Welsh Gazette and West Wales Advertiser

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A MUCH-NEGLECTED SUBJECT.. The creation and the fostering of. a lova- for sound and healthy literature appear to mefcabe very necessary in these days when the couixtless cheap periodicals that are appearing in ever increasing numbers are a temptation to the young to waste their time over what 1 ean only characterise as useless. rufcrbish. So wrote the Headmaster of the Mlashynlleth County. School, in the excellent report which he submitted to the Governors at their meeting last week. Fortunate,, indeed, are the youths whose lives are moulded and whosa characters are formed undsr the care and guidance of a. master of the stamp of Mr. MEYLER. Such men as he cannot fail to leave the impress of their personality upon their environment. The daily press, and coroners' inquests have made us painfully familiar with that fertility of corruption which begets us our Hooligans and Sipidos by the score. Mr. MEYLER'S words are very timely, and they should be wjsfcten in letters f gold on the walls of every school through- out the land. Cheap and nasty periodicals are being produced and multiplied at a rate that is quite alarming,, and their evil influence, like the insidious poison it is, destroys the mwal fibre of the nation. Our youth have acquired a morbid taste for the sensational; and publishers are never wanting to pander to it-be it ever so low. With them it is a question of supply and demand and while JOHN BULL sets the fashion and confronts every enterprise with the question "does it pay?" it is idle to talk of high ideals. There seems to us to be only one way of dealing effectively with this evil—this monster begotten of the gutter- press. He must be thrown out of harmony with his environment. His surronndings must be made impossible for his life. Such a method is at once safe and scientific, and one which will soon bring the evil to an end. This, we believe, can be done by the training of taste in our children. Notwithstanding the many improvements that have been made in our recent educational advances, the cultivation of taste is an I element that has been sadly neglected, if not entirely forgotten. The weak extravagances of aesthetes must not be confounded with true culture. Recognising the fact that bad taste, like bad habit, is acquired, it is matter for the deepest regret that the training of taste in our schools, as an important and necessary part of a full course of human development has been overlooked. While the child's susceptibilities are most plastic, while he is receiving impressions for good or evil that are indelible and life-long, it would be our wisdom, as it certainly is our duty, to train his taste, so that he will turn with pain, if not with loathing, from all that is vile and degrading. His love for the beautiful and the good must be cultivated so that he shall acquire that instantaneous preference of the noble thing to the ignoble," which is RUSKIN'S definition of taste. By dealing with the rubbish of the press in this manner we would not be troubled with the vexed question of supply and demand, since our quarrel would be with the quality of the production and not with the quantity. Our schoolmasters have much greater power than our statesmen to banish from our books and periodicals all that is vile, and scrappy, and sordid for they can cultivate a taste and create a demand for a higher and a nobler quality. Sir JOHN LUBBOCK once said that most men could make of this world either a palace or a prison according to the- books they read. We must not, like the sailors of Ulysses, take bags of wind for sacks of treasure. ROBERT SOUTHEY'S test of the moral effect of reading a book was this: Would you know whether the tendency of a book is good or evil, examine in what state of mind you lay it down. Has it induced you to suspect that that which you have been accustomed to think unlawful may after all be innocent, and that that may be harmless which you hitherto have been taught to think dangerous ? Has it tended to make you dissatisfied and impatient under the control of others ? Has it attempted to abate your admiration and reverence for what jis great and good, and to diminish in you the love of your country and your fellow-creatures ? Has it addressed itself to your pride, your vanity, your selfishness, or any other of your evil propensities ? Has it defiled the imagination with what is loathsome and shocked the heart with what is monstrous? Has it disturbed the sense of right and wrong which the Creator has implanted in the human soul ? If io-if you are conscious of all or any of these effects- or if, having escaped from all, you have felt that such were the effects it was intended to produce, throw the book into the fire, young man, young lady, though it should have been the gift of a friend Away with the whole set, though it should be the prominent furniture of a rosewood bookcase |

CARDIGANSHIRE FAIRS AND MARKETS. MANY persons whose experience and position well qualify them to be good judges, main- tain that the success of the several large fairs held in Cardiganshire during this and he past week have been greatly marred by the want of better arrangements as to the times of their holding. Several well known buyers who, attended the fair at Aberystwyth on Monday were unable to proceed to Lampeter on the same day. This was also the case with the fairs held at Tregaron and Llanarth and Llanrhystyd last week. If the various localities interested were to take the matter up, and come to [an under- standing. as to the fixing of the dates there can be no' question that each district would be benefited. The attendances would be better, and prices would be improved. We are told OIl; excellent authority that far better prices would rule at the Lampeter fair had some of the best buyers who attended at Aberystwyth on Monday been able to attend; but the existing arrange- ments made- this impossible,, and they had to forego a possible better selection at the Lampeter Fair. Dalis Fair is growing in popularity from year to year, and the Town Council will find it well worth its while to do all in its power to encourage every step that leads to further develop that famous fair. The fair now spreads over two days, and is the lar gest of its kind in the Princi- pality. Of all the Committees in connection with the Aberystwyth Town Council it goes without saying that the most indolent is the Markets. Committee. Its members seldom or never meet, and they throw away golden opportunities to do a vast amount of good to the town and country. Local prejudice would, no doubt, militate strongly against any attempt to alter and regulate the fixtures of our principal fairs, but that surely should not prevent the authorities in the various districts from entering into co- operation and making every accommodation to their own immediate advantage. The County Council would be an excellent medium to arrange the dates of fairs and markets. Perhaps Mr. VAUGHAN DAVIES will give a hint to his friend, Mr. LLOYD- GEORGE, to include this object in the new powers he is at present seeking for the Welsh County Councils.

