Welsh Gazette and West Wales Advertiser

GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY. A C a.m. p.m. p.m. p.m. p. m. ABERYSTWYTH Dept. 8 25 12 30 1 15 1 15 6 25 WREXHAM Arr. 1 42 5 28 5 43 6 47 10 26 CHESTER- IB30 5 55 6 8 7 10 10 53 LIVERPOOL (Landing Stage) „ 2B40 7 0 7 20 8 0 12 15 MANCHESTER (Excliange) 3B 2 8 10 8 10 g 37 ——— WOLVERHAMPTON 2 13 6 0 BIRMINGHAM 2 38 Wednes- 6 27 LONDON (Paddington)- 5 20 days only 10 50 A.—THROUGH CARRIAGE for Wolverhampton, Birmingham, and London by this Train, and Passengers are allowed one hour at Shrewsbury for Lunch. B.—Via Shrewsbury. « C.—Via Dolgelley. Passengers wishing to travel by this Train should ask for Tickets via Dolgelley when booking. PASSENGERS ARE REQUESTED TO ASK FOR TICKETS BY THE GREAT WESTERN ROUTE. Every Information respecting Great Western Train Service can be obtained of Ir. J. ROBERTS, 15, Terrace Road, Aberystwyth, or of Mr. G. GRANT, Divisional Superintendent, G.W.R., Chester. PADDINGTON STATION. J. L. WILKINSON, General Manager.

eadbury's eoeoa ABSOLUTELY PURE, THEREFORE BEST. FREE FROM ALL ADMIXTURES, SUCH AS KOLA, MALT, HOPS, ALKALI, &c. The Standard of Highest Purity."—The Lancet. ( j INSIST on having CADBURY'S (sold only in Packets and Tins), as other Cocoas are sometimes substituted for the sake of extra profit. THE CELEBRATED '(Y3IRO' RAZORS Made of the finest warranted quality Steel, POST FREE, 3s. 6d. EACH. SOLD ONLY BY M. H. DAVIS & SONS, HARDWARE MERCHANTS, ABERYSTWYTH. H. W. GRIFFITH, BOOT AND SHOE WAREHOUSE, 7, COLLEGE GREEN, TOWYN, MER. Agent for the noted K and Cinderella Boots. PEIRIANAU LLADDjGWAIR A MEDI Mowers for 1900. WALTER A, WOOD A MILWAUKEE Cedwir nifer o'r Peirianau rhagorol uchod bob amser mewn 11avv genym. Yr ydym hefyd yn gwerthu McCormick, Buckeye, Orion. Hefyd yr holl bethau angenrheidiol cysyllt- iedig a hwynt, sef Plates, Fingers, Knife ends, &c., Cyllill, a phob math o Castings at wahanol Beirianau. Files o'r gwneuthuriad goreu bob amser mewn Haw. HAY RAKES neu BEIRIANAU CRAFU GWAIR Walter A. Wood a Blackstone. SPECIAL LEADING LINES IX CHURXS. Mary Da vies & Son LLANON HOUSE, ABERAYRON, A MARKET HALL, TREGARON, bob dydd Mawrth trwy mis Mehefin, a'r Fasnach Fisol trwy'r flwyddyn. Danfonwch i mojin Frisian a Catulojnes. COMPLETE HOUSE FURNISHING. EOR THE BEST VALUE IN F U R N I T U RE CALL AT EDWARD ELLIS'S FURNISHING WAREHOUSE; gg L ITTLE JQARKGATE STREET A BERYSTWYTH. AUCTIONEER, VALUE JJOUSE AN STATE A GENT NOTICE. To those natives who reside at a distance the Welsh Gazette will be found invaluable for its complete summary of local news- North and South. The attention of Property buyers and Investors generally is directed to the Auction Announcements of Properties for Sale In our this week's issue. ——

THE UNION OF WELSH COUNTY COUNCILS. THE movement started by the Carnarvon- shire County Council and supported by nearly all the Welsh fCounty Councils is in a fair way to turn out success- fully. Now that the scheme is to be definitely placed before the counties for their approval, and to be submitted to Mr CHAPLIN for confirmation, it is well to turn and consider what benefits are likely to accrue to Wales from its adoption. It may be said that in' many directions, and in religious and educational work especially the necessity for some joint scheme of the kind has been long ago acknowledged. All the Welsh religious denominations now have their assembly or union meetings once ajjyear to decide upon questions which affect their denominations as a whole, and to give their approval or disapproval to schemes and movements affecting their respective bodies. This is also true of the educational world in Wales, and especially in the newer schemes 6 intermediate education. We have here PJ," system bearing a strong analogy to the LocalfJGovernment system, and it is a convincing proof of the necessity of the new move towards the federation of county councils that a central authority was pro- vided for in the original scheme of Welsh Intermediate Education. The new Council will probably not be able to take the initiative itself in many schemes, but the moral support it can give to schemes emanating from individual County Councils will be very great. Abstract resolutions have been passed over and over again by Welsh Councils which have had no effect simply because standing alone they do not represent a large body of opinion. Let us take as an example the case of legal and educational appointments in Wales. It is now a recognised principle that County Court judges and stipendiary magistrates in Welsh-speaking districts should at least have a working knowledge of the Welsh language. It has also been recognised as desirable that inspectors of elementary schools also should have such a knowledge. On several occasions within the last few y ea r s a vjon serrati veGo vernmen t has attempted to set these principles at defiance, and has appointed people who, through an ignorance of the Welsh language, are incapable of carrying out their duties properly. Abstract resolutions have thereupon been passed by County Councils, but the Government has in most cases seen its way clear to totally dis- regard such resolutions and treat them with contempt. We venture to say that they could not disregard a resolution on this or any other subject, passed by the joint Councils, even though it were only