Welsh Journals

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CANNED BEER Tons of tins, tier on tier-containing Countless pints ofgood cheer'; Welsh tinplate waiting here, Full up with 'flipping' beer! FLYING SAUCERS Odd discs at dusk appear-to enter Our atmosphere. Do they fly due to fear From 'Outer Space' to spy here? Yours faithfully, G I John 71 Monk Street, Aberdare, Glam. Standing Commission on Museums and Galleries Fifth Report 1954-1958 The Fifth Report of the Standing Commission on Museums and Galleries, dealing with developments in the national museums and galleries during the period 1954-1958, was published on Monday, 1 June (H M S 0 price 4s.). One section of the report deals with Wales and is divided into three parts. The first, dealing with the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff, stresses the need for the building of the new West Wing. Urgency has already been pleaded on behalf of the long-established Departments. The plea is now reinforced by the creation of the Department of Industry. Fossils To take the existing departments first: the fossils of Wales are most inadequately rep- resented, its geological history illustrated only in small part. Only fifty-six of the ninety-six families of flowering plants of the Welsh flora are illustrated. There is no room to show more than two-thirds of the birds of Wales, or any of the material illustrating the pleisto- cene and early historic fauna. The annual excavations of the Department of Archaeology add to its collections material which cannot be exhibited. The Department of Art can still show only part of its collection of pictures and a mere fraction of its Welsh porcelain. The new Department of Industry, though it may adequately be begun in the basement gallery where it is now housed, cannot be fully developed without additional building. Other needs mentioned are accommodation for storing collections and for visiting workers, and also a public refreshment room. All these considerations go to support the case for the extension to what still remains a half-completed building. The report contains high praise for the Museum's Schools Service, to which all local education authorities in Wales and Monmouthshire. except Newport, contribute. The number of secondary schools now eligible to participate in it is nearly 400. Folk Section The second section of the Welsh part of the report deals with the Welsh Folk Museum at St Fagans. It stresses the need for an addition to the Museum Block which was opened in 1957. Each new acquisition of any size creates a problem and only a small fraction of the very large national folk life collection is being exhibited. In addition, further room is required for the expanding staff, for the newly undertaken oral tradition work, for work- rooms, for the library, for the extension to the Folk Museum of the Schools Service and for the provision of facilities to deal with the constantly increasing number of visitors. The Treasury has approved the appointment of an Assistant Curator to undertake a survey of Welsh oral traditions-dialects and their boundaries, vocabularies (domestic,