj»b Constable).

ST DAVID'S DAY AT LLWYD- COED. At the Llwydooed Council School (Mixed Department) the. staff gave lessons on St. David and other national characters, together with chats on local men, ,ueli as Alaw Goch, etc., while the children re- cited Welsh poems and sang Welsh airs. A Welsh drama by Mr. John Davies was t>erforrued by Standards III. and IV. girls, and the various classes recited Welsh poems. Netta Evans recited uYr Iaith Gvmraeg," and Standards I. and II. "Hwian- gerddi." Mr. D. R. Da vies sang topical 'penillion" of his own com- position, while Mr. T. Davies ae- companied. Certificates were award- ed to 26 children, who had not missed onoo during last year, and th ree medals -»to children who had made perfect attendances for three years, by Councillor J. Griffiths on behalf of the Education Committee. He complimented the children and staff on such excellent results. The beadteacher, Mr. W. W. Price, im- pressed the children with the fact that something more than wearing the leek or the tall hat was necessary to keep the old language alive, viz., til" use of their mother tongue on the street and in their play, as well a.s the English language. The bigger children were highly pleased with dances by some of the Infants' children through the kindness of Miss. Charles.

I T* "ii Si THE MARQUIS OF BUTE. DECIDES TO SELIL HIS | ABERDARE ESTATE. Confirmation is now forthcoming of the long-standing rumour of the intention of the Marquis of Bute to sell the whole of his Aberdare es- tate, the disposal of which has been placed in the hands of Messrs. Stephenson and Alexander, of Car- diff. As is well known to those who are acquainted with the holdings of the Marqhess in the town, thfc sale will include the greater part of the business centre, and of the more im- portant streets. It will also com- prise some of the public buildings and the recreation ground, as well as a large araa. of accommodation land, farms, and other buildings ly- ing in and near the town, several important private residences, and a large number of iotel and other lic- ensed premises in the district. The sale will take place at Aberdare sense time during the coming sum- mer.

My missio* i. life," said the sat- irist, "is to put the dunce cap on the heade. of otkw people." ff Be ,areful," said his friend, "that you don't catch cold."

PENRHIWCEIBER NOTES. BY NOTEX. Dr. B. J. Phillips-Jones' popular- ity in Penrhiwceiber is manifested in his unopposed return as County Councillor for the place. "Dr. Ben," as he is affectionately called by the inhabitants, is noted for his readiness to assist any deserving cause. The Blighty Boys' Presentation Fund has, I believe, created a record for the valley for the number of pre- sentations it has made. The figure reached 670 on Monday, February 24th. The Secretary and the Com mittee have worked like Trojans, for the work has been very difficult. To get artistes for the concerts, gifts for the "boys," and last but not least money to keep things going, must have been a very large order. The work of the members cC the various churches must not be for- gotten. The heroes have been nre- sented with various gifts, and some of tho churches, if not all of them, have sent out parcels at Christmas- time. With regard to the latter work the ladies deserve praise for their hard work in packing and pre- paring. The ladie-s of Penrhiwceiber have demonstrated theff patriotism in the work done by the local Sewing Guild. Much time has been given by them to knit comforts for the soldiers and sailors. The arrangement by which the tenants pay a part of the rates has been much criticised locally. While I have no desire to criticise the ar- rangement, I think that one conten- tion of the tenants should have par- ticular notice, viz., that the land- lords should repair the houses. During the last parliamentary election one of the candidates was asked whether he was prepared to assist the movement to get a tram- way system for this area. That question should be borne in mind by the electors during the coming lpcal contest. The trams would certainly be useful, and if other Councils make a profit out of them the local Council could also. The Rev. David Griffiths, the blind chaplain of the National In- stitute of the Blind, created a very favourable impression on the large audience that listened to him ¡',A Bethesda. Such js his invincible op- timism that he does not seem to re- gard blindness' as an affliction. The influenza epidemio has again swept over Penrhiwceiber. The loeal day schools are closed, and children under 14 aro not permitted to visit places of amusement. Some people argue that the schools should, not' be closed as the children play to- gether during the holiday in the streets. I should think that the children are much less likely to be attacked by the 'flu in the vopen air than in the stuffy atmosphere of the schoolroom.

SWEATING THE MINISTERS. Sir,—I shall be thankful if you will allow nw, through the medium of the "Leader," to draw attention to a serious neglect of duty which is common to the very large majority of our churches. Glancing over the annual reports of some of our local chapels one cannot but feel that our ministers while beloved and respected by their church mem- bers, are nevertheless labouring under the infliction of a great injus- tice. Figures taken from two reports before me will be sufficient to show the truth of this statement. No 1 Church has less than half the iiiciii- bership of No. 2 Church. No. 1 Church contributed an average of twenty-one shillings and seven pence per member per annum towards the ministry. No. 2 Church contributed an average of eight shillings and four pence per member per annum towards the ministry. In the first case husband and wife are separate items, while in the second husband and wife are treated as one, which means that if husband and wife are treated as one in the first instance, for accurate comparison, the aver- age per member is 22/9 as compared with S/4 where the membership is more than double. And this at a time when the great majority of the members are rightly demanding a living wage that will allow them to live in comfort, a demand based on the unassailable truth that the ser- vant is worthy of his hire. What is our profession of Christianity worth, while we go on accepting the ser- vices of those who minister to us in the name of Him whom we profess to follow, and neglect to do our duty in this vital respect? I sin- cere!y believe that a moment's hon- est consideration on the part of every church member would mean the wiping out of this ugly stain in our religious life.—Yours, etc., GAlUS.

