Country Life
COMMUNITY COUNCILS.
It is to be hoped that Oxfordwas offering a home to a winning, not a lost, cause when it received this week and last the apostles of the Rural Commwaity Councils. They received an official blessing from the Minister of Agriculture in the Hall of Queen's College. Lady Verulam and Professor Adams made excellent speeches ; and lecturers on subsequent days spoke words of wisdom. These Councils are new, and have subsisted as to a good part of their funds on those thoughtful and thorough benefactors, the Carnegie Trustees ; and the next year or two in their career is likely to be critical. The idea is not unlike that of the Council for the Preservation of Rural England, which is buttressed by twenty to thirty " constituent bodies," to wit, the various agencies already in existence for the purpose of conservation in some form or other. The service the Community Councils wish to do is to correlate and help to direct all those who work for rural revival and regeneration. They would restore crafts, especially in metal, wood, and leather ; revitalize arts, -especially drama and music ; and add to the available sum of adult education
and amusement. * * * *
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