The Cambria Daily Leader

Sun Rises 5.40, Sun Sets 8.43. I Lighting-up Time, 9.13. High Water, 0.37 a.m. I King's Dock, 32ft. lOin. To-morrow, 1.4 p.m. I

THE G.W.R. AND I SWANSEA. i Our columns yesterday gave some indication of the feeli.1g of business men towards the service of trains I we are obtaining from the Gre it Western Railway but we have only I touched the ir-nge of the field of i complaint agamst the company. The London ten-ice Is notoriously indifferent; but there are other in- flective and defective services. One was pointed out to us yesterday by the Mayor of Swansea. From Car- diff there are splendid trains to and trom the north, a Swanea travel- ler, returning with one of these, may be lucky enough to get a go?i connection at Cardiff but it fre I quently happens that he has to WT?L an hour or two, and then come home in a local which calls at I all the intermediate stations. Ths 1 Mayor's suggestion is that the company should be asked to extend this northern service to Swanse, I where a rapid connection does not already exist. The whole matter of Swansea's railway services wants looking into. The Midland trams are the mini- mum of use to the residents of th? l valley. The London and North I' Western Railway trains, both local Mid main, are not good enough for I a town of the importance of Swan- sea. It ought not to take one thres hours to reach Llandrindod, and five to reach Shrewsbury. We arc in the twentieth century, and not tho first decade of railway travel Swansea tolerated its miserable railwav facilities during the war with quiet uncomplaining. Now it lp time to kick, and to kick hard. If the Chamber of Commerce took up the matter first, and acted with its usual energy, wo are certain that the companies can be made to ee^ the error of their ways and pre vailed to treat Swansea as becoming its size and importance. We know ma,nv a little village that would long ago have been shouting with anger at a service Swansea has so far accepted with resignation.

"ABOMINABLE." I Yes truly, Ald. Gwynne, the con- ditions in Trinity-place are abomi- nable, and it is a wonder that the girls are able to learn under the present conditions! But it is not a j newly-found problem. Years ag), many years ago, the Cambria Daily Leader published a series of special articles dealing with the state of some of the Swansea schools, and especially of some of the buildings in "temporary" use; and the condition—the scandalous condition—of the Girls' Higher I Grade School was described ill frank and indignant language. It is indeed abominable that deli- cately-nurtured girls should be compelled to accept the condition* that have been prevalent for years I at the school; we wonder how I many of them have weakened 2n health through its draughts and its dilapidated rooms! It is a duty that the Education Authority can- not avoid to get a new school erec- ted at the earliest possible date, and to give the girls of Swansea a < hance to receive their education under conditions at least tolerable.

MINISTRY OF HEALTH. Avoiding the temptation to I prophesy i;- may be reasonably an- ticipated that, in addition to the work which devolves upon it ?ndr the present Bill, the Ministry of Health may in the future promote further legislation to enable it to I separate every health service from Poor Law taint, to put the non- health part of the Poor Law into the hands of other authorities, and to reorganise local health adminis- tration, which is now divided be- tween various public authorities. Jt is all to the good that this latter business is not contemplated at the outset and in the. present Bill. That Bill, as one exponent of it points out, is intended first of all to equip the nation with a thoroughly up-to- date machinery for combating dis- ease and promoting health, and ro abolish the delay and duplication tha,t arises from having divided re- sponsibility for what is essentially one problem. You can no more make a nation absolutely sound by Act of Parliament than you can make a nation absolutely sober bv Act of Parliament. But just as vou can promote sobriety by wisp legislation so you can promote health by wise legislation. The- is no absolute safeguard against the result* of reglect, carelessness, vice, and hereditary defect. But it is our duty to leave nothing un done that we can do to make Britain a nation of clear-minded and clean, fit-bodied men and froraen. The Ministry of Health Bill will enable us to discharge that duty. <

