Papurau Newydd Cymru

Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru

Cuddio Rhestr Erthyglau

10 erthygl ar y dudalen hon

CARMARTHEN UNDER THE I \ SEARCH-LIGHT.

Newyddion
Dyfynnu
Rhannu

CARMARTHEN UNDER THE I SEARCH-LIGHT. Come, come, and sit yon down you shall not bv.dge You shall not go, till I set you up a glass Where you may see the inmost part of yon." —————— SIIAKE-SPEAIIIC. The Recorder told the jury on Monday that a certain witness is not a man in whose unsupported word I would place implicit confidence." That's about the most artistic way I ever heard of calling a man a liar. The committee of the forthcoming exhi- bition at Carmarthenhas'decided to admit specimens of anything manufactured within the county. It wili be a decided slur on local industry, therefore, if a few well- seasoned topers are notlexhibited. At the unveiling of the memorial tablet to the Rev D. Pugh Evans on Saturday, it was admitted in a qualified way that there really was such a thing as "professionalism" amongst the clergy. It is a good thing that even clerics can see themselves as others sre them. Once this process is recognised it is hard to foresee what miy be the results. If any man thinks that there is 110 pro- fessionalism amongst the clergy, ho will have to shut bis t ves tight against lacts. How often will you lind a cleric with a good private income preferring to work as a curate-for little or no remuneration- amongst the submerged tenth for the sake of his work? Will such a one—when an offer of JE800 a year for doing nothing as a dean, comes along—decline the proposal, and say that he entered the Church to do good and not to accumulate wealth for himself ? I don't say that there are no such clerics. All I say is that I have never seen nor heard of them. A farmer was fined on Saturday because he claimed that he had the right to kill his own game with his own ammunition on his own laud. All this was immaterial-he had not a game licence. You can kill your own turkeys as long as you do not cause a nuisance but if your live stock happens to take the form of a partridge —for instance—you'll have to pay C3 for the privilege. Now people talk about old feudalism, but this is just a remnant of the worst aspect of feudalism. The Normans were so very jealous of their rights as the sole owners of game in this country, that it became a terrible offence for any common Saxon or Welshman to be even in the possession of a hawk. Anyone illegally taking the game of the seigneurs had his eyes put out. Even at the present day the spirit of the dead feudalism overshadows the statute- book. In the old days the law was made by the seigneurs and the bishops and the people who make the laws have now too much respect for antiquity to introduce any of the modern spirit. It has been stated as a "coincidence" that the memorial tablet to the Rev D. Pugh Evans was unveiled on the anni- versary of his death. There is no coincidence whatever about it. It was carefully arranged as a fitting celebration of the anniversary. A case decided at the County Court on Friday is enough to disgust anyone with the administration of the law. A gentleman agrees to take a house, and the landlord carries out certain alterations. Afterwards the person who has taken the house backs out of his agreement; and the landlord cannot recover a penny damages out of the amount he has lost by refusing other tenants because-the agreement was not in writing. According to law certainly, the landlord has no case but if the facts are as reported, the tenant is bound morally to compensate the owner. T It may seem rather antiquated to say so in the year 1898; but there is a moral law which is entirely distinct from the law of England. If I happen to be in financial difficulties, I may obtain a loan from a friend. Seven years afterwards ho may ask me for the money, as he sees I can afford to repay it; but if I plead the Statute of Limitations the law won't award him one farthing of his LIOO-say. I can say Yes I had the money but the claim is statue barred." Nobody can say that my defence is not legal. Bui all the eame, I am a thief, if I don't pay what I honestly owe, whether the law compels me or not. < Another case in which statute law differs from morality is in the case of a discharged bankrupt. The bankrupt pays say 10s in the £ and the court releases him. No blame is attached to him a man may honestly go bankrupt. But-in a few years time, the bankrupt comes into a fortune or is successful and he has plenty of money at his command. There is no court in England can compel him to pay his former creditors the balance which was wiped out by the Bankruptcy discharge. But all the same, he is guilty of a flagrant act of dishonesty if he does not pay what he owes. At present, however, all that commercial honesty requires is, Pay whatever can be recovered by process of law." This is not far removed from the motto, Steal; but don't get caught." The" raiding" by the police having come to an end, the Sunday drinkers may now pursue