Fabian T ract N o. ros . FIVE YEARS' FRUITS OF THE PARISH COUNCILS ACT. PuBLISHED A:-ible. By an Act passed in 1900 these difficulties have been considerably reduced. Much of the old cumbrous procedure is abolished. Rural District Councils have now only to satisfy the County Council that cottages are wanted iu any parish, and that they can be built to pay expenses, and the County Council can at once give the necessary permission. In addition to this, a new and most valuable power is given to Parish Councils. If the Rural District Council refuse to attend to resolutions adopted by the Parish Council requesting them to build cottages, the Parish Council can complain to the CountyCouncil, and the County Council can then order the cottages to be built. Here, then, is an opportunity for vigorous action. For the first time the right of the Parish Council to take steps for obtaining proper houses for the \'illagers is recognized by the law. In the past, Rural District Councils might fairly say that Parish Councils had IO nothing to do with building new cottages. Now it has been made their business, and they should see that it is attended to. It has for long been the duty of the Rural District Council to see that there are enough cottages in every parish, and that every cottage is kept in proper repair, not oyercrowded, and fit for human beings to live in. Some Parish Councils have got cottages repaired by complain ing to the District or County Council. The Parish Council of Suffield (Norfolk, pop. 236) found that the parish possessed some cottages, which were in very bad repair. It borrowed £wo, on a r 2 years term, put them in good order, and let them at satisfactory rentals. The Parish of Ixworth (Suffolk, pop. 95 1) was the first to get cottages actually built for it by the Rural District Council itself. After many complaints and repeated inquiries, the Thingoe Rural District Council bought four acres of land for £I 6o, and built eight cottages for £1,370, borrowing the money from the Public Works Loan Commissioners at 3} per cent., repayable by imtalment~ extending over 30 years. The cottages are let aL £~ ros. each a year, and the surplus land at 2d. per rod. But this was done in 1890-1893. before Parish Councils existed. The only case in which a Parish Council has built cottages is that of Penshurst (Kent, pop. 1,647), and this was due to the energy of a lady councillor (Miss Jane Escombe). Beginning in 1895, it was not until 1897 that she managed to get a County Council inquiry, and it took over two years more to get over all the official and other difficulties. But in November, 1899, the site (three-quarters of an acre) was actually purchased from the clergyman for £1 ;.o, and six cottages (six rooms) were then begun, at a cost of £1,539, the total outlay (£I,8oo) beingborrowed by the Rural District Council at 3t per cent. for 40 years, involving a charge of £74 a year for interest and sinking fund, which the rents at :s. a week just cover." In Ireland much more has been d01~e. There are now over I s,ooo cottages in Irish rural districts, built, owned and let out to tenants by the local public authority. CHARJTIES. In many parishes the Parish Council h::~s reformed the charitie~, by appointing some of its own members as trustees. Sometimes, as at Burley-in-Wharfedale (Yorkshire), the rents of parish land or cottages have simply been taken by the overseers in aid of the poor rate (and so to help to pay the rates of the squire, the parson, the innkeeper, etc.!). This was promptly stopped, and the money given to the deserving poor. Then the poor were no longer compelled to come up publicly to claim their doles, but arrangements were made for paying them quietly in their own cottages. SANITATION. It is, properly speaking, the business of the Rural District Council and the County Council to see that every parish is in a proper • Se~ F.,bian Tmct :\o. 63, "Pari>h Coun il Cottage> anti ho11 to get them." I I sanitary condition ; that every cottage has a good supply of pure water ; that no stinking ponds, foul ditches or other nuisances pollute the air or water ; and that every cottage has decent sanitary conveniences. The Parish Council can, however, itself attend to small matters. But generally speaking, where the Parish Council comes in, is in the power of making complaints to the Rural District Council, without any man running the risk of displeasing his landlord or employer. Many Parish Councils have successfully used this power. They have pestered the Rural District Council with complaint after complaint, until the nuisances have been done away with. In