A COLLIER POET  I  of an I The Sweet Songs of an I Ammanford Bard. I > By Schoolmaster. I i The Cambria Daily Leader" has a j special interest in the new Welsh poet, Aruanwy," whose verse has gained the plaudits of the lending Welsh bards; since it was the Herald of Wale.?" which gave him first encouragement by printing his poems. I Thc? are days when the worM is watch- ing the rapid d0velopmcnt of --vat issues. We are living ia ?ar'ious titles. Ths?k' to our literary friends, we live in happy I' times also, especially those of us who lçv., a book and a rhyme. For lovers of Welsh, and of Welsh poatry, a delightful feast of I choice dainties "has hren provided by the ¡ Amman Valley Chronicle" Printing Offices, in their publication of "Ambdl Gainc," a collection of lyrics, sonnets, and odes by Mr. D. R. Griffiths, Ammanford. Mr. Griffiths has been a keen and very ETieoessful Eisteddfodwr for several years; his chairs number over thirty, apart from other trophies. He has acted a.s adjudi- cator at many an eisteddfod cf note, and is cla-ssed by one of the keenest of Welsh critics of the bardie family among the j ten bast poets of the duy. Not a bad posi- I tion for a miner--self-taugbt, when our Universities I)oiir out ardent Welsh men who grapple with the Muse as Jacob did with the angel. But his training has been a thorough one; he has acquainted him- self with the best form and style of our older Welsh poets—a noble band whose work is still too little known even in Cymrodorion circles. His battles witL words and phrases and idioms and gram- mar have been of necessity many and fiery. but he hae won through. Here we have a master of verse, a scholar in Welsh, and, more than all, a friend of the Mupe, a mind poetic in its outlook and a heart responsive to the ten- der and true as well as to the great and noble. In D.R.G.'s a Ambell Gainc" we have some of the sweetest thoughts clothed in choicest diction imaginable. When the South Wales coalfield was sup- posed to be rattling towards disaster,; Amanwy," as he is popularly known, was busily contriving to enrich our literary store with an output of exeep- tionally fine poems. This collection con- tains no notes of melodrama, of vulgarity or harshness, no insane dreams heaped into verse. Rather we have a list of sub- jecta that suggest at once the noble, the true, and tho morally uplifting, sweet without cloying. The list here given is only suggestive—" Yr Ynys Wen," Casglu Blodau," Afallon," Disgwyl Dai," "Yr Hen Wcddiwr," "Ax y Traeth," G wladgnrweh," Llafur," Cone west y Pur," "Y Tan Cymreig," Dadeni'r Gwerinwr." Arwriaeth," Y Cartref Delfrydol," Y Ddaear Newydd." What a variety! and how sweetly gavoured, leaving no bitter taste rn the mouth when the repast ie-over. These subjects are treated in no hack- neyed phrases and commonplace diction The reader is pleasantly startled by the unexpected phrase, by the happy thought so neatly put, and as on other occa4si4ffts u Our hearts in lad surprise, To higher levels rise." It is fine to note how our poet show* such intimate acquaintance with Nature in an her moods and manners. Burns sang to Xnture-he was a son of the soil. Words- worth portrayed Nature, too—he lived amidst tho lakes and mountains, and in pleasant lands. But here we have one whose days are spent at the coal fa. showing a mystic familiarity with Nature in tree and flower, in brook and sea and wind. Nature and he are on the beet of terms; not only in such directly Nature poems as "Ar y Traeth," Y Wylan," Y Deml." Caino yr Hydref," Cyf- rinach Natur," but throughout his book one feels that the poet has not overstated it when he says— Mae imi deml ac clorlan werdd yr afon. We ceidw Natur gfrmun dan y coed." We find, too, in his pages, lofty aspira- tions 8Jld noble ideals to which man should reach. Not the versified prattle 00 the street corner, but the sanctified atqpira- tion of one who would know what man needs and God gives. In Llafur he sings to his fellow-workers thus:— Dring rhagot eto hyd rodfeydd y mellt, Oni chyrhaeddi benrhvn dy fawrhad. Sang ar dy rwy?tra.u htmyrdd megie gwellt, Kee dymchwel c?atyU crylaf Traia a Brad." The poet's visions of a brighter future is expressed in the following musical words from Y Ddaear NewTdd "Mm rwerin y teyrna,-oedcl yn ymdaith fraieh ym raraieh, Ac ye-swydd cydyaideimlad dwys yn yogafn- hau po b baicli. In his description of the great Redeemer winning the world to himself, D.R.G. has employed worda and forms in as easy and charming a manner as ever this has been done by any poet. Thus he sings:— Rhin a. Charia-d yw Ei arfau 1 orchfygu llengoedd loea — Ooncro roae wrth blpflm breichlau Serch y gwledydd am Ei srroea." How oould literary (societies better disport themselve6 than by going through books of this calibre, to prove anew that the present, no less than the past, has poètÆ- Md poetry of which we need never blush, but whose praiaes can be sung while the Welsh language lives. It is to be hoped that a further collection of these poeme will be presented to us by Mr. Griffiths, and soon. Meanwhile, may the talented young poet from Ammaniord, the home of many another child of the Muse, con- tinue to weave his charming notes, that we who read may jet again be able to enjoy his companionship in lofty verse.

