Welsh Gazette and West Wales Advertiser

PILLORIED. Destroy his fibs and sophistries in vain, The creature's at his dirty work again. HUDIBRAS. The unwillingness to receive good tidings is a quality as inseparable from a scandal-bearer as the readiness to divulge bad. But, alas! how wretchedly low and contemptible is that state of mind that cannot be pleased but by what is the subject of lamentation. RICHARD STEELE. The inhabitants of Aberystwyth are under a deep debt of gratitude to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children for the prompt and thorough manner in which they investigated the foul allegations made by ME. JOHN GIBSON. Our readers will re- member that in a speech at Aberystwyth on the 17th of May, MR. GIBSON said "There was in this town at the present time a build- ing where little children were done to death regularly all the year round. He knew that to be a fact." I thought, in view of such a charge," said MR. DONALD MACLEAN, the solicitor in Cardiff for the Soci- ety, "and the effect it might have on a place like Aberystwyth, there should be a prompt investigation." One of the most competent officers in the service of the Society was sent to Aberystwyth, and the result of his inquiries is that," continues MR. DONALD MACLEAN, so far as we are concerned, Aberystwyth leaves the court 4 without a stain on its character.' The author of the statements had to climb down, and we corroborate distinctly the statement of the Chief Constable that there is no truth in the allegations." At the enquiry on Saturday evening, a full report of which we publish in another page, DR. THOMAS, the medical officer of health, said that 11 there was not the least possible chance of there being any truth in the allegation made by MR. GIBSON." We recommend our readers to peruse the report carefully. They will find that MR. JOHN GIBSON comes out wretchedly. He has been pilloried on every count, and his statements are full of the most glaring inconsistencies. We need not give a word of comment on what he calls his reply to the Town Clerk's letter, beside pointing out that it abounds in what he is too fond of accusing others of, namely, personalities. When brought to book, MR. JOHN GIBSON evades the question, and rambles and whines as if he were a much injured genius. He objects, he says, to being Dreyfussed. Dreyfussed forsooth! He is too much of a coward to undergo much less of an operation than that. Dreyfus demands to be tried before his countrymen, but MR. JOHN GIBSON shirks an enquiry by his fellow-townsmen. He made the most serious allegations that could be made against any civilized community, and he ought, in justice to the reputation of the town and its real interests, to have sufficient courage to come forward and prove his allegations, or enough honour to withdraw them. But he does neither the one nor the other, and to-day he stands convicted of cowardice. And cowardice never skulked in a more contemptible impunity. Before lie had only the flimsy pretext of the law of libel to cloak himself, and now even that has been taken away, and he stands confessed in his true character; for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children offered to relieve him of all responsibility. The fact that he now says that the official who gave him the information is dead does not in the least alter his allegations; for he maintained that the building existed" at the present time where little children are surely done to death." MR. GIBSON may appeal to the public, but the public love truth and fairplay, and are not quite so stupid as MR. GIBSON takes them to be. The dullest knows full well the difference between was" and is." If the evil existed all that time what did MR. GIBSON do to remove it ? Surely, not to attempt the cure of such an evil would be criminal indolence. When he made the statement at the meeting on the 17th of May he did not seem to have much faith in the public, for he anticipated their verdict by saying that they would say, Surely this cannot be truth. Surely you are exaggerating." The MAYOR listened to the speech, and he, too, must have thought that MR. GIBSON was indulging in exaggerations. Public opinion will acquit the MAYOR only on the ground that he did not for a moment take MR. GIBSON'S words seriously. If he did take them seriously, what then as Chief Magistrate has he done in the meantime ?