Hurley (Berks.) the Parish Council found some of the cottages without any proper water supply, and using an infected source. It complained to the District Council, got this source analyzed and condemned, and compelled the cottage owners to provide a better supply. Sometimes the Parish Council has had to appeal to the County Council, which has stirred up the District Council and made it move. Where the County Council has a medical officer (as every County Council ought to have) the Parish Councils have found it very useful to send him their complaints, and to get him to inspect the parish. If neither the District Council nor the County Council will help the parish, then the Parish Council can appeal to the Local Government Board in London. The Parish Councils of Threapwood (Cheshire, pop. 306) and Hildenborough (Kent, pop. I ,440) complained to their District Councils time after time about the unhealthy state of their parishes, owing to the bad arrangements for drainage. Finally they appealed to the Local Government Board in London, and the District Councils have been told that they must provide proper drainage for these villages. The village of Holcot (Northamptonshire, pop. 341) was a!ways suffering from bad illnesses because there was no drainage. When the Parish Council complained to the Local Government Board, the District Council was ordered to put the village into a sanitary state at once. In many parishes the Parish Council has itself dealt with small nuisances, and got them stopped. At Clifton (Beds.) the villagesuffered from a filthy pond, illegally polluted by drains and itself polluting an open ditch. To put this right meant an expense of£so or more, and no one could tackle it. When the Parish Council was established it took up the job, cleaned out the pond, stopped the drainage into it, and scoured the ditches. It cost for one year a special rate of 4-§-d. in the £, but it improved the health of the village. The Mundesley Parish Council (Norfolk) has hired half an acre of land as a dumping ground for parish refuse. WATER SuPPLY. The provision of a new water supply on a large scale is a matter, not for the Parish, but for the Rural District Council ; but the Pari h Council has power to improve any existing supply within the parish. This power has been exercised in many hundreds of parishes, to the extent of making small but extremely useful improvements. 12 Thus the Parish Council of Great Stambridge (Essex) found that tlw village badly needed better water. It obtained as a free gift from the landowner a few square yards of land, on which a well was sunk, a pump and horse-trough erected, and the whole covered by a neat roof. Kilmington (\Vilts.) wanted a new parish pump ; one pole of freehold land was given free of charge by the owner to the Parish Council, and a pump erected for the use of the public for ever. At St. Tudy (Cornwall) the Parish Council had the drinking water analyzed~ and, finding it satisfactory, got the supply improved and increased. At Gaydon (Warwickshire) the Parish Council was given a good supply of water, so that it should be for ever maintained in good order for the village. The Parish Council of Humshaugh(Northumberland) has bought the freehold of a small piece of land, one pole in area, so as to secure for ever a public watering place. The Churchstanton Parish Council (Devon) successfully asserted the public right to certain springs of pure water, and laid down pipes to supply the neighbours. At Thundersley (Essex) there is a good water supply, but the owners of some cottages neglected to lay it on to them. The Parish Council took the matter up and compelled them to do their duty. But the best work of that Parish Council was its standing up to a village tyrant. A local landowner filler! up and destroyed an ancient spring, which the public had used from time immemorial, and put up barbed wire and tar to prevent the cottagers approaching it, whilst the county policeman was ent round to frighten them. The Parish Council raised a subscription to fight the case, and by an action in the Court of Queen's Bench (Reynolds v. Lincoln) in May, 1899, compelled the landowner to clear out and re-brick the spring, and remove all obstructions to the public use of it. The Ashton Parish Council (Northamptonshire) had an instructive experience. When the churchyard was enlarged, it became necessary to divert an old line of pipes supplying water from a spring to the village well, and the clergyman took uponhimself to run the supply to his own house, allowing the village only the overflow from his tank. The Parish Council (whichconsists