POLISH BOARDS SHOWING GREAT LOCAL ENERGY

Manawatu Times, Issue 6848, 1 March 1929, Page 10

POLISH BOARDS SHOWING GREAT LOCAL ENERGY

SCHOOLS, HIGHROADS, PARKS RISING ALL OVER COUNTRY WHERE NEED IS FELT.

WARSAAY, Jan. 18. A review of the activities of the Polish local boards has recently appeared containing the history of 10 years of independence. Before the war all attoinpls of the community in the Russian partition to take any initiative in the cultural and economic life of the country were paralyzed; in the Prussian partition Foies were also little encouraged to take part in the social life of tho state and only in Austrian Poland had they more opportunities to act independently. In the first years of a reborn Poland the state regarded the efforts of the community with a certain mistrust, local boards were not. legalised, the congresses of their representatives not permitted. Mere Co-operation.

It is only since the events which took place in May, and the assumption of authority by Marshal Pilsudski, that the Government has aimed at basing itself on social-economic organisations and on co-operation of local boards with Government factors. The community itself has done much to raise the opinion of tho authorities as to the value and seriousness of the local organisations. An ever-increasing co-operation in cultural and economic work is felt. The small landowners and farmers show decided understanding regarding the needs of the community and a willingness to help. Their desires run in the way of erecting school buildings, improving the villages, establishing folk houses and fire brigades, whereas the larger landowners arc particularly concerned in the making of good roads an'd improving means of communication. The balance of the 10 years is a serious one. The local boards ha\ e worked well and with good results, having spared no efforts. The burden or inflation has weighed heavily and hampered their endeavours, but none the less, they have much to show for their 10 vears of labour. To give an example, “the local authorities of the district of Czenstocbowo have bunt 8522 kilometers of high-roads, 75,658 kilometers of district roads, and 78,159 communal roads.’ Whereas there were in 1918, 12,108 children in the district schools, there are now 27,117, and the number of school buildings has increased from 126 in 1918 to 150 in 1928. ' m , Voluntary Work.

All this has been accomplished by the voluntary work and subscriptions of the inhabitants themselves. Again in. tho town of Wloclawck the wealth of tho town in buildings, parks, drainage, electricity works, brick kilns, sanitary arrangements, etc., amounts to 10,199,000 zlotys, and tho cleat estate of the commune to 2,299,000 zlotys, and this thanks to their own efforts. Another example is the village of Czarnocin representing only 8977 acres. Here 5215 kilometers of high-roads has been built and all the side roads gravelled. Moreover it has established and organised a school of seven divisions with a field for sports, and the commune has subsidised a communal agricultural school; also a library and reading room as well as a theatre nail in the coach house of the firo brigade. The villagers are also building a dairy, and together undertake the regulation of the river WolboTka. Of such communes there is an ever increasing number in Poland.