The Cambria Daily Leader

THE SWANSEA OF TO- MORROW. Two years ago Swansea had a spell of planning upon the grand scale. We i had presented to us elaborate and simple plans of shore reclamation which would bring back part of Swan- sea Bay into its state in .earlier times, when there were farmsteads where now the high tide runs. Opinion upon these varied widely. Engineers ex- pressed themselves definitely for andi against their practicability. Public men professed themselves as either aghast at the cost, or delighted at the comparatively reasonable eosit of a working scheme. In the multiplicity of counsel there was no clearness. We got no further. And after some week s of airy castle-building, of planning, and criticism, the idea, of ex ten/ling Swan- sea towards the a drooped out of local discussion. We believe Mr. Richard Martin's in- teresting lecture last night will revive interest in the project. He re-intro- dwed it with unambitious beginnings; and it was the boldness of the first schemes which kept them out of the field of things possible. For the de- tails we refer our readers to the re- port. Briefly, his contentions may be thus put: Nature has placed two harriers against Swansea, under present conditions, becoming a first rate watering place. The first its that the tide recedes too far, that a. near panorama of water is an essential. The second that the tide, for various reasons, is too muddy, And, says Mr. Mavcia, Jf we persist, as we should, with the idea of Swansea becoming again—as it was in the p*u»t—a iirt>t-cla«.e; watering place wo mu-.t get nearer the sea, by itipaiis of shore reclamation. We have already iseeu that the extended West Pier, acting as, a gigantic groin, i piling up the &and in other parte of the bay. Why not, then, work upon this prin- ciple? Why not insert groins at cer- tain points near the Pier, and accumu- late ancl there, and make this the be- ginning of a large scheme to be at- tacked gradually? We believe expert opinion favours Mr. Martin's, view on the point. In the next place, behind tbi,s natural sea front which nature its*>!f would help to construct, and which would bring us much neaxer the low water line, we could go in for a policy of land-making, by de- positing clinker from a dust-destructor erected in a convenient spot, by pre- vailing upon works proprietors with frontages upon the Tiver to bring their slag and other refuse to the spot. Thus, in the course of time, a. very valuable and attractive .sea-front would be secured, running down to 33rvnmi.ll stream, and giving us, towards the West Pier, very many acros cf made I ground, the uces of which need not oc dwelt upon. The idea in varying forms has en- gaged the attention of our corporation officials, and we think that the modi- fications of the earlier proposals will at any rate set Swansea people again dis- I cussing the matter with iiioto practical considerations in mind than hitherto. For that reason we welcome Mr. Martin's valuable suggestions, and trust that they will receive from the townspeople the attention they deserve. The day of small things has passed for Swansea, and we will do we l if we set our minds upon big projects to ad- vance the old town.

JACK JOHNSON. Alderman Miles was: quite right when at yesterday's Watch Committee he said that the objection to Jack Johnson's exhibition at Swansea was not because of his colour. There are other, and graver objections, with which our readers will be well ac- quainted. When we raised the question in these columns last week, we were not con- cerned, for the time, with the ethics of boxing or prize-fighting, or the fixing 0 0' up of a match or exhibition between a white man and a black man. Upon this latter matter, the" Manchester Guardian" has published a sensible reply to the arguments of the "Times" and the others who cry out against prize- fights and boxing shows in which Jack Johnson takes part. As the "Guardian" points out, what the objectors most dread is that Johnson should be matched against an English- man. "In that case, as they feel, the Englishman might be beaten; indeed he I almost certainly would; and they fear that this would make negroes uppish in British Africa. It has always been a sacred tradition among us that the negro, on the whote, is no good with his fists, and the tradition has the sup- port of numberless ca-ses in which British colonials have related in British bars and smoking-rooms that with one well-placed blow they sent some contumacious nigger spinning, and that the nigger then curled up at once and was permanently improved. This tradition the negro race has been pretty widely asked to imbibe, and it is feared that the good work thus done nJght be partly undone if it were known that the best negro botfer had beaten the best Englishman." But, as the sturdy Manchester journal con- cludes, there is no middle course, either logical or creditable, between the alternatives of letting all come and the best man win. and of surrendering the joys of looking on in a dress coat while two expensively .hired persons show strength, skill, and courage for your amusement, The local objection, however, is upon other grounds. Mr. Milbourne Wil- liams, for instance, is more concerned we should imagine about the record of Jack Johnson than about the fact that a black man is advertised to box at Swansea. As a matter of fact, black men do frequently box in the town. The difficulty to be faced is that the American pugilist has offended against our ideas and ideals, and we believe that the Watch Committee will have behind it the goodwill of all sections of the community—sporting and non- .sporting-when it approaches the pro- moters "pointing out that they do not think it desirable that Jack John- son should come to the town."

