Welsh Journals

THE WELSH LANGUAGE SOCIETY. Secretary-Mr. David James, Delfryn, Treherbert. The Welsh Language Society is a purely Educa- tional institution and does not identify itself with any political or commercial movement. It seeks to promote (a) the use of Welsh as a means of Educa- tion, and (b) the better teaching of Welsh in the Welsh-speaking, English-speaking and Bilingual districts of Wales." When the Society undertook to carry out that programme, it found itself handicapped by the fact that a large proportion of the teachers in Wales were unprepared, either through lack of training or dis- position to teach or utilise Welsh. In order to meet this difficulty, the Society estab- lished a Summer School of instruction in Welsh Grammar, History and Literature. This school has been in existence for the last eleven years and about 1,000 teachers have attended its classes. The school visits different counties in Wales, so as to contrive the pleasure of a holiday with the studies of the lecture room. The school is visited annually by H.M. Chief Inspector of Schools for Wales, and is in receipt of an annual grant from the Government. Through the wider influence of the University and Training Colleges the teachers are becoming better equipped for the work which the programme of the Society proposes. The majority of the education authorities in Wales are now keenly alive to the need of preserving and utilising the Welsh language in the schools under their charge. They recognise, as do all Education- ists the value of a bilingual training, and the for- tunate position in which Wales finds itself in having a second language within easy reach. i Even the public are now becoming more convinced of the possibility for good of the Welsh language in the development of their children. This was proved by a plebiscite recently taken in Newport where a preponderance of parents voted in favour of teaching Welsh in the schools. Most of the schools in Wales to-day are carrying out the programme of the Welsh Language Society, and their syllabuses of instruction in Welsh are based upon its model syllabus. But time alone will tell whether sufficient time is given to the subject to enable it to live, after the neglect of centuries and in spite of almost overwhelming odds. In the mean- time something wil 1 be done to cultivate a nation self-respect and to make use of its noble heritage. AGRICULTURAL CO-OPERATION. Organizer for Wales— Mr. Walter Williams, Iscoed, Brecon. i The movement for Agricultural Co-operation which has achieved so much for the farming industry in Denmark and Ireland continues to make rapid progress in Wales. According to the recently issued report of the Agricultural Organisation Society, which is the propagandist agency of the movement, Wales and Monmouthshire in 1912 possessed 70 agricultural co-operative societies with 7,418 mem- bers and a turnover of £ 293,650. These societies are distributed over each of the 13 counties except Radnorshire, the largest being the Carmarthenshire Farmers' Co-operative Society with 1,273 members and a turnover in 1912 of £ 88,659. Most of the societies hitherto limit their operations to the co- operative purchase and distribution of agricultural requisites, e.g., manures, seeds, feeding stuffs, and implements, but there are four societies for the collection and sale of eggs and poultry, one dairy society and (in Glamorgan) eight societies for the co-operative tenancy of small holdings or allotments. For the further promotion of the movement it has just been decided to form a Branch of the Agri- cultural Organisation Society for South Wales and Monmouthshire. The Branch, like its parent, will, of course, be purely propagandist and non-com- mercial. THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF WALES. ABERYSTWYTH. The objects of the National Library are, to collect and preserve manuscripts of all kinds, but especially those in Welsh or other Celtic languages and those relating to the Welsh and other Celtic peoples to collect and preserve Printed Books of the same character and descriptions to collect and preserve all literary works which may help to attain the purposes for which the University of Wales, the three University Colleges and the other educational institutions existing in Wales were created, especially the furtherance of higher education and of literary and scientific research"; to create and maintain duplicate and multiplicate copies to be lent in con- nection with the Colleges and other educational institutions of Wales. At the present time an excellent work is being undertaken; seven small collections of books are to be deposited at centres, where classes under the auspices of the Workers Educational Association have been founded, and where the necessary books of reference are difficult to obtain. These places are Llantwit Major, Peny- groes, Llanberis, Towyn, Barmouth, Abergynolwyn and Aberllefenni.