VILLAGE LIFE IN THE PEACE ERA

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 90, 10 January 1919, Page 9

VILLAGE LIFE IN THE PEACE ERA

CHEERFUL INSTEAD OF DULL • THE MAINSTAY OF AGRICULTURE f, "If British agriculture is to remain for all time worthy of. being what it is —the' greatest of all 'British industriesone of the first things to do is to reorganise the lifo of the villages. It would ibo a long story to trace the'causes of the -decay of village life," says tho "Spectator," "and .to. distribute tho rightful degrees of blame for the notorious fact that rural life, is regarded by the "majority of villagers as appallingly dull.. Tho result of the gradual bringing down of corulands to grass was that. fewer hands were required for the cultivation of the'soil, and villages became proportionately depopulated Between--1871 and 1911 more than three and a half {million acres of arable land were laid down to gross, and the labour of over a hundred, thousand workers, according to the .figures of the Board of Agriculture, were dispensed with. Villages suffering from.,this depletion.of lnonhoo'd were naturally not in a thriving social condition,, ■■•-.'■■ .Life must be Brighter. "The restored British village must certainly have more of the amenities of life or it will not prosper. Love for the land is no doubt a powerful magnet, and when it is not a magnet it may become a powerful hivbit, and many thousands of persons never leave .their villages just because of this force of habit. But if .the boys and girls of the rising generation are to think better of village life than tho boys and girls of the"last generation did, there must be a change in aspect, in externals. •■•-.■'■ "In this connection .we • want to draw attention to the newly-formed Village Clubs' Association. Although the village community is the oldest of the-units in tho social and political -.structure of the nation, the communal spirit has decayed. The promoters of the Village Clubs'. Association., very "wisely propose to re.vive this communal spirit by working not from the top downwards 'but from the bottom upwards. In other words, they recognise that it would Be finite wrong to make communities .dependent for fresh amenities upon grants or subsidies, whether official or private.' Self-governing Communities. "Wo all know the spectacle < of model: villages in which a bounteous landowner has housed all his working people in cot-' tages which any man in the land might bo happy to 'occupy, and has rgiven. them gardens which are quite beyond the reach of many people with appreciably larger incomes.- There is much that is admirable in such villages, and yet the present writer has in mind one or two of. them where the air of. dependence, almost one might,say the smugness, about the whole thing has affected him with depression. "The .promoters of the Village Clubs' Association lay -it flown ns a primary principle that, 'social evolution, whether for good or bad; has reached a further stage, and to-day it is.becoming apparent that the .'village community, of the, ■twentieth century will be.self-governing in all its irolationshins.' The principles upon which the Village Club must be founded, according to the Village. Clubs' Association, mav.be.summarised as fol-lows-—The club should be the centre of all the social activities and all forms of physical and mental' ' recreation. ', It 'should lie self-supporting and free from the elements of patronage. The inhabitants of the village of both sexes should •be eligible for membership. The' entire .control should be vested in a committeeelected bv the member's ,' '."'■■' • ■ "The Village Clubs' Association' has been formed to act as a co-ordinatinn. authority and an intelligence depart-. : ment for the whole movement. It hope'to enlist and concentrate the assistance of all who are interested in the movement to ensure that., clubs 'shall be provided ■'• ■ wheirever . possible: to supply plans ' fof "buildings; and model rules for . the constitution and management of clubs; to secure, through combination, the mirehaso.of equipment fen- clubs: to' snpnlv lecturers on subjects, of general' interest:. and to,! provide kinema films a"d similar necessaries for entertainments."