AUTHORITIES' RESPONSIBILITIES : DISCUSSION 97 



delighted to hear that the paper of Dr. Fremantle had found 

 its way into the hands of every public administrator on 

 their local authorities, for he believed that just as there 

 was a large amount of ignorance on the part of the people 

 on whose behalf they administered their laws, so there 

 was a large amount of ignorance to be found within the 

 council chambers of the country, and if the administrators 

 of public laws would only -make themselves acquainted with 

 what the people needed, he was quite confident that their 

 good hearts (for half of the people had good hearts) would 

 give them what they wanted. He would like to suggest 

 that those of them who were members of public authorities 

 should see to it that those who were least inclined to take 

 an intelligent interest in that work should be educated up 

 to the duty which they owed to the State and to their native 

 town. He would particularly commend Dr. Fremantle's 

 paper to the education authorities. They found at Ashford, 

 which was an industrial centre containing about 2,000 rail- 

 waymen with a population of 30,000, that upon the part of 

 the local education authorities there was great lack of 

 interest in the practical points to which Dr. Fremantle's 

 paper referred. As local authorities they had got to face a 

 new problem by reason of the new condition of things 

 which had been created by the large number of picture 

 palaces that were being opened all over the place. In his 

 town the young people were crowding to these places, and 

 they found that their evening classes were now being for- 

 saken by large numbers by reason of increasing demands 

 of these counter attractions. Only the other day his son 

 came running home from school and said to him, " Father, 

 the manager of the Cinema says we ought to go to the 

 Palace twice a week." He thought they should try and 

 cultivate a liking for the higher things of life in their 

 administrative bodies, on their councils, and in their educa- 

 tion authorities, and that would do much towards bringing 

 about a better condition of things as regarded infant life. 



Councillor PHILIP BUCK (Tottenham) said he would like 

 to say just one word or two. He could see that there was 

 very valuable matter for consideration in the papers which 

 had been presented that morning, and he hoped to study 

 them more fully on his return home. There was one thing 

 he wanted to impress upon all present. Something had 

 been said about the incompetence and the parsimony exer- 

 cised by local authorities. He agreed, but after all there 

 was another side of that question. He came from a district 

 which had an estimated population of about 150,000 souls. 

 The education rate in his district was 2s. 9d. in the <, and 