carried by a majority. It is not necessary to par- ticularise the directions in which a joint Council would be able to carry out adminis- trative work, for it must be clear to every person of average intelligence that for many public purposes, such as the teaching of Agriculture and Dairy work, the organisation of technical schools and extension lectures, the approval or disapproval of a line of railway, the control of their Fisheries and many other purposes, a joint Council can carry out schemes far more expeditiously and at a lesser cost than individual Councils. It is to be hoped that the Council will see its way clear from the very start to work in the strictest harmony with our University Colleges and Intermediate Schools. The multiplication of great public bodies can be of no public service unless they work in complete harmony with one another and, to use a homely expression, that each sticks to his last.

WATER SUPPLY FROM WELLS. IT is needless at this time of day to empha- size the importance of a pure and wholesome water-supply. The local authorities of a town are morally, and should be legally, responsible for the provision of this necessity of life, if labour or money can secure it. The Public Health Act of 1875, and the further Special Act of 1878, clearly points out the duty either to provide a water supply themselves, or by contract (as by a public company), or, as an alternative, to compel the owners of property to do so. If injury to health or loss of life result from the neglect of this duty, the sanitary autho- rities deserve severe censure for ignorance and incompetence in the management of public affairs. With the knowledge now existing ignorance is inexcusable, and unfit- ness for the office they assume ought to bring about impeachment before the bar of public opinion. But the question of cost is a serious one, and it is so regarded in the Acts mentioned. There are very few instances, however, in which the cost is an insuperable barrier. But what will be said of a town in this district, where no serious difficulty exists, and where an antiquated and dangerous source of supply is still used. Private feuds and cliquism have taken the place of public interests, and personal considerations are allowed to over-ride civic duties. It is difficult otherwise to account for the fact that considerable towns, like Aberayron, are still dependent on that most dangerous of all sources-well water. Some deep wells of 100 feet or more reach and tap springs or other secret stores, and yield pure and wholesome water but the cost of construc- tion is out of proportion to the quantity yielded. Artezian wells penetrate through impermeable strata, and, reaching nature's great filter, the gravel, produce abundant and excellent supplies. But the kind of well to be found in most country districts is of that pernicious type known as the shallow well. The arrangement is delightfully simple and economical, and falls in with that exclusiveness which does so much to hinder improvement and mar all progress. A man buys or leases a bit of ground. He dumps a house down in one part, a well in another, a cesspit in a third, and a colony of pigs and poultry in a fourth. Springs are few and far between, and he probably has none on his ground. He sinks his well 10, 15, or 30 feet until he reaches the water. What water ? Simply subsoil water which hasfound its way from the surface of the ground, or some subterranean channel. To get as much as possible, and serve the expense of sinking, he places the well at the lowest point in his garden. The cesspit or pool is placed conveniently near his dwelling- house. It soaks through or overflows on the ground, and the fluid portion (partially filtered no doubt) finds its way eventually to the well. A well drains literally an area of a diameter of four times its depth, and if the soil is porus, or the well heavily pumped, may drain a much larger area. Then the pigstyes are neither beautiful no odoriferous, and they make their contributions to the contents of the well. Unless carefully built. and surrounded by a parapet, surface water finds its way into wells. It is quite easy for the analyst to distinguish a well-water, though it is often bright and sparkling; arid pleasant to the taste. The stock argument against condemning well-water, is the frequent good health and longevity of those who use it, But this fact, surprising as it is, constitutes a fallacious argument. Can- nibals are said to be a very healthy race, but we do not recommend their diet. Men employed in sewers are not more unhealthy than other people, but we would not seek the mephetic odours of a sewer for a change of air. It is really a question of use and habit overcoming the tendency of nature to resent any impurity. Of course boiling and filtering will render any water wholesome which is not too far gone but these precautions are practically out of reach for the masses of the people. It is quite time to leave off jealousy and petty wrangling, and set to work with one mind and heart on such a vital question as that of water supply. The weakness of a chain is its weakest link, and however healthy a place may be, an impure water supply will bring about a catastrophe sooner or later. Typhoid or cholera may make some of its inhabitants victims, but the sanitary authorities will be the real culprits.

