I am grateful to you, Mr. Speaker, for relieving my feelings. For a moment I though you suggested that I was dealing with my correspondence.

The report on California is very interesting because, although the climate is very much warmer and better than ours in Wales, ours is an area of good amenity in Mid and West Wales. Many industries have moved to California not because of the natural resources but simply because people enjoy living there. When it was suggested, after considerable research by the Liberal Party, that Aberystwith should be developed we had discovered that its recorded hours of sunshine were among the best in Britain. I know that the hon. Member for Hereford (Mr. Gibson-Watt) is dying to get up and tell me that it has quite a heavy rainfall but it had very much less than in many parts of Wales. Certainly the amenities there are excellent, and it is a fact that in all highly developed industrial countries there is a tendency for the population to move toward the coast. This is why it was thought that with its university, with Government research stations, and with science-based industries, Aberystwith was the right kind of place to develop.

There is no doubt that we must fashion our industry in the future having regard to modern trends, and not continue to think of industry in rather old-fashioned terms. The Secretary of State knows the differences that have existed between us on the proposed new town in eastern mid-Wales. The population would undoubtedly have to be drawn from the Midlands, whereas the kind of development I have in mind, for highly-skilled, highly-trained people, in science-based industries, would provide more work and opportunity for the young people of Wales, who have been trained and educated in Wales.

For many years we from this party, and hon. and right hon. Members opposite, when they were in Opposition, have pressed for a college of agriculture in Wales. I have pressed the present Minister of Education to provide such a college. I am not going into agricultural education generally, but this ties up with what I have been saying on the importance of getting more up-to-date education in Wales, and a college of agriculture is of very great importance. When is it to be set up?

I have tried to devote my remarks on the importance of science and education to the future of Wales industrially because, although I represent an agricultural area in Wales, we all know that Wales is a highly developed industrial nation. However, it has been tending, in spite of all the good work that has been done in the last few years, by many people of many parties, to fall behind. The report which I have used extensively, earlier, points to the fact that we have too many primary workers in Wales and too few top-layer workers, doing research and so on. This imbalance must be remedied in future, if we are going to look for growth in industry.

There are some general topics which I should like to raise, which can only be raised in a debate such as this. As the right hon. Gentleman knows, Welsh publishing has always been a precarious matter. I have an interest to declare here because, as the Secretary of State knows, I have always been interested in Welsh publishing, and I am a director of the oldest publishing firm, Gwasg Gee. My financial interest in it is not great, and in any event, Welsh publishing does not pay. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Power is smiling because he has knowledge of this too. Welsh publishing has to be subsidised by and large by the printing activities of the firms engaged. It has been supplemented, to the great benefit of Wales in recent years, by a grant. I understand, from the Association of Welsh Publishers, that if no grant is forthcoming, then no adult books will be published after the end of this year.

I understand that the Welsh Department has been considering this matter. Is it possible for the Minister to give some enlightenment, even if he cannot state the amount? I hope that it is only a question of amount that is being considered. I could hardly think that the Minister was considering the question of principle. Could he reassure Welsh publishing firms that a grant will be available at the end of this year to help with the publishing of adult books in Wales?

I am sure that the Minister of State will not be surprised to hear me raise the question of the flooding which we have had in the Severn Valley. I will not expect him to reply in detail because I intend, as I have informed him, to put a Parliamentary Question down, when we can have a more detailed explanation of the steps taken by the Government. He appreciates, as does the right hon. Gentleman, the great trepidation felt in Montgomeryshire, and along the whole of the Severn Valley, with the approach of the winter season. Those who saw the floods realise the intense amount of human suffering and understand the fear there is among the people there that there will be a repetition of this flooding if we have heavy rainfall. It is a highly technical and very expensive matter to decide on a proper scheme of flood alleviation, but everybody in Wales would like to be assured that it is being pursued with the greatest possible speed and thoroughness. I hope that without going into details the Minister of State will be able to give that reassurance in his reply.

I have been, as one would expect me to be—right hon. and hon. Members opposite know my views about these matters—critical of some aspects of the Government's work in Wales. Since the Secretary of State's Department has been set up, I have had the utmost courtesy from it, and I should like to pay tribute to its accessibility. This is one of the great benefits which have resulted from the setting up of the Secretary of State's office. When we had a mere Minister—I use the word "mere" to describe the functions in relation to Wales—who was responsible for another Department, with Wales tagged on, it was comparatively difficult to get attention paid to Welsh matters because of the larger Ministerial responsibilities. My experience as a result of the setting up of the Secretary of State's office is that the three Ministers in it have been readily accessible to Members with urgent problems. I pay tribute to them for that accessibility and the courtesy which I have received and which I am sure has been received by everyone else who has dealt with them.

As I said when the Secretary of State was absent from the Chamber, I hope that the right hon. Gentleman will press the Government for an enlargement of his powers. He should be given greater executive power. I think of education, health and agriculture as obvious candidates to come within the aegis of the Secretary of State. I hope that those hon. Members opposite who believe, as I do, that we must not nominate merely councils and advisory councils for Wales but should have an elected body to represent the people of Wales will press the Government for a move in that direction.