THE INDIAN FAMINE. THE famine in India grows more and more terrible. There are now nearly six millions of persons actually in receipt of relief. Is it not a shocking travesty of our much vaunted modern civilisation that millions of money are spent in shedding blood in South Africa while millions of our fellow-subjects are dying from sheer starvation? "Why should Britain," asks a correspondent in a daily paper, want to add the Boers and Free Staters to her Empire when such Empire as is hers already is too plainly beyond her management ? For what is this terrible Indian famine but a ghastly handwriting on the wall ?" That is a pertinent question, and one that will have to be answered sooner than many may imagine. It really does seem very rotten that we spend some fifty or sixty millions on a war to redress the grievancies of fifty thousand Outlanders in the Transvaal, and yet refuse a paltry million from our National fund to a country stricken with famine and plague-and that a country under the undisputed sway of the British flag-and a country from which our capitalists have reaped enormous wealth to be spent out of the country it is derived from. The people of India have no political existence, and they die, as they live, without a mumur. All this is very different to what obtains in South Africa. Even the Sultan has been moved by the pitiful tales of suffering in India to do something in common with America and Germany to allieviate it. Preaching to a large congregation at St. Paul's Cathedral, the Rev CANON SCOTT HOLLAND made a stirring appeal for alms. Surely, he said, anyone who had derived joy from the resurrection of Christ would feel his soul stirred by the plea of those starving, perishing populations whom God had en- trusted to our Imperial care. Men and women in their thousands were crouching on the naked earth, mere skeletons, with their poor, thin bones standing out against their skin like knives. With dead babies lying across their kness like shapeless rags, mothers were gazing with that wistfulness so noticeable in the East, as though they never had hope of any joy in life, and now won- dered why the end did not come more merci- fully. Girls and boys, men, women, and babies were dying the most piteous and cruel of all deaths. How could we shut out of our memory this most dismal sight that this whole world had ever shown—whole people starving to death ? He appealed to the people of this comfortable land to give something out of their abundance towards the relief of these poor sufferers.

NOTES AND COMMENTS. At the sixty-eighth annual assembly of the Congregational Union of England and Wales on Monday, Dr. Joseph Parker was elected president for the ensuing year. This week we give a full report of an in- structive discussion on the proposed bacon factory for Cardigan. The views of the ex- pert will be of deep interest to farmers, and they should profit by the information given. < At a meeting of the Anglesey and Carnar- vonshire Wesleyan Council resolutions were passed disapproving of the speech and vote of Mr William Jones, M.P., in the Honse of Commons on the Roman Catholic University question. The numerous friends of fr. E. Hefin Jones, of Carnarvon, received the news of his sudden death with deep regret. Mr. Jones, who was a native of Pennal, was well known throughout the district as the repre- sentative of the firm of Messrs. J. F. Roberts, of Manchester. At a meeting of the Standing Joint Committee of the Northumberland County Council, on Monday, Capt. Fullerton James, chief constable of Radnorshire, was appointed chief constable of the county of Northumberland, at a salary of S500 per annum. These were 30 candidates for the position. We wonder to what extent has Dr; Charles Williams, of Hengwm, bestirred himself to abate the disgraceful and abominable nuisances within his district ? The medical;officer's report, as presented to the Dolgelley Rural District Council on Saturday, contained some very dark passages,. which should lie heavy upon the souls of some membess of that authority. At a meeting of the Executive Council of the Manchester Branch of the National Vigilance Association, held on Thursday afternoon,, it was unanimously resolved to petition Parliament to reject the Youthful. Offender's Bill, which proposes to empower justices to1 order boys under sixteen who had failed to, pay any fine, costs, or damages,.to be birched by a constable, as being a retrograde step, creating one law for the rich and another for the poor, and also as being a aruel and indecent punishment. It is gratifying to learn that the dairy classes held at Dinas Mawddwy during the past year, were a distinct success, and not a failure as was stated at the last meeting of the Merioneth County Governing Body. These classes are deserving of every encouragement, and it seems to be rather late in the day to question their merits and worth.. Had the classes in the other centres in the county been so well and ably espoused as were those at Dinas Mawddwy. by Mr. J. H. Bullock and Mr. E. H. Davies the result of their working would have been equally creditable. The position of those interested in country life, whether as farmers, gardeners, or land- owners, or even the lad in the lane,. wiht regard to the protection of birds, ought to be most carefully considered,, as a proposal is to be made shortly to Parliament to pass an Act making it an offence punishable by a fine of 40s. to kill or take a wild bird, or even to have one under control, between the lat