of a grocer, a gardener, a platelayer, a signalman and a carpenter) then took steps to protect the village, and commenced to put down pipes connecting directly the well with the spring. Thereupon the steward to the local landowner (Duke of Grafton) came down on the Parish Council, and declared that the pipes, and even the water, belonged to the Duke, because it ran under the public high road. At first he tried to stop the work ; then he claimed the ownership of the new pipes which the Parish Council was paying for ; at last he offered that the Duke should pay the expense, but said he must own the pipes. The Parish Council stood firm, and said that the parish was determined to possess its own water supply, which they and their forefathers had enjoyedfrom time immemorial. Finally, the Duke, by his steward, made an awful threat. He would appeal to the Government Auditor, and get the amount "surcharged," upon which, as his agentexplained, those Parish Councillors who had ordered the expen di_ture would have to pay it out of their own pockets. He actually tned to carry out this threat, but his agent fortunately mistook the day, and appeared twenty-four hours too late. So the Pari·h Council triumphed, and now enjoys its own good and abundant water supply. This happy result was largely due to the wi dom of the Parish Council in engaging a good man as clerk. Instead of getting their work done for nothing, and having it done badly, the Council pays a salary of £6 a year, and shares with two other Parish Councils the services of a competent officer. PUBLIC LAMPS AND LIGHTr::\'G. Several hundred parishes have adopted the Lighting and ·watching Act , which enable the Parish Council to put up lamps and light the village streets and roads at night. The Parish Council of Elms- well (West Suffolk) i one of those that have done this; that of Menstone (West Riding of Yorkshire) is another (it borrowed £zoo to pay for the lamps and did the thing handsomely). The Parish Council of Treeton (also in the West Riding of Yorkshire) spent£qo on public lighting at starting. But usually much smaller sum suffice. The annual expense of lighting is paid for by a separate Lighting Rate on the parish, which is usually only a halfpenny or a penny in the pound. The Lighting and Watching Act invoh·es a eparate rate and a somewhat cumbrous procedure. Other pari!:>he~ have asked the Local Government Board to confer on the Rural District Council. the power to light the village; and then got the Rural District Council to delegate this power to a Parochial Committee. AssESSMENTS A::\'D THE PAfUSH Fr:-.rA::-\'CES. . Some Pari h Councils, like that of Bradfield St. George (Suffolk, pop. 388) have formally adopted section 3 of the Poor Rate A!> e~sment and Collection _-\ct, 1869, and so made the owners of all cottage property themselves pay the rate.. This is found a boon to the poor. Before the Parish Council came into existence there was very often no one to see that the Churchwardens and Overseers did their work fairly, as to the assessment of property and the collection of rates. \Vhen the parish of Penalt (Monmouthshire) got a Parish Council it was discovered that some hou~e had for years been left out of the assessment, so that the owners of them escaped their share of the rates; and that a large balance was owing to the parish by a former Overseer. The Parish Council insisted on thi being made right, and so saved the parish in one year more than the whole amount of its expenditure since that time. At Barford (vVarwick hire, pop. 719) the Parish Council found that the three great house of the parish were candalously under-a se sed, and got them put upby £:!.00. This at once reduced the rates by a penny in the pound. At Blackshaw (\Vest Riding of Yorkshire) the Parish Council thought that the pari h was unfairly treated by the County Council, in being as e sed :1t too high a urn towards the County Rate. The Parish Council twice appealed against the County Rate Basis, and was successful in getting it considerably reduced, saving the ratepayers of the parish a large sum annually. Similarly, when the neighboring town of Todmorden became a municipal borough, it strove to put upon Blackshaw parish the maintenance of some roads which were in a bad state of repair. The Parish Council stood up for its rights and got compensation for the parish. MAHKETS. Some Parish Councils manage little markets or annual fairs, and take the profits in aid of the rates. At Bawtry, in Yorkshire, the Parish Council formally rents the market place from the lord of the manor, and enjoys the market tolls. At