WORSE THAN THE WAR. MR. LEONARD COURTNEY, M.P., who presided over a large open-air temperance demonstra- tion of his constituents at St. Germain's, in referring to the war said the subject had agitated men's minds to a degree unparal- leled in the memory of this generation. Whatever opinions might be held by differ- ent men as to the incidents attendinsr the <.J commencement of hostilities and the policy leading up to the war, they were all watch- ing with keen anxiety the terrible conflicts to which our countrymen have been exposed. We mourned the loss of friends, said Mr COURTNEY, and watched with keen anxiety from day to day to learn what might have befallen relatives in the field of conflict. We all mourned the loss of life and lamented the loss of money, the fruit of man's toil. The wasted work and wasted lives enchained our attention and aroused our sympathies, yet it was most painfully and tragically true that great as was the cost of the war both in lives and labour, and in the desolation it caused, the enemy against which that demonstration was organized had slain more men and consumed more of the fruits of toil than the present war. Put as high as one might the cost of the war, and the number of lives shortened by it, yet the cost of strong drink far exceeded it. Still we were excited by the one and viewed with tolerable equanimity the ravages of the other. It ought not to be so because the lives lost in South Africa were spent in the service of the country, and a noble purpose inspired by patriotism, even though some believed it was misplaced. Patriotism alone was the cause for which our soldiers had suffered, and their memories were treasured as memories of honour. But the victims of the other evil were dis- honored and handed down only traditions of shame to those who come afterwards. At last, however, the interest in temperance was increasing and spreading from class to class. The active forces in this country would be aroused and enlisted in the cause. Members of both political parties recognised that even if their political existence was imperilled by an alliance with one side, yet they could not get on without it. The Liberal party might like to drop Local Veto, but liquor legislation was a thing that politicians could neither live with nor live without. Speaking as one detached from parties, Mr COURTNEY said he thought the prospect of the immediate success of their movement was not great. In the present Parliament they might reckon on the Mon- mouth Bill being passed, but not perhaps the Children's Bill.

BOER v. BRITON. A Plea for a Sane and Safe Settlement. Nationality the Basis. [BY LLEWELYN WILLIAMS]. The war is nearly over. Johannesburg and Pretoria have fallen. President Kruger is on his way to the Lydenburg hills. British arms are triumphant. The Boers are beaten. Now cedant arma togae. The task of the statesman begins. The glories of war must give way to the humdrum work of reconstruction. Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war," and in this case they will be much harder to win. Any fool can annex," said Sir Edward Grey a few weeks ago, and it is equally true that any fool can talk khaki." The political genius of the British people is about to be put to a severe test. The problem they have to face is as difficult and complex as any they have ever had to solve. Will they emerge out of the ordeal as triumphantly as their soldiers have from the war? The issue is fraught with the gravest consequences not only to Boers and Britons but to the whole world. Let us drop all cant about magna- nimity and generosity. The task we have to perform is one that must be considered coolly, calmly, unemotionally. Never again must be our watchword. Never again" must we have a repetition of the events of the last six years. Never again must white men sue unsuccessfully for political rights. Never again" must armaments be stored in South Africa except by the Imperial forces. Never again" must it be in the power of any State, company, or person to deluge the country with blood. It is easy work to cry "never again it must be the task of statesmanship to discover the conditions which will make such a policy at once safe, economical, and practicable. LORD SALISBURY'S SOLUTION. Lord Salisbury has given us his solution.' Not a shred of independent government' must be left to the Boers. Mr Chamberlain has descended to details. There must be a period of military rule, followed by an indefinite period of "Downing-streetism." The Tory, and Jingo papers acclaim this policy with jubilant shouts as the counsel of perfection. Is this the last word of British statesmanship on the question ? If it is, then God help England Are the lessons of the past and the instincts of human nature to be ignored in the settlement ? The lessons of the past show that Thomas Davis, the Young Ireland poet, was right when he said There never was a nation yet j That ruled another well." The broad record of history demonstrates the folly of force as the foundation of rule. We lost our American colonies when we tried to coerce them. We have not yet lost South Africa, because we are able to send a quarter of a million soldiers against 40,000 peasants. But the inequality in numbers will not always last. The Boers multiply faster than the Britons in South Africa. Already the little has become great, the weak has become a strong nation. Sir Evelyn Wood with 12,000 men could have overcome the Boers in 1881 the number has to be multiplied twenty-fold in less than twenty years. What will happen in another twenty or thirty years. The French in Canada increase quite as rapidly, and to the differences of race and