Welsh Journals

iv. In my letter to the Times (basing myself on a statement made by a Welsh Church dignitary), I estimated that there had occurred 100 vacancies in Welsh benefices through death since the War. The Bishop accepted the figure, though he is careful to saddle me with the responsibility for it. I have now gone through the figures in the Diocesan Registers, and I find that the number of vacancies have been 30 in St. Asaph, 13 in Llandaff, and 23 (institutions to new benefices) in St. Davids. I cannot find any record relating to Bangor. But assuming that they EXCHEQUER EDUCATION GRANTS WALES' CLAIMS FOR BETTER TREATMENT AT the National Conference of Welsh Education Authorities held at Llandrindod Wells during the first week of August last, Mr. J. C. Davies, M.A., the Organiser of Education for the Denbighshire Education Authority, read a paper of great interest in. support ot the following resolution That the Conference calls attenton to the disparity in the respective Education Rates "of England and Wales, and requests the "Welsh Members of Parliament and the Central Welsh Board to bring the claims of Wales for increased Exchequer grants on the basis of local effort combined with local ability before the Board of Education and the Treasury.' Mr. Davies, in the course of his remarks, said- Within the narrow limits of time assigned to me, all I can hope to do is to quote a few facts and figures which seemed to prove, that if regard be had to local efforts and local ability, the contributions made to Wales out of the Imperial Exchequer in respect of the various grades of education are inadequate, and compare unfavourably with the contributions made, not only to England but also to other parts of the United Kingdom. Perhaps I ought to explain at once that I take the word England in a broad sense as including the four countries, England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, for I understand that such was the intention of the Committee which drafted the resolution. Another fact that ought to be men- tioned at the outset is that the position with regard to both Primary and Secondary Education is very much affected by the New Supplementary Grants, and it is not yet possible to say what effect these grants will have on education rates in Wales. were 20 (slightly above the average), the total would be 86, or 14 less than the 100 I had estimated. But in my desire to be absolutely fair to the Church, I even added 25 per cent., or £ 50,000, to the sum so lost by the Church. The only figure the Bishop accepts from me is one that he must have known then, as I know now, was an inflated one, and he does so without a word of recognition of the gener- rosity of the estimate. Yours, &c., W. Llewelyn Williams. House of Commons. Let me in the first instance quote some figures as to the relative wealth of England and Wales. The figures are based upon some figures prepared by Lord Aberdare. They are not up to date, but I took trouble to compare recent figures with regard to some of the items, and I find that the relative position is practically the same Wealth. England. Wales. Average size of agricultural holdings 56 acres. 46 acres. Percentage of houses assessed to house duty 18 6.6 £ s. d. £ s. d. Value of real property per head of population 5 6 0 3 9 0 Income Tax assessment per head of population 15 7 0 12 0 0 Income Tax assessment per head of population in Parliamentary boroughs 24 0 0 13 0 0 Endowments. Aggregate income of all en- dowments £ 2,167,427. £ 31,677. Average of each County £ 55,575 11,674. Aggregate income from educational endowments £ 632,650. £ 14,231. Taking the area of Wales as one-seventh and the population as one-eighteenth of that of England, the Principality should have had, if endowed on the same scale as England £ 90,365 according to area, and £ 35,147 according to population. The produce of a Id. rate per child in England is 3s. 2d., in Wales, 2s. 3d.