their wonted paths in peace and quietness. If precedent goes for anything, we shall have no more raids for another nine months or so. When the next promotion takes place in the force, I wonder whether this mark of favour will be conferred upon an officer who has been active in the anti-public house campaign or upon one who has been conspicuous for keeping aloof from such matters as far as possible. This is a free country; and in the meantime everybody can hold whatever opinion he likes on the subject. On Friday night the lamps were fully ablaze in some parts of the town, whilst in the neighourhood of the market the dark- ness was such as could be felt. Was this the result of a perverted desire for economy? Was it the result of the breaking of the lamps by bad boys ? Or was it merely another of these eccentric freaks-like the turning off of the water without notice- which appear to be prompted by no other motive than a fiendish desire to annoy a long-suffering public. It appears that the new lamps which have been placed in the middle of Lammas-street are to be simply ornaments. The one near Temperance Yard has not been lit for some weeks. What is the good of erecting new lamps unless they are to be used ? If ever there was a case which ought to be dismissed, it was that of false pretences against the girl Louisa Evans. There are times when we are all to "rull clown" jurymen but dfttT all jurymen rav ou only proteci ion. The magistrates seem to labour under the deius.on that one witness called by the police is worth four called by the II defence. But jurymen—to their credit be it said—do not suffer from that weakness. The magistrates were unanimously of opinion—so the Chairman said at the time 1 -that the girl ought to be committed. And 1 there were not two disinterested persons who heard all the evidence who concurred with the opinion of the magistrates. Even had not a single person been called to prove that the girl was in Milford at tie time of the offenco, the case set up by the prosecution was so lame, so defective, and so wanting in the essential element. of railway evidence, and the witnesses were so hopelessly at sea in regard to identification that the matter ought never to have gone farther. I am entirely of Mr Wellers' opinion that some i magistrates commit themselves quite as often as they commit anybody else. 1 What on earth can anybody imagino induced the magistrates to commit a defen- dant on such flimsy evidence ? No twelve men-except they were selected from the padded-room—would have found the girl Guilty on the evidence adduced. Magistrates, certainly have no business to commit a prisoner in the expectation that the prosecution will be able to make up a stronger case between the date of committal and the date of the trial. The committal must be upon the evidence given, not in the hope that something may transpire in the meantime. And on the evidence given a more hopelessly rotten case never was sent before a iury. The method of identification adopted in the Carmarthen Borough Police force is such an example of official bungling that it is a wonder many respectable people have not begn sent to prison by means of it. Some girl pretends falsely that she is a servant with a certain lady, and gets goods thereby. When the fraud is dis- covered, the professional instinct of the force searches out the address of a girl-fifty miles off-who was at one time a servant with that lady. Then a witness goes into the house expecting to see her, sees a girl of the required age and height by herself, and—very naturally-concludes that she is the culprit. This is quite natural but nobody who is an expert in identification" ould attach the slightest importance to it. Anybody would in the same way-if he was certain in his own mind that he was going to see her there-similarly identify any girl of medium height and about twenty years of age whom he had only seen for a few minutes. If she had red hair, or a wooden leg, or something very characteristic about her, the case would have been different. How many of us know of cases in private life in which one person is mistaken for another by those who know both only slightly Then the proceeding which followed savoured more of the methods of people making a case than of those who wished to make sure of the identity—which was pretty dubious in the face of the fact that the pale complexion was fresh, and the black hair, fair, and the woman 20 to 24 only a girl of 17. One witness eaw her at the police station—by herself and tho three others came into the police court and saw a young girl of the same appearance and height at the bar, and know that thereby she had been previously identified as the offender. Naturally enough, they identified her but few of us would be out of the hands of the police were such methods generally adopted. And in the faco of such evidence, the magistrates were asked to believe that the defendant had spent 10s or so travelling up from Milford and back—no record of the tickets issued being