vision and in cultivating the irrigation area. It remains to ascertain how far the present methods are adequate for the improvement of the drains or the relief of the ratepayers.

STEAM ENGINES ON HIGHWAYS.-The county council have acted on the sugges tion of the parish council for the publication of the conditions under which steam traffic on highways is permitted. The issue of the new regulations of the county

council is now awaited.

TRAIN SERVICE.-Among other railway business transacted the council, having been informed by the railway company that the late train run the previous winter between Lewes and Newick had been worked at a loss, requested the company to extend the train to East Grinstead, a request in which they were supported by the councils of East Grinstead, West Hoathley, Horsted Keynes and Danehill. The company, however, preferred to run the same train as before, but on Saturdays, an experiment which seems to have paid better. The council also obtained through the Brighton United Football Club a reduction of fares in connection with the Saturday Further information is likely to be furnished by the company shortly.

train.

VOLUNTEER EQUIPMENT FUND.-At the instance of the Lord Lieutenant the parish council undertook to support and collect for this fund, and have arranged for the sum of 14 9s. 6d. to be sent to the treasurer.

VILLAGE GREEN.-Some progress has been made in pursuing the necessary inquiries, but some time must elapse before the council assume effective control, because the legal difficulties are exceptionally technical and intricate.

WATER SUPPLY.-The last-named consideration applies to the water supply, so far as it is connected with the Green.-East Sussex News, 13th April, 1900.

The Parish Meeting.

In those parishes which are too small to have a parish council, there is always a parish meeting, which has nearly the same powers as a parish council. It was intended that all the house or cottage occupiers and other electors in these small parishes should meet now and then in the evening to discuss the parish affairs and decide what ought to be done. They could appoint committees for special purposes, and get new powers conferred on them by the county council. This seems to have been a failure in most places. The parish meeting has been held as a matter of form, to elect a chairman and two or more overseers. But in very few villages have the laborers, or the other electors, had any real discussion on the parish affairs. Very few parish meetings have obtained allotments or grazing land, recreation or burial grounds; hardly any have done anything about the charities, or looked after the footpaths, or improved the water supply. In over 5,000 parishes in England and Wales, where no parish council exists, nothing at all has been done by the people themselves. During the year 1906-7, out of 5,724 parishes without parish councils, only in 385 did the parish meeting spend anything at all.

But a few of these little parishes have done something. Some of them have applied to the county council and obtained the privilege of having a parish council. This should be done by every one of them. A few have asked the county council to group them with neighboring parishes, and so share in their councils.

In a few cases the parish meeting has itself managed the parish affairs, as it was intended to do. Thus the parish meeting of Kempley (Gloucestershire, pop. 210) has hired five and a half acres of land for allotments, which it lets out to seven tenants.

At

Barney (Norfolk) the parish meeting managed to get four and a quarter acres for this purpose, which is now let to 15 tenants. So in East Worldham (Hampshire, pop. 272) the parish meeting hires and manages four and a quarter acres, let to 13 tenants; and at Walberswick (East Suffolk, pop. 304) the parish meeting has five acres, let to 12 tenants. In one case, that of Clapton (Gloucestershire, pop. 103), the parish meeting, finding itself unable to get allotments in any other way, applied to its county council and got an order compelling the landowner to let it some land.

Some of these tiny parishes have improved their burial grounds. The parish meeting of Little Hale (Lincolnshire, pop. 270) laid out £92 in providing additional burial accommodation, and borrowed the money on a thirty years term. The parish meeting of South Newbald (East Riding of Yorkshire, pop. 166) borrowed and spent 150 in this way; and those of Wilshop (West Riding of Yorkshire), Gauthrop (North Riding of Yorkshire), North Redditch (Worcester), £68, £40, and £70 respectively.

How Parishes can get Greater Freedom and More

Powers.

Nearly everywhere we find the complaint that the parish council has not got enough power. Many things it cannot do at all, such as manage the village school, though it appoints one of the six managers. Many other things it can do only by getting the consent of the rural district council, a body usually made up of farmers, who often object to do anything, however useful it may be, that costs money. But parish councils have actually got many abuses remedied by writing to the rural district council, and this should always be tried. Sometimes (as, for instance, getting compulsory power to hire or purchase land) the parish council has to go to the county council, which is a long way off, and not very willing to listen to a small parish. The law ought to be changed.

But even under the present law there are ways and means by which a parish can get more power and freedom to manage its own affairs. Many parishes have done so in the following ways:

I. THE PAROCHIAL COMMITTEE.

The parish council may ask the rural district council to appoint a "parochial committee," and to make the parish council that committee, with, perhaps, the addition of the district councillor for that district. Then the parish council (besides all its own powers) may exercise within its own parish nearly all the powers that the rural district council possesses, if they are delegated to the parish committee. The expenses for sewage and water supply will be kept separate, and will be charged on the parish in the poor rate; but for other matters they will be shared over the whole district, just as if there had been no parochial committee, unless the Local Government Board confers powers specially for one parish. Thus the Croydon Rural District Council (Surrey) every year appoints parochial committees for five of its parishes, consisting in each case of the members of the parish council, together with the rural district.

councillors elected by the parish. These parochial committees, meeting in the parishes themselves, practically carry on the government, giving their orders direct to the rural district officials, and making formal reports to the rural district council, which are usually confirmed. The Liskeard Rural District Council (Cornwall) has followed the same plan with regard to all the parishes within its district. Another example is seen in Derbyshire, where the Parish Council of Ockbrook (pop. 2,567) got itself appointed the parochial committee for the parish. Some of the best governed parishes in the Bromley Rural District (Kent) are managed by parish councils acting as parochial committees.

II. THE URBAN DISTRICT COUNCIL.

The parish council may apply to the county council to have the parish declared an urban district. The county council will send one or two of its members to hold a public inquiry in the parish, and if it is clear that the bulk of the people wish it, and if the parish is not too small, the county council will probably do what is desired. Then the parish elects an urban district council instead of a parish council, and gets quite free from any control by the rural district council. It can then build cottages, provide sewers and water supply, and manage the roads. It can go in for improving the parish in almost any way it chooses; but, of course, the parish will have to pay the cost in rates. An urban district council has practically the same powers as the town council of a small municipal borough. There are no aldermen, and the chairman is not called a mayor. But he is, during his year of office, a justice of the peace for the county; he can sit as a magistrate at petty sessions, and attend the general quarter sessions. There are many of these so called "urban districts" with fewer than 2,000 population, and quite rural in character. On the other hand, there are a score or two of parishes with between 5,000 and 15,000 population, which are apparently still contented to be under parish councils, and thus subject to the rural district council. There are some hundreds of parishes having more than 2,000 inhabitants in the same case. Every parish with a population of 2,000 or upwards ought to apply to the county council to be made into an "urban district," and so set free from the control of the rural district council. During the last 10 years a great many parishes, some of them quite small, have thus obtained self-government.

Conclusion.

The lesson of all this is that "where there's a will there's a way." If there is anything wrong in a parish, the parish council can do a great deal towards putting it right, if only the right men are chosen. If anyone wishes for further information on the subject, he should write to the Secretary of the FABIAN SOCIETY, 3 Clement's Inn, Strand, London, W.C.

PEOPLE OF ALL CLASSES and of all political parties are genuinely anxious to revive village life. Thus we may prevent the constant drifting of the people to the towns, with much concurrent misery. Everyone will therefore be interested to read "Mother Earth," by MONTAGUE FORDHAM, a thoughtful and practical book on this question.

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