THE INDUSTRIAL UNREST. Sir,—The present industrial un- rest is the chief topic of to-day, but whereas the effects are known to most people few take the trouble to go into the causes, which are all the outcome of the present state of society. Among the causes are the high cost of living, bad housing, indirect taxation, unfair criticism of the workers by the press, biassed reports of labour meetings, suppres- sion of free speech, distrust of labour leaders and of the Govern- ment. The workers have discovered that no matter how hard they work: they are still paupers without any guarantee of security for the future Now let us look at the recent strike of railwaymen. These men are not Anarchists or Bolsheviks, but good hard-working honest citizens, who fear they were being had over the eight hour day agreement. They were simply being put off by being told that the matter was having at- tention, or would be relegated to ar- bitration with an "independent chair- man who always belongs to the employing class. Take again the strike at Glasgow, where the men found that the strike was the only way of getting their grievances remedied. These men wanted their hours reduced to 40 because there were 30,000 unemployed on the Glas- gow Labour Exchange. The men thought that many of these might get employment by reducing the hours. But how many of the papers quoted this fact? Mr. Bonar Law has stated that the pre-war wages of railwaymen were the lowest in the country, but since Mr. Bonar Law and his capital- ist friends had the power to filter these scandalously low wages why did they not do so? And now the 'Coalition Government comes along and says they are going to uplift the people by a new social order. But the workers have no faith in them. because even at the present time they are handing over the National Factories, Ships, etc., instead of re- taining them to find work for dis- charged soldiers. That is why men like Sir Leo Chiozza Money, Jaseph King, Outhwaite, Trevelyan, Roden Buxton and others are leaving the Liberal ranks and throwing in their lot with the Labour and Socialist movement. What is needed to allay this unrest? (1) Let the ministers of religion speak out the truth on social ques- tions and not be tongue-tied for tear of offending big seat holders. (2) Let the press allow freedom of opinion for all classes concerning both political and industrial ques- tions so that the masses may read both sides. (3) Let the music halls enact more plays of the class of "Ignorance" in order to educate the people concern- ing evils that surround them. Also let the halls be used for political meetings and allow the same faiy I play to all speakers of all shades of thought. I (4) Let the people study the ethics of Social Reform or Socialism, and not allow their minds to run forever in the old narrow grooves, because it is the people who will not under- stand the workers that are causing this unrest. I would especially ap- peal to tradesmen, who by now must see that even they are being driven out of existence by. the great multi- ple firms and monopolies. I If the present Parliament were dissolved and a Labour Government put in its place, we might expect in- dustrial peace.—I am, etc., A TRADESMAN'S SON.

j WOMEN'S CO-OP. CUILD. j On Tuesday evening, March 4th, | the Cwmbach-Aberaman W .C.G. j had the privilege of visiting the I P.D. Rescue Station. The Superin- I tendent, Mr Hy. Morris, gave an instructive explanation of the ap- paratus used for rescue work. Keen interest was shown in the "Lung Motor," which was stated to have done such good work in America in ¡ another branch of life saving—in- taut lIfe. Particularly interesting also was the model mine used in in- structing the students in this. most humane work. The president, Mrs Willie Davies, expressed heartiest thanks to Mr. Morris, also to \HS. Morris and Mrs S. A. Evans for their thoughtful kindness in provid- ing refreshments. The secretary, Mrs. Matt Lewis, Mrs. M. Hopkins, Mrs. David Davies and Miss Bowen heartily supported. Much regret was expressed at the absence of a faithful member, Mrs. Hayter, who is seriously ill. Mr. Morris had ad- dressed the Guild on Tuesday, Feb. 18. on "Air and its impurities," in which he explained many harmful common mistakes, and made very helpful suggestions.

Brown may have his faults, bul he las the instincts of a gentleman." Do you think so?" I'm sure of :t! When he asks his wife to bring np a scuttle of coal he always gets up and opens the door foi* her!"