language there was in their case to be added the secular hostility of Latin and Anglo-Saxon and the great gulf of separate and clashing religions. Yet the French Canadians who revolted sixty years ago are loyal to-day. Let us take the lesson to heart and strive to imitate in South Africa the Liberal policy-which was scouted by the Tories of the day-which has proved so successful in Our Lady of Snows." TIIE INSTINCT OF NATIONALITY. Let us, of all things, be slow to despise or ignore the ineradicable sentiment of nation- ality. Let us, by no rude or ungentle touch, try to uproot it or to sap its vitality. The instinct has been implanted in the hearts of men by the hand of Providence. Man canno with impunity interfere with it. The national sentiment of the Dutch, with wise direction need not conflict with the Imperial interests of Britain. Rather can it be trained by the scientific hand to be a support and an embellishment of British rule. What have we gained in Ireland by a senseless devotion to uniformity of type in language, manners, and institutions? Ireland to-day is the black spot in the glorious page of our history. Wales retains her language she cherishes it with an undying love. Do the Welsh Fusiliers march to battle with less heroism because they keep pace with the martial strains of the "March of the men of Harlech ? Do the Gay Gordons show less gallantry because they are clad in kilt and tartan ? Nay, more have Scotsmen done less service to the Empire because they are Scotsmen first and Britishers afterwards? Our national distinctions, so far from weaken- ing our Imperial power, have added both strength and picturesqueness to it. Our Empire is composed of men of many races. Any effort to reduce them to one dead level of uniformity must inevitably fail. It is the path of wisdom, as well as of generosity, to recognise and cultivate the feeling of nationality. There is greater charm and power in harmony than in unison. THE FUTURE. Just think of the future. Most of our political crimes have been due to a lack of imagination. Is it too much to ask English- men to look beyond the present at the state of things which must come to pass twenty years hence ? Surely it does not require a great stretch of imagination to do that Let us suppose that Mr. Chamberlain has his way and that every vestige of independ- ence will be crushed out in the Republics. A new generation of Boers will have grown up who will have forgotten or not known the miseries and disasters of the present war. They will be more numerous than their fathers different, no doubt, in many ways. Kruger, Joubert, and Cronje wilfbe but names to them-glorious names of heroes who fought for the independence of their country. Their faults and follies will have been forgbtten as effectively as the crimes of Bruce and Wallace, of Llewellyn and Glendower, of Owen Roe O'Neill have been forgotten or condoned by the national- ists of Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. They will remember only the heroic stand, and ignore the surrender, at Paardeberg. They will dwell on the crowning mercies of Colenso, Spion Kop and Magersfontein, and they will put all the defeats down to the overwhelming weight of numbers. Paul Kruger will be to them not the narrow bigot and tyrant he is to many English minds, but the war-worn veteran and statesman, who inspired and directed his countrymen in their last fight for freedom. The era of the Republics will be to them the golden age of Afrikanderdom it will be the lost ideal which they will strive to bring back. And who that knows the undying vitality of nationhood will say that they will not in time succeed ? Sure I am, as the sun will rise to-morrow, that the whole might of Britain will not avail against the kindling spark of national sentiment. WHAT SETTLEMENT ? Our storied past, replete with many triumphs and some failures, should guide us to a wise and prudent and successful settle- ment. It is not by crushing out, but by directing national sentiment that we shall succeed in founding our rule in South Africa on a lasting basis. If we build upon the shifting sands of commercialism we shall find our house falling in the day of storm. We must build on the bed-rock of national- ism. The one permanent factor in South Africa is the nationality of Boer and Briton. It is by bringing the two together in equal political converse that we shall succeed. At present the Dutch are bound to be far more susceptible of the slightest insult or indifference to their nationality than ever before. We went to war for equal rights for all white men." Are we going to belie our professions and our pledges at this moment of our victory ? Are we to become forsworn in the sight of the nations of the world ? Is our word to be treated as naught? Time was when Britain's word was her bond. The weak nations of the world looked up to her as their natural guardian and protector. She has made possible the national independence of Italy and Greece, of Montenegro, of Servia, Bulgaria, and Roumania. If she allowed Bohemia and Poland to be divided among the robber nations of the Continent she at all events had no hand in the crimes against the rights of man, And are we now, for the sake of the helots of Park Lane," the alien financiers of the Rand, to turn our backs upon our past? We seek no gold, we seek no territory." They were the words of the Prime Minister of the Queen one month after the outbreak of the war. Were the words meaningless, or is our country the perfidious Albion which our neighbours have pictured. NATIONAL RIGHTEOUSNESS. It is not bulk, it is not military power, it is not wealth or trade, it is righteousness