Bardney, in Lincolnshire, the Parish Council maintains the village greea and, with the consent of the lord of the manor, lets it out on the occasion of the annual fair, and uses the rents for parish purposes. RoAos, PATHS AND BRIDGES. Many parishes have, through their Parish Councils, got their footpaths and little bridges put in order, and sometimes new ones made. Thus, quite small parishes, such as Welford (Berkshire, pop. 855) have gravelled their footpaths and repaired their footbridges, so that the children can go to school without getting their feet wet. The Parish Council of Snape (Suffolk, pop. 346) finds it con\'enient to have its own gravel-pit for footpath repair, and so rents a quarterof an acre of land and digs its own gravel instead of buying it. The Parish Council of Orrell-with-Ford (Lanes., pop. I ,o66) is properly proud of having "name-plated all the roads, finger-posted all the footpaths, and twice cleaned out the boundary brook." The Parish Council of St. Tudy (Cornwali, pop. szo) agitated for and got built a new footbridge over the ri\'er. The Parish Council of WestOI) Turville (Bucks) took in hand a dangerous corner of a road, and bought a strip of garden to widen the highway. At Timperley, in Cheshire, there was a footpath leading to a level crossing over the railway. This was a cause of serious danger and occasional accidents. As it proved to be impossible to get a railway bridge, the Parish Council made an exchange of land and diverted the footpath so as to obviate the dangerous crossing. At Newstead (Nottinghamshire) a new road was needed, and the Parish Council has rented altogether 5 acres of land in order to lay this out. Lower Dylais(Glamorganshire) wanted a new footpath and made it, formally hiring the narrow strip of land on a long lease. \i\Thitwell (Derbyshire) was in the same case, but was able to hire the strip at a nominal sum. The Parish Council of Blaenpenal (Cardiganshire) made a new cartway, but was able to buy the freehold of the little bit of land required. At Ockbrook (Derbyshire) the Parish Council has devoted most of its attention to improving the streets and highways. It has adopted the Lighting Act and erected lamps (rate 3d. in £ for this), given names to the roads and streets and put up name- boards, made up and repaired the footways and approaches, and removed nuisances. IS FIRE PROTECTION. Nearly 300 Parish Councils have taken steps to protect their villages against serious tires. Sometimes, as in the cases of half-adozen parishes near Bedford, the Councils subscribe towards an efficient tire brigade maintained by a neighboring town. More usually, the Parish Council organizes a volunteer tire brigade of its own, and provides appliances. At Tempsford (Beds., pop. 492) the Parish Council pays the engineer's salary; at Burnham (Bucks., pop. 2,633) the men are paid for drills; elsewhese, as at Malpas (C?eshire, pop. I ,r 64) the men are paid for attendance at fires. At Fhmby (Cumberland, pop. 2,415) the members of the Parish Council themselves act as a fire brigade. RAILWA\·, PosT A~D TELEGRAPH FAcruTLES. Many Parish Councils have succeeded in getting better service from the Po t Office. Thus, the Parish Council of Broadhempston (Devon., pop. 525) got a second, or evening, postal delivery; that of Hadley (Salop.) got several additional pillar boxes, and an afternoon postal delivery; that of Churchstanton (Somerset, pop. 672) obtained a money order office; that of East Claydon (Bucks., pop. 343) has given a guarantee against loss and so secured a telegraph office. ewick (Sussex, pop. I ,033) got a better train service from the railway company; and St. Bride's Major (Glamorgan., pop. 62 1) made the company put up bridges and stiles. LIBRARIES A~D READING Rool\IS. In many villages a reading room is now maintained by the generosity of the clergyman or the squire. Often these are just what the village desires, but sometimes they are not. In one parish reading room in Surrey no Liberal or Radical newspaper is allowed. In one Sussex parish the clergyman gave his copy of the Times, but refused to let the Dally flews be presented, on the ground that it was a "party organ'' ! But in a few parishes, the Parish Council now maintains a free public library and reading room, where the inhabitants can read just what books and newspapers they please, without being beholden to anyone. At Corwen (Merioneth hire, pop. 2,68o) the library was opened in r8q6; it has a newsroom open 78 hours a week, and 250 books; it pays its librarian [9 :1 year ; costs altogether £8o a year, and is managedby a committee of six Parish Councillors