THE APPLAUDING PUBLIC. I "The Apostles" is now with the triumphs of the past, but whilst) the impression of it is still vivid in Swan- sea minds there is a moral to be drawn. Elgar's work closes upon a great climax of Alleluias, but the last few notes drop down to a bare pianissimo, over which is heard a beautiful arabesque effect upon the harp. The harpist en- gaged for Monday evening's concert was one of the nicst expert players in the country, and as. an arti-st.e to his finger-tips, he was. anxious that the great work should conclude as the composer intended it to, that the end should be gentle and sweet calm. Those who were at the concert will know what happened. When part of the audience caught the clue, from the increasing volume of song that the bHi was approaching, it commented straightway to applaud, and thereafter the work uiigUt have been done in dumb show for all the sound that came from the i'la^form. Impetuosity in re- cognising is an excellent trait, but when, as upon this occasion, it serves to obscure the message of the composer it i if, he deploreU. Jt is a bad habit we have got into at Swansea, and the oOOJier we cure ourselves or jt the better for music. It is no compli- ment to choir or conductor to refuse to listen to the last notes. LI >

TOWN PLANNING. I Wastage of Uncontrolled I Development. (BY EDCAR L. CHAPPELL.) I A glance at a street map of any old town will provide ample evidence of the failure of the landowner to consider the public welfare. Streets have' beeh arranged without regard to the conveni- ence or loot passengers or traffic, or to the probable future development of the districts in which they are situated. In busy commercial centres the road- ways are often too narrow, with the re- sult that the public are subjected to considerable inconvenience, and the con- g""St i oii of ?,A- l iec,, I e d gestion of wheeled traffic results in great lass of time and wealth. Usually, also, no provision has been muclo for quick transport from one town to another, or from one part of a, town to another, and the consequent delay lead-s not only to inconvenience, but also increases tho expense of product ton. No care Jha? been taken beforehand, a?ain, to ensure the careful disposition or shopp;n? areas. Dwellings and 'shop? are often mixed together in a very in- '1 congruous fashion, with consequent i depreciation to the former if not to tho I latter. The loss of amenity occasioned by this inefficiency of management is very great. Again, little regard has been paid to the importance of regulating town development so as to safeguard the public health. The crowding of a large number of dwellings on each acre of land ha<s been productive of considerable sickness and high death rates. Great anxiety has been occasioned to the sufferers and their friends, and huge expenditure has been incurred by the ratepayers in the provision of hospitals, sanatoria, workhouses, and the various recuperative services. Further, there is the loss c-f pleasure and comfort issuing from lack of control of urban architecture, the lack of open spaces, the non-provision of gardens to dwelling-houses. The monetary loss occasioned by the failure of the land developer to re-serve isites for schools, public offices, hospitals, churches, and ,i. Ls, c h urch es, an d other public institutions again is immense, for usually the demand for these institutions is not considered until aU the available land has been utilised, and residents or shopping sites have to be cleared at, great expense to provide suitable building space. The and numerous other wastages arise from the failure of private indi- viduals to control town devolopment in the public interest. The Town Planning Act enables local authorities to avoid these evils-tliey have now wide powers which enable them to over-ride the whims of individual landowners.

