438 CONFERENCE OF DELEGATES 



The message is neither a reasoned appeal to the intelHgence of the 

 delegates now present, nor is it an emotional appeal to their sentiments. It 

 is a practical appeal to their collective will — an appeal to which they must 

 respond, if local societies are to do anj^hing to promote objects every one 

 here has at heart. That appeal is made now, on behalf and in the name of 

 our Organising Committee, with a confidence based on the belief that 

 ' where there is the will, there should be a way.' To pretend that the way 

 will be easy, would be idle and foolish ; local societies will have to face 

 difficulties so great that often the best they can hope to do is to find a way 

 round them. It may not be amiss to consider some of these difficulties : 

 ' to be forewarned ' is sometimes equivalent to being forearmed. 



One of the difficulties with which a local society will often have to contend 

 is a lack of sympathy and understanding between its members and those 

 of their neighbours who manage local public affairs. The search after 

 knowledge for its own sake, and the application of knowledge on behalf of 

 the community are equally praiseworthy, and may be equally time-absorbing 

 pursuits ; they are, however, intrinsically so unlike that mere lack of leisure 

 may be enough to prevent mutual understanding. But while it requires 

 two to disagree, it is always open to one to encourage sympathy. The 

 objects of a local society as a rule make a more special appeal to its members 

 than the general needs of the local community do : attempts to promote 

 sympathy and establish understanding between local societies and local 

 authorities are, therefore, less likely to be initiated by the latter. This does 

 not make the establishment of mutual sympathy and understanding less 

 desirable : all it indicates is that, as a rule, efforts in this direction must 

 originate with local societies. One of the primary objects of any local 

 society is to promote regional solidarity : one consequence of this fact is 

 that a local society is at least as ' representative ' of its local area as any 

 specially elected local authority can possibly be, and at the same time 

 escapes all risk of becoming pledged to the support of particular political 

 principles or devoted to the promotion of particular private interests. The 

 mere existence of a local society should suffice to show a local community 

 that the pursuit of knowledge and the management of public affairs are 

 closely related activities. Nothing but good can accrue to a local area in 

 which those elected to conduct its public business hold friendly intercourse 

 with, and make it their practice to consult, those of their neighbours who 

 may be engaged in adding to knowledge of any kind. 



Never is this benefit more likely to be evident than when a local society, 

 anxious to preserve the amenities of its own area, finds it necessary to seek 

 support. As the President of the Council for the Preservation of Rural 

 England remarked at Harrogate, towns ' must expand and the suburb is 

 a straggling compromise between town and country, ill-planned from the 

 urban point of view and equally disregarding the landscape as such.' This 

 applies as truly to the ' town-dormitories ' that spring up so rapidly outside 

 most urban boundaries before urban councils can take steps to extend their 

 areas. Until forcible annexation takes place, parish and district councils, 

 though able to insist that the dwellings in these dormitories shall comply 

 w-ith building regulations prescribed by the State, may have but a limited 

 right to declare what type of building should be erected, and may have no 

 power to decide that a particular site is unsuited for building upon. It is 

 not difficult to appreciate why a particular local council may at times feel 

 debarred from taking an active part in the efforts of a local society to preserve 

 the amenities of its own area during the desecration of an estate advertised 

 by a speculative builder as ' ripe for development.' But this affords no 

 reason why a local society should neglect the duty of establishing friendly 



