The Advertisements . Regulation Act of last year raised hopes for
the amenities of the countryside. It seemed to give the County Councils powers to restrain the obtrusion of vulgar and ugly sign's:" The natural way for them to act and to proclaim how they intend to act is by issuing by-laws. The Home Office appears to have put difficul- ties and delaYs in the way. The County Councils Associa- tion, led by Norfolk, have protested and claimed the right and the duty to act on their own responsibility,-and Lord Newton and Lord Strachie brought up the matter last week in the Upper House. For the Home Office to usurp the authorizing of the by-laws and to demand elaborate schedules of roads and so on seems to us a centralization at which the old Local Government Board would have hesitated in its most tiresome days.
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