produced—to get a pound of beefsteak, some fruit; and three odd boots—which were not produced, and never will be produced now. Fancy the whole affair merely as an investment of cash and time And this in spite of the fact that several members of the family, two lodgers, and a neighbouring woman who dropped in," all swore that the girl- whom they knew intimately-had been at home all that day. The result of this piece of wretched bungling is that the police and magistrates have between them put this girl's relatives to some 140 or 950 expense in order to prove that she did not commit a crime in Carmarthen, when she was washing clothes in Milford. It is a great pity somebody cannot be made to stump up this amount so as to make them more careful another time. We must all be very careful but police officials and magistrates—un- fortunately—are authorised to perpetrate any number of mistakes without having to make good the damage in any way. It has been explained to me that every- thing is quite regular in regard to the changes at the Infirmary. I don't doubt it. But it will be better for the officials and the patients if we had a little more light on the Committee. If the Town Council, or the Asylum Committee, appoint an official, we know how it was done, and who are the applicants, and whether there was any cliquery about it. If either of these bodies fall out with their officers--or their officers with them-we know why. But in regard to the Infirmary we know absolutely nothing. When meetings are opon, officials have only to do their duty when meetings are shut, officials may have to put up with the individual idiosyncracies of cantankerous members of the Committee- if there are any such. A portrait of the late Rev D. Pugh Evans has been presented by Mrs Pugh Evans to the Workmen's Social Club. The rev gentleman was the founder of the club, and n always took a deep interest in its welfare. In the first number of Pearson's now publication, The Royal Mat/ar.ine, appears photographs of notable men of the day. Amongst those we see that of tho late Dr John Hughes, Mrs Hughes, and their illustrious son, the Rev Hugh Price Hughes, It is amusing to notice the number of endowments in which money is left for broad for the poor; and £ 1 or £ 2, or 10s t;> the vicar to "preach a sermon." Even the prospect of getting a loaf at tho end for listening does not reconcile some of the I ungodly hearers to the homily. The poor are not edified by the sermon. D yr hen pregeth" is the comment of many an old woman going in to liston to it. < As all the bread is given out on Christmas Day, the Vicar must bo pretty well remunerated for that sermon which would seem to consist- according to the bequests- of several sermons rolled into one. Four or five sermons compressed together mu&t make a sort of theological meat-extract—a pulpit Bovril. To the credit of St. Peter's be it said that the Bishop only spoke what is admitted by outsiders whnn he told the Commissioner that the doles of money were given to members of any denomination when nec> s-itous cases were notified to the distributors of the charity. There may be, of course, other churches in town which also adopt this policy; but I liavo not heard of thew. Morris's Charity—some £ 55 a year—may on regarded as doing little good compared to that which might bo got from such a large z!1 n sum. The E30 given to tho soup-kitchen is probably the best expended but oven soup- kitchen loaves are regularly swopped for half-pints of beer. Soup, too, goes to people who ought to be above taking it. As for each minister dividing doles of 2s or Is Cd amongst his íloek-that does no good to anybody and the money generally goes to that class of mendicants who are able to "pull the sanctimonious mug." It is equally a. debasing of true religion (a remarkably scarce artielo anywhere) for people to listen to a sermon for a loaf, or to hang on to the skirts of a church for the doles. Some people's religion consists in making what they can out of it in some consists in hating others for holding their own beliefs and in a third it consists in joining the Church Parado on Sunday in their best clothes. Some, again, make plenty of show that they may bo seen of men. A few people's religion consists in dealing with their neighbours as they would like the neighbour to deal with them. I once knew one of that latter kind myself. But lie has been dead several years. All Carmarthen's Charities are the work of dead and gone worthies. You never hear of wliatour living Croesuses are doing lor the ( town. Carmarthen never had more rich 1 men than now but some of them would rather get something for themselves at the public expense if they could manage it. Many of them talk a lot about the good of the town but that is all they'll ever do for it. it

GUILDHALL CLOCK (LGQUITOR).

Industrial School Children…

The County Treasurership.…

To the Editor of the Carmarthen…

County Treasurership,

.-Have You Ever Tried.

--------------------PONTARGOTHI.

Llandilo Water Supply.

Advertising