FREE OF TAX T DUT your money into War Savings Certificates and each 15/6 grows into 15/9 at the end of the first year and after that goes on growing at the rate of 1 d. a month. At the end of 5 years ;i I will be paid back to you for each 15/6 you have invested. THIS INCREASE IS ABSOLUTELY FREE FROM INCOME TAX I That is one reason why WAR < SAVINGS CERTIFICATES are the finest investment in the world You can buy War Savings Certificates from your Bank, Post Office, Association, or Official Agent. n J MEMORIALS, CROSSES, &c. MONUMENTAL WORKS, 62 HIGH STREET, Top of Victoria Square, ABERDARE. The above Business, carried on by the late Mr. Sam Parker, IS NOW RE-OPENED by the Family Under the Management of a Practical Man. All Orders taken for MEMORIALS, CROSSES, &c., will be carefully and promptly executed. A Fine Stock of Designs to select from. Inscriptions cut and Tombs renovated at the shortest notice. Customers may rely that careful attention will be given to all work. Orders received at above Address and at the Prince of Wales Hotel, Abercwmboi. GROWERS NEEDS Sunshine and Rain, The Brown Earth, Good Cultivation, Good Manure. AND GOOD SEEDS We supply the Golden Seeds—Our Pedigree seeds are the finest the skii of man has yet produced. Here are a few Specialities:— Peas-First Early, Hopwood's Dwarf Queen, 2/3; Earliest of All, 2/ Ameer, 1/6; American Wonder, 2/ English Wonder, 2/ Gradus, 2/ Little Marvel, 2/ The Pilot, 2/ William Hurst, 2/ Eclipse, 1/6. All per pmt. For second and late varieties see our lists. Broad Beans—Exhibition Longpcd, Monarch Longpod, Green Wind- sor Masterpiece Green Longpod, Seville Giant, Taylor's Broad Wind- sor' all at 1/- per pint. Johnson's Wonderful Early Longpod, 9d. per Cabbage—Hopwood's Early Oft'enkam, 8d.; Hopwood's "Western King, 1/- Wrheeler's Imperial, 8d. Hopwood's Nonpariel, 6d.; all per oz. Onion—Our Speciality, Hopwood's Ailsa Craig, 2/6. Send for list of other varieties. Onion Sets, 2/- per lb. Lists of our Premier Pedigree Seeds Free on request. AGENT: Mr. E. SMITH, 3 GWAWR ST., ABERAMAN. Special Prize offered in Aberdare, Aberaman, Cwmaman, Cwmdare and Trecynon Shows this year. HOPWOOD & SON. i SEED MERCHANTS, CHELTENBA

CLAMORCAN ASSIZES. A Penrhiwceiber "Blackguard." At the above Assizes on Tuesday William Stanley Sweetman (28), collier, was charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm upon David Lloyd, engine-driver, Penrhiwceiber. Mr Trevor Hunter (instructed by Mr. T. M. Elias, Merthyr) prose- cuted. and stated that prisoner and Llovd had words, and a struggle took place, in the course of which Lloyd was stabbed by the prisoner. David Lloyd, cross-examined by Mr Lovat Fraser, for the defence (instructed by Messrs Kenshole- and Prosser, Aberdare), admitted that Mrs. Sweetman was living with him as his wife. Is it not a fact that you offered to buy his wife for a soveivign'; Well, not exactly. Dr Jones, surgeon, Penrhiwcei- bor said that Lloyd's wounds were not dangerous, and it would not have required very much force V1 have inflicted them. In reply to x/s lordship, witness stated that th3 wounds might have been caused by the men tumbling over one another, with one of them having an opei- knife in his hand. k Prisoner stated in evidence that he was married in 1911 and there were three children. He a?nd his wife went to live with Lloyd at Church Street, Penrhiwceiber. and about the middle of 1918 he sus- pected misconduct between Lloyd and his wife.. He did not intention- ally or deliberately wound prosecu- l tor. When he met Lloyd he was cutting tobacco with a knife, and this was in his hand when they rolled together on the ground. His Lordship in summing up said there was no doubt that the prose- cutor was a blackguard. The jury wete unable to agree, and were accordingly discharged. The prisoner was remanded, on bail, to the next assizes.

OBITUARY. Mr. E. J. Hopkins, Clyn Neath. The death took place on Sunday of ex-Councillor E. J. Hopkins, of Heathfield, Glynneath, one of the most popular public men in that part of the Vale of Neath. He wa? a member of Neath Board of Guardians and Neath Rural Dis- trict Council for 17 years, retiring from both bodies last vear. In 1015 he was elected chairman of the Board of Guardians, and in that capacity performed the open- ing ceremony of the Penrhiewtyn Infirmary on the occasion of the handing over of the building to the War Office as a miliary hospital. He was one of the leading Liberals in the Vale. Mr. Hopkins was deacon and treasurer of Addoldy Congregational Church, Glynneath, and for over 21 years superintend- dent of the Sunday School and con- ductor of the Band of Hope. He married Miss Annie Powell, daughter of Mrs. Powell, Gadlys Road, Aberdare, and sister of Mr- D. M. Powell, auctioneer. General sympathy is expressed with Mrs. Hopkins and her daughter.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. SOCCER AT ABERDAUE. Mr. Editor,—Kindly allow me a small space in your paper for a few words re Soccer at Aberdare. As a lover of the sport may I ask football enthusiasts at Aherdare are we to he without it next season? I am sme that we can run a good Soccer Team that could compete with any one in the Southern League. I hope this will induce other lovers of tho sport to express their opinions. -Yoitrs, SOCCEHITl<