Penarth Chronicle and District Advertiser

i -TJS T I C ES OF THE PEACE, &rtb esday ( .1 J, \v-ip 'a3^' 'n Housa of Commons, Mr] fth r.e*^u& of tK038' P"' Seconded the motion fo*! Poiutiug j Sill for amending the methods of CoUfi ^sition inth ° poWerof nominating gentlemen ^ih C^8' ^0 W'U .8 ^ia'rman.of the various District hay6' 8lli'>»bl t0 the County Councils the, ^*1SOns' The County Council will 'W ri^°Qs ^ave >5 COlntn^^ee' an(^ after their recom- Wd^Qty 0°unciieeilEUbmitted t0 aHd endorsed hy ^cejj0r j be forwarded to the -.I:1eelI or r appointment, who will, however,

retain the power of vetoing any nomination submitted I to him. There can be no doubt that the present method of appointing Justices of the Peace need amendment. Mr Arthur Williams in his speech said —Members of Parliament are frequently called upon to take some pait in the work of selecting justices of the peace, and he was bound to say that any t bing more invidious than that duty it was impossible to conceive- Then again, the. Lord Chancellor in making the appointments had to rely upon information which he could not test. Under such circumstances it is not to be wondered at that many are appointed who are totally unfit to occupy such positions, or to discharge the duties required of them. Political or religious views, no nor e..en property qualification, should be considered, but general fitness and ability for the office, should be the leading considerations. This Bill should not be made a party measure? It concerns all sections of the people, and we are glad to find that it passed through the second reading with such a substantial majority. 1

P allarth's Old Inhabitants INTERESTING GATHERING. It was an interesting crowd of Penarth's old inhabitants that sat down to a sumptuous supper in the large well-appointed Penarth Hottll on Saturday night last. The gathering was organised with a view of affording an opportunity to old inhabitants; some of whom now reside outside the seaside town, of meeting old friends under the same roof and exchanging- congratulations. Among those present were Messrs W W Bartett, Sydney Batchelor, J, P., Ernest Batchelor, Cyril Batchelor, R S Boyer, F Bond, S A Brain, D Cornwell, W G Dalziel, J Davies, J Denning. Frank Edwards, Albert E Edwards. D H Edmunds, Tom Evans, Ed wa, d C Fry, L Gottwaltz, J Hayes, L Hooper, T Jones, Chas Jolliffe, T Leyshon, Jenkin Llewellyn, John G Llewellyn, G Lnea, Dr R F Nell, M Meazey, T Meazey, R Meazey, D. Morgan, Fred Morgan. Herbert Morgan, W L Morris, J,P., Daniel Mules, E Mules, G Pawley, T J Pearn, J Pickford, J Powell, William Riley, Evan E Roberts, C Tonkiu, T H Stel ens, J Y Straws >u, Thomas Fleming, Sam Thomas, FS Trayes, W Trenchard, H. J Vellacott, L Whitwham. Letters of apology for being absent were received from Messrs Roger Batchelor, Evan Morse, and Captain \V M Pengelley, R.I.N. Dr R F Nell occupied the chair, and Mr W Gascoyne Dalziel the vice-chair. After the usual loyal toasts, came The Army, Navy, and Reserve Forces," which wafe submitted by the chairman, and responded to by Major E C Fry in his usual airy and witty style. Then Mr W Gascoyne Dalziel gave I- The Old Inhabi- tants. This wa3 briefly acknowledged by Mr Fred Trayes, Mr T Meazey, and Mr Jenkyn Llewellyn, the latter gentleman venturing into statistics and history. Twenty five years ago, he said, Mr Trayes was elected church-warden, and out of the 11 gentlemen who had served as overseers of the pocr five were still resident am ong- them, and two had died the remainder had removed to other towns. 1 Twenty-five yea's ago thera were 11 licensed victuallers, now there were 18. and out of that 11 six had died. hi 1875 there were oi shopkeepers, out' of which seven were only now in business, 14 had I died, and eight removed, Now they had 166 shop keepers. In 187-1, they were 417 inhabited houses; at present there were 1,744. Tl-en the population ha i increased from 151) in 1855 to about 13,u00 in 1805 It was also given to the meeting that the Penarth parish register dated back from 1765, St Augustines" Church built 1865, Penardi Harbour and Railway Company formed 1856, Penaith Harbour constructed 1859, and the Dock in 1866, tha National Schools were opened in 1860, the coas!guard-st iti-)ii in 1864, police-station in 1864, Steam Ferry Company floated 1866, Board Schools opened 18.74, Penarth Local Board established 1875, TaiT Yale Railway (Penarth Town branch) opened 1878, the Boat Club established 1880, Windsor Gardens opened 1863, public baths opened 1884, and both the free library and the Pier we! e opened this year. The Cardiff official receiver (Mr T H Stephens), in a few well chosen words, gave The Port, Town, and Trade of Pell, t ti. s W L M oiris, David Corn well, Daniel Mules. Samuel Thomas, and William fWey responded —Mr Ril-y urged upon the inhabitants the necessity of fostering 'he import trade, and dwelt upon the great advantage that would accrue from the dockisation of the river Ely. They must not rely entirely upon the o a' trade. The import trade had made Liverpool, Hull. and London what they were, and none of these places conld, boast of their coal-fields. It was in their power to make Penarth a large centre of industry, but that could not be accomplished if the import trade was not encouraged. (Hear, hear.)—The toast "Windsor Estate, followed, and then Councillor S A Brain sub- mitted The Recreations of Penarth," to which Mr H J. Velhcoti sB.)at Club) and Mr H Morgan responded. —Other to sts followed. At one portion of the room were a number of photographs of old Penarth. Mr H J Vellacctt lent "Penaith Old Church," The Old Head Inn/' and a model of the sfcea.ni ferry Kate, the original of which is said to have made 70,000 trips! between Cardiff and Penarth, From Mr T L Howe' J came Taylor's Farm," Randall's Farm," Two Old Residents," "Rev Charles Parsons" (late rector), St Augustine's Church," and "Plymouth House." The Boat Club sent Penarth Beach in the gale of 1881 Mr Samuel Thomas contributed The s.s. Win Cory: Openino- of Ptmrth Dock:" and Mr e I Frank Edwards, "The Dock Offices, 1866," Views of Penarth Dock in construction," and "West House." In every detail the gathering was a great success, and at the close of the evening the committee, which cou- sisted or Dr R F Nell, Mr H J Vellacott, Mr Samuel Thomas, and Mr W Gascoyne Dalziel (bon secretary) were complimented on the excellent results of theic labours.

