Towyn-on-Sea and Merioneth County Times

PUBLIC NOTICES. NOTICE TO BUTLDERS. TENDERS are invited-for the erection of a New Baptist Chapel at Towyn. Plans and Specification may be seen upon applic- Ho°n Mr J Pickering, Cadvan TUS^' owya' to whom sealed Tenders endorsed u.j!611 ^or Chapel must be delivered on or before Wednesday, January 24th. &ccep^ed °r aU^ Tender n°t necessarily FRANK H SHAYLER, Architect.

Towyn and Aberdovey have done very well in connection with the relief of the widows and families of those now fighting for us in South A frica. Å sum cf between X60 and £ 70 has been collected. A • contributor this week re-opens a question on which there has been a great deal of controversy, not only in Wales but also in England. The poor We have always with us, and in a similar manner also the poor rates. Some Unions get off very cheaply in the matter of poor rates, others the Averse. Briefly our contributor's contention is that Towyn contributes annually to the Machynlleth 1,1011 a sum far in excess of what is returned to the poor of Towyn, while other villages and town- ships contribute much less than they receive, a notable instance being Llanbrynmair, which Receives £ 150 per year more than its total con- tribution. This, he argues, is not fair to Towyn and other districts so situated, and he contends that there should be a re-arrangement which will Provide that each district shall maintain its own Poor. <L B rnr °e argument at first sight seems plausible enough, but from past experience we know that the Local Government Board will consent to no such re-arrangement. We must bear in mind that the people who pay the rates, whether in Towyn, Or llanbrynmair, or Newtown, or Oswestry, derive no advantage from the presence of the poor in their districts. Why then should Llanbrynmair ratepayers be mulcted in a penalty in the shape of an advanced rate for something from which they detive no benefit? Why they any more than, say, the ratepayers of Birmingham or London ? We Cannot help pointing out to our contributor that if ^Dl0ns Were to be further sub-divided into little isfcricts, a determined effort would be made to ^1Ve °ut of the different parishes those who, °ugh misfortune, were a source of expense. This would be within the range of possibility, especially where, as is often the case, the whole of the property in a township is owned by one land- lord. The poor would then be driven from place to Place, just as in the old days they were whipped at the cart-tail and driven through the streets of the towns. Vagrancy would, under such a state of things, be a greater evil to the country than it has p8r heen, and we should require an increased force 0 Police to deal with it. We think our contributor might have made out a tnuch better case, had he instead of advocating a ystem of sub-division, argued in favour of larger ^eas. Had he suggested that the maintenance of the poor should become a matter for whole coun- tie,, there would have been more hope of his advancing arguments with success. There are bot a few who contend that this question should be DStderpd as an entirely national question, and relief should be administered from money ained from Imperial sources. But the question IS one which cannot be lightly dealt with. Th 1 ef 6 ^l'esent war is teaching the authorities many s°ti8, anc| there are numerous questions in regard f the which the military authorities will,| at c^°Se of the war, adopt an entirely new atti- j ^he status of Yolunteer Battalions has been Past, and is now, a burden on the officers. tali ^'s generally believed that these bat- c°un^8 are rna'nta'ne<^ the expense of the .r^' there are extras not covered by the and.11 a^10DS which amount to a considerable sum, ^lent?680 uPon the officers. It not unfre- in^i means that to officer a Yolunteer Battalion ■*u"Olveq n 1 ia Iarge annual private expenditure. This benefit^'1^ ^a*r" ^ie country reaps the °aght t ^r°^anteer services, the country the ° PrePare(^ to pay the cost, and not saddle Conn °n "18 The Middlesex County 1 bave taken the matter in hand, and are u01Ug growth Can encouraSe an(^ foster the bot^ ^he "Volunteer Battalions within their rni iQ eac^' „ y propose to enrol a new company raise f ° county electoral districts, and to extr"1^8 fc° re^eve officers of the heavy burden ^attal^8' they also propose that the Volunteer Pryce jDS should be put on a new footing. Col ^Unic fQeS' at once placed himself in com- Counfc' p11 W^h the Chairman of the Middlesex Rested^ th°UnC^' P°'nte<^ out that it was sug- peace l V* aPP°intment of justices of the Peace, lord-lieutenants should give preference to se ing commissions in the auxiliary forces, and that in a similar way non-commissioned officers and men should have smaller honours. Col Pryce-J ones also suggests that County Councils and other local authorities should have power to aid by way of grant Volunteer corps in their res- pective areas which come up to the required standard. For ourselves, we doubt whether this would be as satisfactory as meeting the difficulty directly from Imperial sources, with special grants to meet special cases. That a re-arrangement is necessary is obvious. # A pretty little correspondence is taking place through the medium of the Daily News between the Rev Silas K Hocking, novelist, and Mr R Johnson, Liberal candidate for the Ince division of Lanca- shire. Mr Hocking believes nothing ill of the Boers and nothing good of the English to him it is an unholy, ungodly, unrighteous war. Like most men, who have a bad