THE OFFICIAL REPORT ON THE ALLEGED DOING TO DEATH" OF CHILDREN AT ABER- YSTWYTH. MR. HOWELL EVANs, the Chief Constable of the County, has kindly furnished us with the following Official Report of the Inspector of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, which he has just obtained by the courtesy of MR. DONALD MACLEAN, the solicitor and hon. secretary to the society in Cardiff, together with an expression of thanks for the assistance rendered to the officer while at Aber- ystwyth :— Acting on your instructions, I, on the 7th inst., proceeded to Aberystwyth re the above, but after a thorough and careful enquiry, lasting two days, I have to report that I am unable to find the slightest corroboration of Mr. John Gibson's state- ment as published in the WELSH GAZETTE of May 25th, and other newspapers. I had an interview with the Chief Constable (Mr. Howell Evans), Alderman Peter Jones, Dr. T. I). Harris, and other public officials, who all declared they knew nothing of the deaths to which Mr. Gibson referred, and they disbelieved the statement he has made. I called on Mr. Gibson, and asked him to give me some information to assist me in the enquiry, particularly as to the location of the house in question, but he either could or would not tell me. He, however, made a statement to the effect that he did NOT refer to any particular house, but to tramp children who had been 11 done to death by being fed on whisky and sour milk, but that the children were dead and buried. The official who had given him the information had also been dead about twelve months, and it was now useless forthe N.S.P.C.C. to make enquiries. He said I could tell Mr. Waugh, or my employers, that I It was all right now,' and he did not see what good could be done as the children referred to were dead and buried. He also said that his object was to draw public attention to the sanitary condition of the town, and complained of the neglect of duty on the part of the local officials generally. Following on the lines indicated by Mr. Gibson I made a thorough enquiry (both in company with Police-Sergeant Phillips and independently), at registered and un- registered lodging-houses in the town where tramps were at all likely to visit, and ascer- tained that there had been but three deaths of tramp children during the past seven years, and in each case these were from natural causes (one still-born). In going through these houses, and the lower (or poorer) portion of the town, I was particularly impressed with the cleanly condition of things generally. The children also appeared to be well nourished, clean, and decently clad. I am strongly of opinion that the allega- tions of Mr. Gibson are absolutely without foundation. Yours faithfully, D. Maclean,'Esq., WM. NEW, Hon. Sec. Inspector." Cardiff and District Branch, June 10th, 1899.

A RIDDLE. THE Aberystwyth Sphinx has given us another riddle. He knows of a Liberal candidate for Cardiganshire. Who is he ? The Sphinx makes it a point never to nominate candidates for constituencies. Very true for he never had the power nor the right to do so. Alas he has not the right to speak on behalf of the Liberals of Aber- ystwyth, to say nothing of the Liberals of the whole county. We do not care for the idea of usurping the power of the electors by attempting to make a choice for them beforehand in this manner. The oracle does not leave us utterly in the dark; for he says the gentleman he has got up his sleeve is a good, sound, resident Noncon- formist, well trained in local public life. Can it be that he is Alderman PETER JONES, Alderman DOUGHTON, Mr. C. M. WILLIAMS, or Mr. WM. THOMAS. Can any of these gentlemen, we wonder, be deep in the mysteries of the Sphinx. They all answer the description admirably, and we may add that they all have enough back-bone to break away from under the spell of the oracle itself when higher interests than his own are at stake.

WESLEYANS AT MACH- YNLLETH. THE first Welsh Wesleyan Methodist Assembly, held this week at Machynlleth, has been successful to a superlative degree. The weather, that very important factor in gatherings of this description, has been all that could be desired. As the -1 Methodist Times" points out, it is a most felicitous coincidence that the Assembly was presided over by its founder, the REV, HUGH PRICE HUGHES, president of the Conference, and this gentleman in the addresses which he delivered has done his best to raise the standard of the meetings to a high order. His comments on Welsh education on Tuesday night were interesting and encouraging. The New Assembly should do a great dea of good in bringing together the Wesleyan Methodists of the whole of the Principality, and enabling them to lay their wants before the Conference with much greater force than if they were, as of old, merely two districts, To quote again from the organ of the Wesleyan Methodists, there will be a sense of unity between South and North Wales, and the exchange of ministars will be facilitated. Gradually as the newness wears off, the various elements of the Assembly will get rounded off into working order, and the ultimate end should, and no doubt will, be that it will resolve itself into one harmonious whole, which will be of the greatest service in questions affecting, not only the religious, but also the moral and social life of the people of Wales.