Justices of the Peace A BILL TO ALTER THE MODE OF APPOINTING MAGISTRATES. SPEECH BY MR ARTHUR WILLIAMS, At the House of Commons on Wednesday in moving the second reading of the Justices of the Peace Bill, Mr Luttrell said that it vas proposed by this Bill to give the county and town councillors power to nominate to the Lord Chancellor gentlemen for appointment And in order that the County Councils might be kept in touch with the various districts. It was proposed that the chairman of the district councils should submit to the county councils the names of gentlemen for thdr consideration. The powers of the county and town councils would in the first instance, and subject to the approval of the councils, be exercised by nominating committees. The Lord Chancellor would, of course, retain the power of vetoing any nomination submitted to him. It was then proposed that any magistrate who did not attend the bench for a year should be asked the reason for his absence, and if be did not give a satisfactory ex- cuse he should be removed from the bench. The Bill would also abolish the property qualification for the magistracy. At present the members of the bench were too much of one class, and were necessarily in- fluenced by the opinions and the prejudices of their class. What we wanted was to have on the bench men of all classes, partiee, and churches. Mr Arthur Williams, following Mr Luttrell, ex- pressed pleasure in seconling the motion for the second reading of this Bill. Although it was desir- able that the nominations should be made by the county countiL, he thought the work of selection should be entrusted to the committee of the council, In committee on the Government Act of 1888 he ventured to move an amendment which gave sub- .stautially the same j owers. Thict amendment was really disinterred from a Bill brought in more than 50 years before. Substantially that amendment was the original clause in the Municipal Corporat ion Bill, 1836, as brought in by Lord John Russell, the Bill being afterwards defeated in the House of Lo ds. During the last two or three years most members of Parlia- ment bad been called upon to take some part in the work of selecting justices of the peace, and he was bound to say tl at anything more invidious than that duty it was iml-o islbl- to conceive. (Cheers-) Nor, in his opinion, could there be a position so unsatis- factory as the present position of the Lord Chancellor. reference to the e appointments; he had to rely more or ess upon information which he could not test, and he a 1 to rely to a great extent upon suggestions and Of i io is forwarded to him by the political party t) which he belonged- l'hat, he thought, very undesirable. What, then, was the best expedient they could adopt ? During the last five years it had been his privilege to be a number of a committee of the town councils of Glamorganshire, formed to frame an. intermediate scheme under the Educatim Act: for the whole of the county, The members of the committee were composed of three members nominate! by the councils and two appointed by the Government of the day, which happened to be a Conserva'ive Govern- ment. His experience, of that committee was thali th-ay mat under a grive sensj of respondbilifcy, tod that (he political opinions were suboidiuo^'l in the discharge of-ih.4r great duties, If, thertf «e tliey discharge of great duties, It, thertf «e they had a. commiitee of county councils d,ai >g with this e qLF-S ion of the magistracy. persons no:niuated and seiected, because of their fitness for the position, and meeting under a sense cf grave responsibility, many of the present diSioulties would he removed, and it would be of great service to the Lord Chancellor. Something of the sort ought to be devised, and for his own pITt, after careful consider- ation, he did not see any other method preferable. He cHlld not. leave this subject without bearing his per- sonai testimony to the manner in which u• <ler ruosfc se.iousditHcaitiss the Lord Chancellor had endeavoured in the County of Glamorgan to make a selection representative ot all classes. He supported this Bill from no selfish motive, because if this 131!1 became law h3 ould cea-se to be a magistiate. He frankly proved that he was not entirely fitted 10 be a magis- trate, as he suff red from what might be considexed a serious deficiency. He had always shrunk from in- flicting punishment, and iu the little experience he had had Oil petty bescional benches he had had to perform many unpleasant duties which he should bs very glad to relinquish. The debate was continued by the Cl,itieei ioi- of the Exchequer, the Solicitor-General, Mr James Lowther, Mr Balfour, and others. The House divided, and the numbers were: For the second reading, 201 ajaill-ii 163 j m jority 38.