Page:Speeches and addresses by the late Thomas E Ellis M P.pdf/77

 wood and iron, without design or colour, shoddy and shameful in their workmanship, sterile if not malignant in their influence upon the men and women who have to live in them, and upon the minds of the children who play and grow within the sight of them? Can we say that the cemented and stuccoed houses in our seaside towns contribute to the mental power and pleasure of those who sojourn within them? The common people of Wales build by much sacrifice their places of worship. Is it not pathetic to see how these communities, who desire to erect on our hill-sides and in our valleys buildings for God's service, are too often at the mercy of Architects who have neither training, nor skill, nor taste, nor imagination, nor knowledge of material nor true tests of good workmanship? Have not too many of the once beautiful churches of Wales been robbed of their solemn beauty by what is called their "restoration "? Are not our County and Town Halls too often bare, dingy, characterless and utterly unworthy of a vigorous and self-respecting community? I am very far from saying that we have not a