and six others, whom the Parish Council co-opts. Halkyn (Flint., pop. I ,356) opened its library in 1898, already has 700 books and a newsroom open 72 hours a week; pays its librarian [25 a year, and co-opts fou~ persons. to serve with five Parish Councillors as its library commtttee, whtch has an income of [63. Sometimes, as at Colwall (Hereford., pop. r,so6) the Parish Council gets a library building provided by privateendowment. vVhat can be done by a tiny village is shown at East and Botolph Claydon (Bucks., pop. 343) where a library was openedby the Parish Council in 1897, which now contains 6oo books. The squire has built and placed at the disposal of the Council, at a r6 nominal rent, a parish hall, reading room, library and caretaker's rooms. The library work is done gratuitously by a lady, who attends every Saturday afternoon. In the neighboring parishes of Middle Claydon, Grandborough and Water Eaton (Bucks., pop. of each about 250) a joint library is maintained by the three Parish Councils, largely through the help of Sir Edmund Verney, whose daughter gives her services as librarian. It is open 18 hours a week, and contains over 2,300 volumes, with a printed catalogue. The management is by a committee of five Parish Councillors ; and the total cost is about [18 a year, of which only £ro comes from the rates. In all these cases the Parish Council levies the full library rate of one penny in the pound, and ekes this out with such receipts as sales of old newspapers, fines and subscriptions.* BATHI~G PLACES. About a dozen parishes have adopted the Baths and vVashhouses Act~, and now provide swimming baths. Sometimes, as at Betchworth (Surrey; pop. I 868) and Alveston (Warwick; pop. 9 54), the Parish Council has merely put up sheds, screens and platforms, so as to enable the river to be used in comfort, and made regulations, confirmed by the Local Government Board, as to the times for women and men respectively. At Ibstock (Leicester; pop. 2,937) the Parish Council built a bathing tank 6ft. deep, with corrugated iron fences ; costing £90; supplied with water from the brook ; and looked after by an old man at 7/6 a week. A penny is charged for admission, or two shillings for a season ticket. But the most successful bath seems to be that at Snitterfield (Warwick; pop. 790). Here an old brick tank, 70ft. by 30ft., that had b~en long unused, was obtained by the Parish Council on lease from Lady Trevelyan at a nominal rental. The Council spent £40 in putting it in order, fencing it round with tarred matchboarding, and providing a comfortable dressing-room and diving-pier. The water is supplied by a spring and is constantly changed. The bath is open free five days a week, certain hours being set apart for women and girls. One hour a week may be re·erved on the sixth day by season-ticket holders paying a small subscription. The nearest cottager and his wife act as caretakers for 30s. a year, and the total annual cost is only about £5. The vicar has gratuitously taught the boys to swim. He offered to teach the girls if the Parish Council would proYide bathing dresses for them, but the Council (consisting of a ''gentleman," a doctor, a farmer and two hurdlemakers) declined to do so (though bathing dresses are provided out of the rates in London baths). During the summer 30 or 40 pt!rsons use the tank daily. Many children bathe regularly every noon; and the bath is highly appreciated by the parish. It is to be regretted that so few parishes have yet followed these examples. The whole capital cost of a good open-air bath need not be incurred at once. The bath may be made one year, cemented the • For furthu inform.ction see GreenwooJ's Brillsh Ltb••aJ')' Ytar Boo!< ( cull, l>Ieen~ooJ anJ Co., 19 Luugate llill, Lonuon). Pri~.: 3>. net pool fre~. 17 next, enclosed the next, and so on. The annual co t of maintenance need only be trifling. No Parish Council seems yet to have provided hot-water baths for individual use, though these would be a great boon to everymining village. Nor has any Parish Council had the enterpri e to provide a laundry for public use, in spite of the great success in London and elsewhere of this convenience to small households. Some Typical Parishes. The following account of the work of the Parish Council in four separate parishes in different parts of England, shows what has actually been done. KrNGSTErGNTO:>: (DEvoxsHmE). Population in 1891, 1,8o8. Area, 3,975 acres. Number of parochial electors, 370. Rateable value, £r 1,300. This parish has throughout taken considerable interest in its Parish Council elections ; there has been