day of February and the 31st of August; a fine of 20s. is also to be imposed for each egg taken. The proposal will contain a clause to grant power to the County Councils to direct exemption in the case of certain birds to be scheduled. The Rev W. Gwynne Vaughan, vicar of Bettws, has been appointed by the Director General of the Ordnance Survey, on the recommendation of the Montgomery County Council, to revise the Welsh names in Montgomeryshire. Mr Gwynne Vaughan took a first class in his final examination for Welsh at St. David's College, Lampeter, in 1888, and the prize for Welsh reading. There is a lamentable lack of accuracy not in the spelling only, but also in the fixing of place-names, in the Ordnance maps of the Welsh counties. The value of the maps would be much enhanced by a careful revision in this respect. At a meeting of the Women's Temperance Association at Manchester last week it was stated that drunkenness amongst young girls of 16 to 18 was, unhappily, much on the increase. The mischief, it was said, lay in the wretched homes, and neither mothers' meetings nor any similar meetings touched even the fringe of the question. The cream of the mothers attended the mothers' meetings, but those they failed to reach went on manufacturing debased character wholesale. Temperance people had been struck with dismay at the way in which the county councils had allowed the Inebriates Act to become a dead letter. It was absurd to ask for anything else until this Act was fully carried out. I Elsewhere we print a summary of the Annual Return of the Education Depart- ment for the past year. Cardiganshire, alas cuts a sorry figure once more-it comes out a bad third," in spite of all efforts for im- provement that followed the publication of the previous Report. The agitation for better attendance has, however, borne some fruit; there has been a slight improvement, but the averages are still scandalously low. The pages of the Report bear ample evidence that the friends of education should carry on the crusade which they have so well begun with renewed energy. A rude awakening should be given to those laggard Boards and indifferent managers whose schools keep the reputation of the county at its lowest ebb. Merionethshire is to be congratulated on maintaining its creditable position. > The successes of the agricultural students of the University College, Aberystwyth, at the recent conjoint examinations of the Royal Agricultural Society of England and the Highland Agricultural Society of Scotland are highly creditable. Mr D. n. Williams is to be congratulated upon the excellent results of his training, and more especially so when it is remembered that it is only about eight months since he left Aspatria to take up his appointment at Aberystwyth College. It is a striking testimony to Mr Williams' ability and method of teaching that the successes obtained by the students of Aspatria and Aberystwyth Colleges respectively, have this year been completely reversed. Aspatria College, which headed the list in previous years, has now had to give way to Aberystwyth. Mr J. H. Roberts, speaking in the House of Commons on the new education code, said he approved of the principle of the block grant. He welcomed any increase of school income, but when they were about to add over 3s a head to a certain class of schools out of the Imperial funds he thought they were entitled to ask whether the time had not arrived when justice required that the people should have some share in the management of those schools. He noticed that the Bishop of St. Asaph had been in- sisting that they should not have an elemen- tary school doing the work of ap. inter- mediate school. However necessary that might be, Mr Roberts said, it was more im- portant to prevent intermediate schools having to do the work of the elementary. The aim should be to lift up the schools in all parts of the country, and the greater the efficiency of the primary schools the more effective would be the work done by the in- termediate schools. —BMBWaMfgEBW———O—MDB1—^ The attention of property buyers- ancf investors generally is directed to the auction '7' announcements of properties for sale in this week's issue. At a meeting of the- Montgomery County Governing Body on Tuesday a letter was read frsmi Mrs. Edward Davies, of Plas Dinam, expressing, her desire to carry out her. late husband's intention to establish four scholarships,. tenable at county schools, in memory of his father. The scholarships will be limited to the counties of Montgomery and Glamorgan. The civilisation of Africa goes on apace.. A Hamburg correspondent states that a. British steamer sailed thence the other day with 1,000 tons weight of, spirits on board for Lagos and Southern Nigeria. He also- says that another steamer is due to leave ini a few days for the same destination, with nearly double that amount on board. Tha spirits, he- writes, consist of bad gin and worse rum,, and the trade is principally in the hands of. a few big English and German, firms.. Mr. G. B. Thomas, of Benralltfach, Oil- gerran, i& to be congratulated on the successful manner in which lie has cham- pioned the cause of the fishermen in the Tivy District. At the meeting of the Tivy Board of Conservators held in December last a bye-law was passed virtually taking off a month from the coracle net fishermen from Cenarth to Cilgerran. An appeal was. made on behalf of the men by Mr. Thomas,, with the result that the bye. law has now been disallowed by the Board of Trade. It