case, he sought to belittle Mr Johnson and to exalt himself by informing the public that until he saw Mr Johnson's letter he was not aware of Mr Johnson's existence, as though anything which Mr Hocking does not know is not worth knowing. But, alas! he that exalteth him- self shall be humbled. Mr Johnson retorts that it does not belong to every politician to know a man who has abandoned the Nonconformist ministry to write fourth-rate novels. The concluding sentences of Mr Johnson's letter are as follow:- Should Mr Silas Hocking be short of funds for the prosecution of his pro-Boer campaign in London, I can give him the name of a gentle- man who has been offered X500 per year by a prominent Boer to carry on a similar campaign in Lancashire. Information of this character ought to be useful to those persons who are :— Hoarse, shouting in the ear of God The blasphemy of wrong. Canada is threatened with invasion by—the Fenians. According to telegrams the Fenian organisations in the States have projected an invasion of Canada and they are believed to be at this moment storing dynamite and other things calculated to do harm at those points where they think they will need them. The scheme is said to be fully matured and the invasion is to begin with- out delay. It will be a happy day for this country when the invasion is inaugurated. It is the sort of news which is too good to be true. This country spends a considerable amount of money in watch- ing these interesting gentlemen and ascertaining their whereabouts, and the authorities would hail a visit by them to this side of the ocean with far more glee than the arrival of a Chinese minister. Their invasion of Canada would be the simplest means by which we could wipe them out of exis- tence, but we very much fear that the only weapon the Canadians will have the opportunity of using will be laughter. Since the war began there has forced himself into prominence the individual who knows exactly how to conduct the war and how to bring Kruger and Co, to their knees. This individual is a ubiquitous plurality. He lounges everywhere, frequents every club, and the tencnr of his con. versation is that no one knows anything about the war but himself, and that the salvation of the Empire is only to be accomplished by the nation pitchforking him into the office of Commander-in- Chief. Almost every newspaper has its military expert, and not a few of the experts belong to the self-respecting order of Bill Adams. They are the class of people who, in the early stages of the con. flict, thought the thing would be so easy and con- sidered all that was required of our men was to march straight ahead and turn aside all resisting Boers with the point of the bayonet. What strikes us as peculiar is that all those who know exactly how the thing should be done remain some six thousand miles from the scene of action. One is tempted to suggest that this band of knowing critics should be given horses and equipment and sent out on a specially fast steamer. Lest their operations might be hindered by being attached to a particular brigade, the critics and experts might be allowed to work independently and to appoint their own officers. If there were a prospect of this ever coming to pass the army of carping critics would become by conversion a host of enthusiastic admirers. A fool uttereth all his mind; a man of understanding holdeth his peace.

— WHY THE POOR RATES ARE HIGH IN THE TOWYN PARISH. A SERIOUS MATTER FOR THE RATEPAYERS. [SPECIALLY CONTRIBUTED, j There is nothing that touches the ratepayers more acutely than the question of the rates. They are at all times ready to assert that the rates are unreasonably high and that a sufficient surveillance is not kept over their interests by ther representa- tives. Sometimes this assertion is true and some- times it is not. My object this week is to endeavour to show that the ratepayers of the Towyn parish are not fairly treated by the Machynlleth Guardians, to arouse the ratepayers to a sense of their duty in face of this injustice, and, if possible, to originate an agitation with the view of having the parish separated altogether from the Machyn- lleth Union. The particulars in regard to which I shall write are to be seen in the abstract of accounts for the year ending March 25th, 1899, which has just been published in book form. In the first place it may be of some interest for the ratepayers to know who are their representatives on the Board, and for that reason the subjoined list is given of the members for the paiish Messrs Wm Jones, corn merchant, Aberdovey; Richard Morgan, contractor, Brync-rug John Owen, farmer, Penllyn, Towyn Meredith Jones, farmer, Caethle Humphrey Jones, farmer, Cae Ceinach, Penaal; and J Hughes Jones, Aberdovey, as an additional Guardian. Of the above Messrs Hughes Jones, John Owen, and Meredith Jones, are members of the Assessment Committee. On glancing at the general rules adoptei by the Guardians, I find they have been carefully drawn out and, if strictly adhered to, they afford protection for the ratepayers. The following rule is an excellent one: That the relieving officers shall furnish the Guardians of the respective parishes three days before the meeting of the Board with a list of the cases in each district, to be considered thereat." I should like to know if this rule is faithfully complied with, not only by the relieving officers, but by the Guardians. The object of the rule is to afford the Guardians suffici- ent time to make the necessary inquiries into the