SWANSEA SE W ERA GE. I To tho Editor. I Sit- Your interesting articles on the new method of treating sewage will doubtless be studied keenly by ail who take an intelligent interest in the municipal affairs of Swansea. The utilization -of waste products is a theme upon which mucli energy has been expended for many years past, but it is a well-known fact that only a little of the many processes discovered have reached maturity, and proved to be what their originators claimed. Over 30 years ago a process of converting sewage sludge into a valuable fertiliser was adopted. The birth of the company was heralded with a great fanfare of trumpets, scientific and financial, and yet we hear absolutely nothing of it to-day. The Royal Commission on Sewage Disposal published a re.port in 1908 which stated that the value of the nitrogenous sludges investigated by them was very little,, from an agri- cultural point of view, in fact, the best of them was not worth more than 10s. per ten, on the farm. Is there any reason to expect that the Dickson fertiliser will prove to be any more valuable than these? If not, it is difficult to see how the process can be made a commercial success. The treatment of effluents by the Centrifuge process reads well, but an important piece of information is lack- ing. The Royal Commission laid it down that an effluent should not con- tain more than three-parts of suspended matter per 100,000. Doeis the Centri- fuge Process fulfill this condition ? Such questions as the above need to be answered satisfactorily before we can expect our municipal authorities to move in the matter.—Yours etc., More Light." I [Several sentences have been deleted which we do not think should appear u-u der a uow-de-plume.-Ed. C.D.L.j

Welsh Farming. 0- ——— The Facts of an Official Report. (By W. LI. Williams) EVERYWHERE the young men of our agricultural districts are migrating in a steady stream— the most energetic, enterprising, ambi- tious. Married men go and their fami- t i ()u.s. I l lias follow as soon as nrnds permit. The picture presented by the Report of the Board oi Agriculture is that of incessant movement either to the towns or Canada. Why should they not go? Naturally they want to make the best of hie, and there are few chances in England and Wales for the man whose only or main capital is his labour. Land is locked up here in few hands. Labour is badly rewarded, and the dweller oil the land merely exists. Why should the man in Tenbury (Glos.) who earned per day not accept 2s. 6d. per hour in Canada." Or why should a Gloucestershire plough- man, aged 18, earning 10s. per week, not go to New Zealand and get 8s. per day on landing 'i Hundreds from a single district and thousands from some counties have gone across the seas. That is the proof of rural depopulation. The Conditions in Wales. But all this is more true of Wales than of England. Every single in- fluence operates more powerfully in Wales. The first proof is that whilst only two English counties show de- creases in density of population seven show such decrease in Wales. Merioneth shows a decrease of 6.73 per cent, Mont- gomery of 3.20, Radnor of 2.97, Cardi- gan 1.96. Carnarvon 1.68. and Anglesey 0.58. But then wages in Wales touch a lower level than in the lowest English counties e.g., labourers in Cardigan- shire gets lis. Gd. (cash) per week. and only lis. Id. (cash) in Radnorshire. In the lowest paid English counties, viz., Suffolk. Norfolk, and Oxfordshire, cash wages are 12s. 5d., ]2s. 7d., and 12s. lid. respectively. The average cash wages for Wales is 16s. 2d. per week, but that figure is only reached by the comparatively .large wages paid in dis- tricts Avbere competition industries have increased the standard all round. Decrease in Arable Land. Farther, the housing conditions in Wak\S are deplorable—one investigator terms them a disgrace to civilisation. From them the labourer gladiy flees either to the industrial centres, or to Canada. But even more potent in its effect upon the population i, the steady decrease of arable land which neces- sarily means a smaller demand for ail forms of skilled, labour. In 1876 Wales had 1,011,151 acres of .arable land, in 1912 only 772,860. Permanent grass in I 1.870 totalled 1,697,946 acres, III 1912 it was 2,223,758 acres. The following table exhibits its effect upon labour in IVales x Gcneral Farm Ordinary Farm Year. Workers. Servants. ]881 82.846 45.660 ISO 1 80,128 42.525 34,560 Even more striking is the decrease shown in this t.able giving the numbers of those occupied in agrictiltut-al labuui- in Wales:— Class. 1881. 1911. Shepherds r 830 1,0151 Far:u Bailiffs f?3 ),!