has been held in law that custom does not justify cruelty. Frederick Hart, West- bury-on-Severn. and Edward Perks, Chase- hill, farmers, have been fmed El inclusive for an act of cruelty,, which they sought to defend on the ground of custom. From the evidence it appeared that the defendants were taking a bull, about three years old, from Churcham to Westbury. The animal had never before been on the road, and they ex- perienced much difficulty in getting it along. At one place the bull lay down on the road and refused to get up, whereupon the de- fendants resorted to the practice of putting some straw under the animal and setting fire to it.. What about the cruel custom of hunting and goading stags to death in the Royal Parks, and that barbarous sport of pigeon-shooting in which some of our magis- trates fondly indulge ? Colonel Pryce-Jones, M.P., has just had settled a matter of importance to country schoolmasters. Recently, the schoolmaster of Cemmaes, Montgomeryshire, was ap- pointed sub-postmaster for the village, an appointment which, after considerable delay, was sanctioned by the Postmaster General. Efforts being made to induce the Education Board to bring about the schoolmaster's resignation, Colonel Pryce-Jones was re- quested, in the interest of country school- masters, to take the matter up. The hon. member has received a letter stating that Sir J. Gorst has inquired into the case, and that he understands that the Board of Education are not going to insist upon Mr. Phillips's resignation. The school work, of course, must not be allowed to suffer in any way, and Mr Phillips must not infringe the Code by doing any work for the post-office during school hours. But, subject to the above, Sir John holds that the desirability of Mr Phillips holding the postmastership then becomes a question, if at all, rather for the Postmaster General than for the Board of Education. In the House of Commons on Tuseday, Mr Lloyd-George, in calling attention to the desirability of further extending the powers of County Councils, stated that he did not intend to press his motion on the subject to a division, the President of the Local Go- vernment Board having consented to receive a deputation from the Welsh County Coun- cils, who would then state their case. He moved-" That it is desirable the provision made by section 10 of the Local Government Act, 1888, for the transfer to County Coun- cils and Joint Committees of County Coun- cils of powers now vested in certain Govern- ment Departments, should be put into opera- tion forthwith and inasmuch as the Welsh County Councils are unanimously desirous of obtaining such increased powers, and the obstacles opposed by the non-county boroughs in England to the effecting of such a trans- fer are not raised by the non-county boroughs of Wales, that it is expedient the experiment of such a transfer should first of all be made in Wales." The motion having been seconded, Mr Chaplin staved that he should be glad to receive a deputa- tion on the subject, The motion was with- drawn. Truth publishes the following:—The public will probably be as astonished as I was to learn the other day that the Government have lately reduced the victualling allowance for troops conveyed to South Africa by 6d. a day. Considering all the disclosures there have been as to the feeding of the troops on board ship during the earlier stages of the war, this is one of the most monstrous and unjustifiable bits of cheeseparing ever per- petrated. When the Government is spending hundreds of thousands of pounds per diem and coming to Parliament for thirty million at a time for purposes connected with the war, surely, if expenses must be cut down somewhere, it might be done somewhere else than in the feeding of the men on their way to the front. A friend connected with the shipping trade told me the other day that the scale of food allowed by Admiralty regulations meant nothing less than starvation. His company had supplemented the official tariff at their own expense, and I dare say others have done so—luckily for our soldiers. Yet apparently the Government still thought that it was paying 6d a day too much for each man's starvation allowance. A meeting of the Executive Committee of the Federation of the School Boards of Wales and Monmouthshire was held at Cardiff on Saturday to consider the minute of the Education Department relating to Higher Grade Schools. The minute was considered in detail, and strong objection was taken to several of its provisions, es- pecially to that which placed the. age limit at 15,. the committee being unanimously of opinion that this should be extended to 18, as in Scotland. Another clause to which objection was taken was that declaring that no child should be admitted to a higher ele- mentary school that had not been for at least two years in a public elementary school, it being considered unfair that ratepayers who had educated their children in private ele- mentary institutions should be debarred from the advantages of the public higher grade schools. It was felt also that the I clause prohibiting a member of the school staff from being engaged in any other school duties during school hours practically de- barred a head-master from being joint-master over the higher elementary school and also over the ordinary section of the school, and objection was taken to the clause prohibiting the manual instructor and the teacher of chemistry and physics from giving a portion of their time to other sections of the school.

