Welsh Journals

Local Government in the Good Old Days, or Economic Survey for 1873 by DAVID OWEN, M.B.E. A RECENT statement by the Minister of Health that the Local Government Boundary Commission is to be set aside, represents a decision to further postpone what many regard as a pressing reform and so for a while the controversy regarding the framework of local government reform gains a new breathing space. The postponement does, however, offer the advantage of peering backwards, to see how local authorities managed in the good old days. We will take as our text-book the first report for the Borough of Carmarthen, prepared in 1873, by its Medical Officer of Health, the late John Hughes, F.A.C.S., better known to his contemporary citizens as Dr. Hughes, Trebersed. OFFICIAL Reporis THEN AND Now. Whatever progress has been made in the intervening years, modern official reports have nothing on those days, for the document referred to is much more than a medical and sanitary report. It is, in fact, a store of social information and within its geographical circle, is nothing less than a local Economic Survey for 1873". HEALTH AND THE PEOPLE. It directs attention to the decreased population at the 1871 census, as compared to 1861. For the whole of the County of Carmarthen there was a reduction of population for every district except Llanelly. Many parts of Pembrokeshire and Cardiganshire suffered loss of population at this time. It was the period of the exodus of the young men from the rural and agricultural districts to the industrial areas. This seriously affected the health standards in two ways. 'The large proportion of strong young men leaving, left behind a disproportion of the aged and very young, who were more susceptible to sickness and high mortality. But a more serious factor noted was the physical failure of numbers of these young men to stand up to the labour and other excesses of the industrial districts and to later return home, seriously broken in health, In fact, the number of deaths, especially from consumption (now known as T.B.) of men between 20 and 40 years of age, was so heavy in the