(? La bourers 45.665 35,085 Farmers Gi-aziers 55,390 35,295 North Wales. Hen- then we have the evidence of the depopulation of rural Wales directly traceable to the conditions, economic and social, that obtain against which the labourer in England and Wales is in open revolt. Hence this Official Report (p.p 29-33) states that in the five counties in North Wales there is OIL the w hole a de- ficiency of labour; in four central counties it declares that "except in part of Montgomeryshire the supply of labour is inadequate, and the in- adequacy is due to permanent causes; that in the S.E. of Radnor there is a serious deficiency of farm labour generally; that in the Builth Wells district of Brecon the .shortage is very great, and in Cardigan it is said that a large proportion of the good labourers leave the district." South Wales. So far as South Wales is concerned it states that "the number of labourers permanent and temporary has de- creased in almost every locality." "that the supply of lalxuir is gener- ally insufficient, and that in Carmar- thenshire the inadequate supply of labourers is only met by the employ- ment of boys from (English) industrial and reformatory school.s. and that in "the Llandovery rnion these boys are said to constitute 40 or 50 per cent, of the young labourers who live in." This I-aist fact has special signi- ficance, and its own peculiar dangers. Here 1 only mention it as additional evidence or the depopulation of Rural Wale*. Welsh la bour is no longer procurable for working Welsh soil! The rural population gees to the towns and Canada, and the residence of English towns must be imported to maintain Welsh agriculture in existence. No wonder that it is below the standard of other parts of the United Kingdom, that the average yield per acre (corn, hay, clover, permanent graiss), is over t:3 per acre less than that of Ireland! Welshmen prosper anywhere save on the soil of Wales. The only place where he cannot find an opening and a career is on the soil of his native land. Out to Alter It. The Liberal Government are out to alter that. The facts constitute the strength and the urgency of the demand for Land Reform. That tho unofficial report does not exaggerate the general conditions of rural life is shown by this official report, and it justifies the view that Mr. Lloyd Georgo has so eloquently set before the people that this is the most difficult and pressing problem that confront.s British statesmen to- day.

An enlarged and greatly improved Liberal Club was opened at Beckenham on Monday. It was announced in, last night's Gazette" that Lord Parmoor (Sir Alfred Cripps, K.C.), had been ap- pointed a member of the Judicial Com- mittee of the Privy Council. The death took place last night, at the age of 87, at Craigend Liberton, near Edinburgh, of Mr. Henry Grierson. one of the directors of the North British Railway Company. An Army Order published it Alder- shot- yesterday states that when a soldier whose name is on the waiting list to marry is posted to another battalion the date of his request shall go with bim, so Aat biti marriage is not unfairly delayed.

News & Views The Hospital of the Future. The hospital of the future, saYfi a doctor, will be in the open country. Ribbon Trains. Some of the most celebrated French houses have started a vogue for ribbon trains on evening dresses with curious and striking results. Hot Water Bottie Danger. A lady corre.s.pondent supplies par- ticulars of four cases in which people have been severely burned with hot- water bottles. Anniversary of Cordon's Death. Yesterday being the anniversary of the death of General Gordon of Kivir- toum, his statue in Trafalgar Square was decorated with wreaths. School Opened for Five. Only five children are on tho register of Aughton School, seven mikti from Lancaster, one of the smallest schools in England. Recently an in- spector found but two children present. Where Cataract is a Convenience. Beavers at the London Zoo formerly never appeared before sunset, but now can be seen at any hour, because the male is suffering from cataract, and unable to distinguish between daylight and dusk. A Scientist's Criticism. The chief or the only topic of pre- sent-day dramatists seems to be the embroidery of the different varieties ot infidelity, and the poets are makiug- their poems out. of the very offal of out language.