a contest and a poll every year, at which between 200 and 300 votes are cast. The Council has had from the first a Liberal majority, about evenly divided between Church and Dissent ; but the elections have turned more on "village politics" and personal preferences, than on Imperial politics or religion. The Council (I~) now consists of one clergyman, four farmers, two schoolmasters, two builders, one mine-owner, one mine-manager and one shopkeeper. There have been two wage- earners on, but they have left the Council. The Council has appointed trustees of the charities, and set on foot enquiries about them which have done good ; it has regularized the assessments ; it has preserved one footpath from a threatened encroachment; it obtained the tithe-map from the vicar and transferred it to its own custody; it hired two fields, comprising five-and-a-quarter acres, and let them out in 33 allotments; it mo\·ed the District Council to provide a new water supply for the parish at a cost of £z,ooo, which (thoughhotly opposed) is now appreciated and used by nearly half the parish; it has organized a parish fire brigade, providing £so worth of fire- hose and other app:iances; it has provided a stretcher for conveyingpatients to the local hospital; it has taken over and greatly improvedthe lamps and lighting of the village streets; it has obtained from the District Council its own appointment as a parochial committee for sanitary purposes, and has got nuisances stopped ; it has cleaned out the village teet (or water course) which was in a dangerous state; it has repeatedly moved the District Council to improve the drainage, obtaining more frequent flushing 6f sewers and good ventilating shafts, and causing steps to be taken to prevent floodings and storm damage. It owns three houses, which bring in a small sum towards the expenses, which are rigorously kept down. AYLESFORD (KENT). Population in 1891, 2,9+7· Area, 4,057 acres. Number of parochial electors, about 550. Rateable value, about £r6,ooo. In this parish (which includes two villages, one old and proprietary, the other modern and manufacturing) there has never been any active I8 fighting in the elections, and though the meetings have been well attended, they have lately not been seriously contested. The Parish Council has always been elected by show of hands without a poll, and only once has any old member been rejected. The Council (I I) now consists of a schoolmaster, a clerk, a draper, a grocer, a foreman engineer, a brickworks foreman, a foreman carpenter, an engine driver, a stoker, a tile maker and a laborer ; mostly Liberal in politics ; partly Church, partly Dissent. The Council has done useful work with regard to the charities, putting representatives on the Board of some important almshouses. It has stopped at least one job, by which it was proposed to reduce to a nominal sum the rent paidfor a way-leave. The Council appealed to the Charity Commissioners against it, and got a substantial rent fixed. It has encouraged revision of the assessments, and got raised those (especially of licensed houses) that were too low. It has prevented unwarranted diversions of public footpaths, even when desired by the dominant landowner. It has increased an already considerable supply of allotments byhiring three-and-a-half acres, let to 40 tenants. It has obtained two recreation grounds, one of three and one of nine acres. It negotiated with a neighboring water company, and got considerablybetter terms of supply. It is just providing fire hydrants. It has greatly improved and extended the lighting of the village by oil lamps, and is taking steps to introduce gas. It is co-operating cordially with the District Council in a complete drainage scheme now pending, which may cost £IO,ooo; and it helps the County Council to provide the parish with technical classes every winter. The expenditure (other than that for lighting) is covered every year by a penny rate, except in the year that the recreations grounds were laid out, when it amounted to threepence in the pound. HoRSFORD (NoRFOLK), St. Faith's Union. Population in r8gr, 740. Area, 4,2+9 acres. Number of parochial electors, rsr. Rateable value, £3,402. This is a good sample of a purely rural parish, where the Parish Council, though not brilliantly successful, has been of real advantage. The first election (1894) excited great interest, and there was a fierce contest and a poll. An active Radical majority was elected, which got some things done, but found more difficulties than it expected. The next three elections were decided by show of hands, and Conservative