circumstances of the paupers seeking relief, but do the Guardians make inquiries in all cases or are their efforts on behalf of the ratepayers confined to the Board meetings ? The financial statement shows that a sum of £1,676 18s 6d was contributed by the parish of Towyn last year towards the funds of the Board. This sum was spent in the following way £ 132 went to clear off the balance against the parish at the commencement of the year; X804 5s 3d was devoted to common charges; .655 to separate charges; X10 4s 8d to workhouse loan and interest repaid; C562 3s 9d county rates; and there is a sum of X112 17s 2d balance in favour of the 2 parish at the end of this year. Let us now see how much the poor receive from the large sum raised in rates. In the parish of Towyn the number of paupers last year was 71, and they received the total sum of C507 4s, not one-third of the contributions paid during the year. How- ever, out of the total P,1,676 18s 6d certain deductions have to be made for expenses connected with the administration of the relief, and this brings down the total sum contributed by Towyn parish for out-door relief to 2799. It will thus be seen that as long as Towyn parish contributes z6799 towards out-relief and only receives C507 4s it pays a sum of X291 16s towards the support of paupers from other parishes with which this parish has nothing to do. For the year ending March, 1898, the Towyn parish contributed X244 6s 2d in excess of what its out-door paupers received. Where does the money go ? This is an interesting query, but let us before proceeding find if there are other parishes which pay more than they receive. I find that the following parishes have a similar grievance, but not to the same extent as the Towyn parish-Caereinion Fechan X2 4s in excess, Darowen £ 2 10s 3d, Llanwrin £ 24 12s, Scuborycoed, £ 1 5s, and Uwchygarreg £ 58 8s 6d. The following parishes receive in excess of their contributions the following sums :—Cemmes X37 Ss, Isygarreg £ 26 18s 8d, Llanbrynmair X158 13s 9d, Machynlleth X31 198 5d, Penegoes 176 12s 6d, Pennal .646 6s 7d. The title usually applied to parishes unable to maintain themselves is pauper parishes," and there seems to be a very large number of them in the Machynlleth Union. In the year 1898 it was also found that these parishes had to be supported by other parishes, C244 6s 2d being taken from the ratepayers of Towyn parish. The worst sinner in this direction is the parish of Llan- brynmair, which receives no less than P,159 13s 9d. The rich parish of Machynlleth has to be supported to the extent of X31 19s 5d, whilst the previous year it received £ 59 Is 2d. Surely a town of the size of Machynlleth ought to be able to maintain its own paupers. On reference to the statistical statement it is found that the cost per head of out- door paupers in Towyn parish is £ 5 5s 8d, whilst at Machynlleth it is only £4 7s 9Jd. If Towyn was fairly treated the figures would give quite a different complexion, for in the comparatively small district of Machyn- lleth the number of paupers is 82 as against 96 in the whole parish of Towyn. It is high time that each parish should be made to maintain its own paupers and justice done to the ratepayers through- out the Union. If a motion in favour of justice all round was brought before the Board I find that the total number of votes possible is 22. If all the members for the parishes which have a grievance supported a motion for every parish in the Union to maintain its own poor I find that 11 votes would be recorded for the motion. If all the others voted against the motion there would be 11 yotes includ- ing that of the chairman. But if the chairman did not vote there would be a majority of one for the motion. In the statistical statement I find that the rate. able value of Machynlleth has decreased from £7.103 in 1898 to X7,096 in 1899, and the assessable value from X6,344 to £ 6,337. As regards Towyn it has increased from 118,200 to S19,144, and the assess- able value from X14,473 to .615,441. With the exception of Towyn nearly all the parishes show a decrease in their rateable value. Where there is an increase it is of a few pounds, but in the parish of Towyn—this parish which distributes its money all over the Union-there is an increase of nearly EL,OCO. Have no new buildings been erected at Machynlleth, or, indeed, have some of the dwelling houses there been closed ? It is high time that the representatives of this parish should wake up and lay the whole case plainly and seriously before the Board. Great complaints are made in this district that buildings are assessed too heavily and that our representatives do not stand up for the ratepayers at the Assessment Committee but go against them. To me it is evident that the rates in other parishes should be increased and those in the parish of Towyn decreased. One more complaint against the members for the Towyn parish and I shall close my remarks for this week. Would it not be better for them to sacrifice a whole day at Machynlleth instead of a halt day in order to try and see this matter rectified. As soon as the relief list for the parish of Towyn is gone through, the Towyn members leave the Boardroom to the rest of the members of the Board who are allowed to do as they like in fact, it is a general complaint at the Board that the members for the parish of Towyn leave the room before the relief list is completed. I trust that in future more watchfulness will be shown towards the interests of the person who has to pay the piper."