.a.R. Business Notices. -:r- IRF A-(-, -wFi,snT WEEDS AND HOMESPUNS BEAT THE WORLD FOR HARD WEAR DIRECT FROM THE MILLS. ROYAL EISTEDDFOD TRADE ARK ABERYSTWYTH,^|8«-5, c PRIZE AFEDAM. '0 ID 1866,. ESTABLISHED OVER CENTURY AND HALM7. -{ PAT f? O m S E D BY PRINCESS OF WALES ALso NOBILITY, CLERGY AND GENTRY THROUGHOUT THE fINITED,MINGDO.LNi. Also Her Majesty the Empress of Austria. Guaranteed Hand-Spun and H;fcnd-W oven from Pure Mountain Wool Qfily. The I 36^8 i only RELIABLE MATERIALS for Cycling, Golfing, Travelling, Fishing, Shooting Walkings and General Wear. Beautifully Soft, Durable and Warm suitable for Ladies, and Wear and aY. Seasons and Also, Real Welsh Flannels, Blankets, Shirtings, Skirtings, Shawls, Carriage and Germany. eiimg Rugs. ^gTOUNDING YA LI'E. Denmark. HIGH CLASS TAILORING. TAILOR-MADE COSTUMES—A Speciality. Please mention Welsh —— ALL PARCELS CARRIAGE PAID. —— .BflRlfHS PERFECT SATISFACTION GUARANTEED. ^ggBSgF Patterns, Price Lists, and Measurement Forms Post Free—with any rar-ge desired T"\ /W« £ fmd i3.#. Orders, Cheques:—Made payable to J. MEYRICK JONES,. LIMITED Russia. Austria MILLS: FACTORIES: Goa. FRONGOCH MILLS. IEYRICK STREET. J. MEYRICK JONES, Ltd., %J %J 7 7 South Africa. Royal Welsh Woollen Warehouse, Dolgelley, North Wales. u ¡ For a Few More Days Only, GREAT SALE OF MUSIC AND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AT THE Old Assembly Rooms, Aberystwyth. THE "THOLE STOCK ]^ £ L:ST BE LEAKED AT A GREAT REDUCTION No Reasonable Offer Refused. CASH OR ON THE 1, 2, OR 3 YEAR SYSTEM. Don't. Fail to Call and Inspect the Stock. luhcalkp St Sons ABERYSTWYTH. ESTABLISHED 1851. c. Powell$Co., Market Street, ABERYSTWYTH, HOME CURED EACON, SMOKED AND PALE DRIED ENGLISH CURERS OF HOME CURED BACON AND HAMS. STILTON, CLOSTER, AND AMERICAN CHEESE. FRESH MADE SAUSAGES. THE ABERYSTWYTH ENAMELLED s LATEWORKS, JJOPEWALK, A BFRYSTMYTH. MANUFACTURE r„S OF ENAMELLED SLATE CHIMNEY PIECES. Slabs of every always in stock. J Prices and estimates on application. L A T E S* DESIGNS IN memorial Cards AT THE If WELSl-i i-rTE." Charges Moderate. HALF-YEARLY SALE!! JOHN RICHARDS & Co., ABERYSTWYTII AND COUNTY TAILORS, Drapers, Hatters, Hosiers, Athletic Outfitters, and Juvenile Clothiers, ALSO LADIES" COSTUMES A SPECIALITY, OXLY MEX TAILORS EMPLOYED, TDEG to inform their numerouse customers that they will give EXTRA DISCOUNT OF 3$. IN THE POUND FOR ALL ORDERS TAKEN DURING THE MONTH OF MARCH FOR CASH, ALSO 4$. IN THE POUND OFF MEN'S, YOUTHS", AND BOYS' READY-MADE CLOTHING FROM STOCK* MADE TO OUR ORDER BY BEST MAKERS. GREAT REDUCTION IS MADE IN ALL DEPARTMENTS FOR CLEARANCE. Umbrellas# Macintoshes, Portmanteaus, Travelling Rugs* Carriage Aprons, and Cheap Mats-Good Value.