ri8 A FARMER'S YEAR 



than rather dreary, as it is impossible for the most eloquent 

 speaker to become impassioned and absorbing on the subject 

 of main or parish roads. Before I made my speech, however, 

 as nobody seemed to have anything to ask, I put the candidate a 

 question, and was glad to elicit from him the information that 

 he would support a bye-law forcing all wheeled vehicles, as 

 well as bicycles, to carry lighted lamps after dark. This is a 

 regulation that would add greatly to the comfort and safety of the 

 roads, especially near towns on a market-night. 



There is no doubt that the County Councils have proved a 

 great success and very useful to the community ; but in our 

 part of the world it is not always easy to find men to stand for 

 them. Thus, at Bungay, the other day, I am told that there was 

 considerable difficulty ov/ing to the lack of a candidate, which was 

 only got over by persuading the present excellent and worthy 

 member to allow himself to be re-elected somewhat against his 

 will. 



But if the interest in County Councils is waning, to judge 

 from this village and others that I know of, that in Parish 

 Councils is practically dead. In the beginning there was a great 

 excitement about them — I never remember seeing so many men 

 in the Ditchingham schoolroom together as on the occasion of 

 the election after the passing of the Act ; but now it is a very 

 different story. For the first two years I was chairman of our 

 Parish Council, but I cannot say that we accomplished anything 

 exciting. There was a good deal of talk about allotments, and 

 applications were put in for a great number of acres of ground 

 — forty I believe ; but in the end the bona fide demand was 

 satisfied by my offering a four-acre field to the Council, the third 

 that I let in allotments. Also the parish charities were a burning 

 question ; but the matter was referred to the Commissioners, with 

 the result that we are very much where we were before, excepting 

 only that the charities have decreased in amount owing to the fall 

 in the value of land. What excited most argument, however, was, 

 1 think, the question of a safe, which it was proposed to buy at a 



