ON AGRICULTURE TO IRELAND Q7 



funds available for, technical education. The Board is elected as 

 follows : The Department appoints four members. The Council 

 of Agriculture appoints one member for each province. Each of 

 the County Burghs of Dublin and Belfast appoints three members. 

 The remaining four County Burghs appoint one member each. A 

 Joint Committee of the Councils of the large urban districts around 

 Dublin appoint one member. One member is appointed by the 

 Commissioners of National Education and one member by the Inter- 

 mediate Board of Education. Here again the democratic spirit has 

 full play, and absolute trust is reposed in the Irish people. Are 

 not these instalments of Home Eule, and, if used wisely, will they 

 not lead to other instalments ? Nationalists might now without 

 hesitation join this peaceful revolution, which will lead to what 

 they have been striving for, by whatever name it may be called. 



Consultative Committee of Education 



In addition to these Committees there is a Consultative 

 Committee of Education. It is composed of the Vice-President, 

 one member appointed by the Commissioners of National Educa- 

 Education, one member by the Intermediate Education Board, one 

 member by the Agricultural Board, and one member by the Board 

 of Technical Instruction. Its duty is, according to the Act, to 

 co-ordinate educational administration and nothing more, but it is 

 really a council of experts who advise the Department on all 

 educational matters, a council which, without compulsory powers, 

 largely controls the educational policy of the Department. 



County Committees 



The foregoing Committees constitute the central authority re- 

 sponsible for the working of the Act. It is provided, however, that 

 any County Council, or any Urban District Council, or two or more 

 public bodies jointly, may appoint Committees for the purpose of 

 carrying out the provisions of the Act locally. They select the 

 subjects specially suited to their own district, and they send up a 

 scheme for the approval of the Department. If it is consistent 

 with the general scope of the Department's work it is passed, but 

 the Local as well as the Central Authority must contribute to the 

 cost of the working of the scheme. The County Councils are 

 given power to rate with this object in view, and the Central 

 Authority only provides the Local Authorities with funds when 

 the Local Authorities themselves subscribe. This is a safeguard 

 against money being frittered away, and it tends to keep ever in 

 front of the people what Sir Horace Plunkett and his friends are 

 never tired preaching, that they must help themselves if they 

 want the State to help them. 



Work of the Department 



The Department of Agriculture thus constituted began its 

 work, recognising that it was making an experiment, feeling its 