TOWN TALK. Skewenites struck oil to-day! — o:— It isn't plain to see when that 'plane id coming over. Surprieing how some papers insist of knighting Mr. Walter Long, isn't it? — X>:— Mr. Walter Long, to quote an old slang phrase, will bo in his oil" to-day at iskewen. —;o. — What is a snip "—A witness at Gower Sessions on Tuesday described it as a sort of bargain. We are getting on! An extra postal delivery is being H experimented" upon at Ponbirdulais this week. -:0:- The cost of building will never go down to the pre-war level.—Mr. J. H. Bateman at Monday's property sale. -:0:- Those straws appeared in town once more yesterday. Surely a ease in which. tba fashion lfi promulgated in rpasms. Gaudy bands for straw hats are more plentiful than ever this year. The num- ber of knuts must be on the increase. —: o: — While fish remains fairly dear at Swan- sea, a member of our staff saw best cuts of hake, in prime condition, offered in London at fid. per pound. —: oc — t A Town Talk" joke abput the aero. I plane newsjtaper deliveries has evidently taken on." A vendor was this morning slionting "Daily Fail—again!" In reference to the cnckoo controversy, a well-known Oxford-street tradesman and an enthusia,stic allotment holder, swtaro he saw TWO cuckoos on Sunday last. Nuff sed —SO £ — Our local contemporary referred last nigrht to Sir Walter Long." We take it that this is our High-street friends' sup- pkment to the recen.t honours list Oe the Prime Minister. —: o. — Apropos the delay in attempting the Atlantic flight, some people think the authorities have been guilty of an im- portant omission. The Clerk of the Weather, they say, Qugh to have been invited to join the Air -:0: At last we are having genial weather— hat which the Elizabethan poets used to go into ecstacies over. Still, one cannoc forget that May opened boisterously enough, and it was not the kind of morn. ing to "cell me early, mother dear!" — :0 Those who were in BrynmiU Park on Tuesday afternoon witnessed a very un- usual sight—that of a goat being led, through the park by a gentleman, and ha was closely followed by a little girl, whof was also carrying a goat. —:(X — A Swansea men who while in the Army, waa attached to the Remount Department has been telling his friends tha.t he alwaya preferred dealing with mules rather than holies. The mule, he said, was of course a bit of an ass, but it never indulged ia horse-play. —:v — We hear every day of lieW raborde being put up by the hens in the matter of laving, but they can hardly rival tha records of some of their owners in tha I way of lying, nor of the achievements in profiteering on eggs during the war. -:0;- Our fashion expert attributes a certain oraze for braBS buttons to be due to the glamour of the Navy. A pretty young lady sporting a set on Tuesday put a glamour on many of. those ehe delicately, flattered. —: oc— What has become of the ererpopular and favourite banana? A day or two ago it was announced there was no reason why, they could not be obtained at 2s. a domr- I What the lovers of this fruit want to know now is why they cannot get a taste of their favourite fruit at any price? —: o: — A question of the day: Whether th* Swansea Field Naturalist Society would like the opportunity of arranging a lecture with the Parks Committee on The characteristics and habits of t'h(x leafh-er jacket grub. with special reference to its use in the improvement of bowline greens "? -:0- A young eomple from St. Thomas havo had a serious quarrel. He wanted her to accomnanr him on a visit to one of hia relatives an evening or two ago. She de< clined. She wanted to go to a dance in.. stead. All right," liesaid. if you pre- fer a fara band to a husband, you can go." And communications have been broken off. —see — We are glad to notice that some of tbA departments of the Corporation are very economical, and make the mechanical appliance* at their disposal last a long time. Aftfr having 14 years" work out of two typewriters in the Town Clerk's office, the Stores Committee have derided to advertise for tenden for new ones and; for the old ones. About the only section of the community who were not organised hare at last cot.a. bined and formed themselves into a union. In a big city in the Midlands yesterday an '^Employers' Association of Mistresses'* was formed to face the domestic service problem. Pretramably Swansea, ladies will, not be long before they form a branch of the new organisation. -:0:- Swansea Parks Committee talked for three and half hours on Tuesday. Of course, there was plenty of interesting:, business, but the Committee ought not V> out-talk an average meeting of the Council. We arc afraid Ald. Hemming* and partners will be getting an unen- viable reputation amnp-g some of the Cor- poration's etaff-and. incidentally, some other pen-wielders—if this continues. The stranding of the R.M.S. Trnp Itf: Langland, and the consequent throwing overboard of a larg. number of c-i-,ks con- taining cement, has been the means of enabling the natives to -ct firewood on the cheap. Naturally the cement is no good after being saturated with water, anrl when the tide is out a large number of people can be seen smashing the casks and carrying home fine bundles of fire- wood. —;«c — The Stares Corralitt.ee of the Corpora- tion, which considers itself a very live committee, haa been caught napping. W1:fjn the contractors askod for an extra. kp. per ton on the accepted price for cemert, in consequence of the market having risen, one of the members argued that there was no advantage in accepting, tendiers if figures wer allowed to \)9' shuffled like this. Others argued thn. there was no such oondition in the tender, j but on investigation it was found that the j contractors had safeguarded theM.'Aelv"L "J