THE LAND QUESTION. LAST week we published a communication from Dr. PATON, Principal of the Congrega- tional College at Nottingham, in which he gives some particulars of his schemes of peasant holdings. It may be well to inform our readers that there is absolutely nothing I of a political colour about these schemes for they are earnestly supported by people of very diverse views. The most casual observation shows that there is at present and that there has been for some time a strong tendency in labourers, artisans, and mechanics to leave the country and flock to the large towns. In Cardiganshire, labourers and small farmers emigrate to the coal pits of South Wales, or to London, and there must be some influences at work which is bringing about this state of things. What is the sinister influence ? At first, and off hand one would say that better wages are given in towns and that as long as a man can get thirty shillings a week in a town, he will not stay in the country at fifteen shillings. This is, of course, true and, it is inevitable, for no one can ever expect to, have in the country wages equal to those he might get in a town, since in a town the necessaries of life are so much dearer, rent is higher, and life is not as long and a man must have wages accordingly. It is logical to say that the harder conditions of town life, especially of great towns like London, account for a great proportion of the differ- ence in wages. But Dr. PATON and his friends go farther. They say that there must be something in the country life which drives these men to the towns, and they proceed to make enquiries. First of all, they find that the men could not get cottages to live in, while in the country, that if they did get a cottage it had no land in connection with it, and that in any case the rent of it was out of all proportion to their wages. Then they find that a man who starts life as an agricultural labourer is almost always fated to die an agri- cultural labourer, often chargeable to the parish. Why is this ? Simply because in England the farmer looks with disfavour on. any attempt on the part of the labourer to better his condition, and secondly, because if the labourer wished to better his condition, and actually saved money from the miserable pittance he earned, he could never hope to save enough money to start farming on his- own account, because there are no small farms in England. Thus, if a man saved £100, he might start on a small farm of say twenty or thirty acres at a rent of X 15 per annum and gradually work his way up,.but in England he could not get such a farm. Now in Wales, we are better provided with small farms and Cardiganshire is especially rich in them, consequently, it is not an un- common thing, to see a labourer work his- way up in this manner. We might easily adduce other reasons why labourers are driven into the large towns, but those above given will answer our present purpose. Let us now start at the other end of the story and ask how it is that the, labourer cannot get cottages and land in the country. Anybody could answer this ques- tion provided he took a long walk into tbe, country, even in the neighbourhood of Aber- ystwyth. Let him notice the large number of ruined cottages on all sides.' and count the number of new cottages which have taken their place. He will fira- that for every new cottage that is built there are two or three ruined and uninhabited ones. People lived in these. ruined cottages as long as they could, but when the rain and snow- came through the roof and the walls tumbled about their ears, they left, but they did not move to a new cottage in the same parish, they left the parish or compelled somebody else to leave instead of them. Why was the cottage not rebuilt ? Let us suppose that the old tenants would have stayed on had the cottage been rebuilt. The answer is that no landlord, except as a rule out of pure philanthropy, will rebuild a cottage. From the landlord's point of view, it is throwing money into a sink, or, to put it in another way, it means borrowing money at a high rate of interest in order to get a low rate of interest for it. Speaking generally, land- lords are an impecunious set, they have their regular incomes from their estates, and they manage at least to live up to their incomes —they have no capital behind. If they wish to build cottages, they must borrow money on mortgage perhaps; when they have built the cottages, the rents they get from them, do not cover the interest on the borrowed money. Dr. Paton and his friends say Let us have done with the landlords, we cannot expect them to build cottages, the labourers must do it themselves." In another article we hope to show how the labourers are to do it themselves.

NOTES AND COMMENTS. Mr. ERNEST GRAY, M.P., speaking on Saturday evening at a public meeting at Wrexham in connection with the North Wales Teachers' Union, found fault with the satffing of Welsh elementary schools, and with the irregular attendance. We give a full report of his speech on these questions in another column. The Goleuad" states that one of the first requests made to Mr. O. M. Edwards after becoming Member of Parliament was that he should do something to raise the price of wool. ———— The case heard at the Dolgelley County Court on Saturday under the Workmen's Compensation Act was interesting as being the first of the kind in the district. Mr. Llewelyn Williams, who was acting for the plaintiff, presented the case very ably, winning practically all the claim. The Act is one in which there are many loopholes and the masters have the great advantage over the men in being able to easily afford the necessary legal payments, while the workman has no money to throw away in law costs. The Quarrymen's Union at present have no arrangement whereby a portion of the expenses might be contributed from the general fund but it is possible t' that this will not be long delayed. There is no doubt whatever that it would be highly beneficial, and therefore the sooner it the better.