—Prof. Silvanus Thompson. The Piper's Paradise. A musician once wrote that to hear 11 or his "Domestic Symphony," always made him think of the old Scotch piper, who said Ah I there's ane nicht 1 sail n'ea forget- There were nineteen pipers beside mvsel' a,' in a wee bit parlour a' play in' different tunes. I just tbocht I was In heaven The Truthful Age. "Children are always the best wit- nesses at this age," said Mr. Walter Schroder at a St. Pancras yesterday after hearing the evidence of a boy of twelve named Edmund Mar- shall. They are at an age when they have no desire to varnish the truth or diminish its significance. It k, j' util, » plain, 6impie talc they tell." Don'ts for American Dancers. An ingenious New York lady has issued a list of "don'ts" for dancers who aim at griice and gentility1. They are advised not to wriggle the shoulders, shake the hips, twist the body, flounce the elbows, liop instead of glide, or favour acrobatic "dips." They are likewise asked to bear in mind that they arc at a social gatlief- ing, and not in a gymnasium. Maxim Gorki's isolation. j The St. Pesterslmrg correspondent' I of the "Petit .Journal" learns that Maxim Gorki, who recently returned to Russia, and is living in an isolate^ house, has not been seen by anyone ex- cept those of his own household since his return. His sister .stated to » press representative that her brother had, transformed the bouse into a. fort- ress in order to render it inaccessible to visitors. He t.akos a lonely walk ealiy every morning. Bubbly Jock. The decorative scheme cboscn for the Chelsea Art-So Club Ball aL the Albert Hall on March 4th is toO be an old English fair. A mediaeval supper, wjJ1 comprise venison pasties, barons of beet, boars' heads, capons, and" bubhlY Jock." A Yorkshire dish which is said to have been extinct for 200 year-s> "bubbly Jock" is a pasty made rruIJJ "tho flesh of a turkey, the flesh of goose, a whole ham, with pheasants and other small birds cooked together." A Sunshine City Offer. A journalistic curiosity is the "Independent" of St. Petersburg (Florida), the sunshine city." To show its belief in the town's title, the "Independent" offers to give away it* entire issue on any day on which the sun does not shine upon it& office, before three in the afternoon. Its faith has been justified by the fact that it ha;5 only been called upon to fulfil its offer nineteen times in three years. Tramcar Laws. The following decision from Wands- worth County Court, in which the judge found for the L.C.C., is of in' terest to tram car travellers. Plaintiff said that while on the platform hø rang the bell for the oar to stop. "W car slowed up, but there was a sud den jerk, and lie wa^ thrown into the road. For the L.C.C. it was conten- ded that the plaintiff had no right to go downstairs while the tram was In motion, and that he should have told the conductor where he wished tO alight, and waited for the tram to stop- £ 100 for Best Horseshoe. Over 800 horseshoes are now t out in a large room of the R.S.P.C A- buildings, in Jermyn-street. They have been submitted in response to an offer of £100 in a competition organised h! the Roads Improvement Association- They come from all parts of the world) and about 75 per cent. are of British make. Twenty»per cent. came from the United States. Rubber is said to be the best "non-stip" material, but it is costly, and the prize shoe may be one of those which allow the frog to touch the ground. Robert Burns' Character. A correspondent in a London paper .to-dav quotes the following extract froia Wordsworth with which Andrew LanfS ends his essay on Robert Burn6:- "It is probable that he would bal-* proved a still greater poet if, bf strength of reason, he could have con- trolled the propensities which his i^ensi' bilities engendered but lie woo Id haye been a poet of a different class. And certain it is, had that desirable restraint been early established, many peculiar beauties which enrich his verges could never have existed, and many necessary influences, which contribute greatly to their effect, would have been wanting. Long's comment on thits is that, "1]1. this temperate wisdom, we really have the last word on the character and genius of Bums. The Vinegar War. A war in which one firm defied seventeen is bein waging in the vine- gar trade, and the market- is being flooded with "wood" or "acid" vinegaJ" at prices which barely pay tho costs oi manufacture and distribution. Eighteen months ago sei-enteeii firms of vinegar brewers combined and raised the whole- sale price of malt vinegar from .3!d to 6d. a gallon. Six months later the pi-ice was further raised to 7d. a gal- lon, and that price has also been fixtd for the current year. One funa» Sarsons, Lindtod, of City-road, N., do- clined to .ioLn the "combine," and s?H* malt vinegar at a penny a gallon les* The combine stopped making a-rtiirc? vinegar, but, as Sarsons will not com# into line on the question of malt vine- gar they are flooding the market wit" it at 2(1 a gallon, baa-sorta' pi-iao 3d. to 11d,