majorities were elected. Last year, in the same way, eightLiberals and one Conservative were elected, and these have gone steadily to work in a quieter way than the first Council. The councillors now include four tenant farmers, three farm laborers, one brickfield laborer and one agent (a townsman). The Council, since I 894, has secured a useful footpath against possible diversion ; hired eight acres of land for allotments ; p;ot the County Council to hold a public enquiry into the overcrowded state of the village and need for more cottages-the inquiry attracted so much attention that the worst evils got remedied-obtained a letter-box where needed from the Post Office, and got a savings bank branch opened in the parish, by guaranteeing the cost ; stirred up the District Council about a wet and dirty lane which had never been repaired within living memory-this caused the landowners to remedy their neglect. Perhaps the most striking result has been the care of the parish land. These zo8 acres of heath had been neglected for years, and the neighboring landowners and occupiers were quietly establishing a right of way across it. The Parish Council elected trustees to manage this charity, and these fenced in its land from the road, enclosed and drained eight acres, which are now let for grazing ; and after a hot discussion with the squire, maintained its fence against his claim to a right of way. The Parish Council now regularly lets the shooting on the watering pits, gravel pits and other odds and ends of land belonging to the parish under an Inclosure Award of 1810, and gets a few pounds a year for this privilege. But the real value of the Parish Council here is much more its intangible results on the village life •and character. All classes are brought together to discuss their common business, and the laborers have been taught to look the squire and the parson in the face, and to realize that the best men of their own class make as good and trustworthy councillors as landlords and farmers. "Everyone," it is now said, "has become independent." They know that any real grievance in the village can now be remedied, and the Council serves as a vent-hole for complaints and suspicions that would otherwise have smouldered dangerously for years. NEwiCK (SussEx). Population in 1891, 1,033. Area, 1,977 acres. Number of parochial electors, 200. Rateable value, £+,199· One grave defect of the Parish Council, as it is usually admin· istered, is its failure to attract any public interest. It is not enough to put up a notice on the church door. It is better to do as the Parish Council of Orrell-with-Ford (Lanes., pop. I ,o66) has done, viz., meet regularly every six weeks on fixed dates. The lack of public interest is partly due to the neglect of the Councils to let the parish know what they are doing. An admirable example to the contrary is seen at Newick (Sussex) where the Parish Council presents an annual report, which is printed in the local newspaper. As the report for J899-1900 gives a vision of the work of an active Parish Council, it is here printed in full : ALLOTME:-ITs.-The committee have now a prospect of securing land and having nearly completed their proposals the Council hope shortly to have before them a definite and complete scheme. BooKS OF REFERENCE.-Copies of further Acts of Parliament have been added. BUILDING BYE-LAWS.-ln view of the continued construction of insanitary dwellings in the parish, the Council have urged on the authorities the necessity of enacting building bye-laws for this district. The response has not been favorable, but looking at the importance of this question the Council will probably feel it their duty to press it further. CHARITIES.-The Council having inquired as to the existence of any parochial charities, have received from the Commissioners an opinion that there are none, but further inquiries remain to be made. DISTRICT RoADs.-The Council having persevered in their former course, find that there has been some improvement. They ha,·e also obtained from the highway 20 authority an undertaking to rep:tir the Rough, which has, however, not yet been acted on. The Council have resolved not to apply for p0wers over the di>trict roads under section 15 Local Government Act, r8g+, but th to arrange technical or other classes for men and boys, and the organiented to address a public meeting shortly to that end. FINANCE.-Considerable progress has been made. All payments under the authority of the Council, whether of accounts or of extra remuneration to officials, have been systematically examined by the Finance Committee, who have al