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" their earliest and most careful consideration." The Govern- 

 ment review of the work done .by local bodies in 1891-92 

 shows still greater progress. On the other hand, in munici- 

 palities, the administration has been less successful, owing to 

 the lack of interest in their duties displayed by the majority 

 of the councillors. There is, in these councils, a tendency 

 to split up into factions, and moreover the duties of the 

 chairmen of municipalities, especially in large towns, are 

 so heavy as to require four or five hours' work from them 

 daily, an amount of time which very few non-official persons, 

 who have their own business to attend to, can afford to give 

 to the performance of public duties. The regulations laid down 

 for the guidance of the councils in the various departments 

 of work entrusted to them are also so numerous and compli- 

 cated as to require special study. It has, therefore, been found 

 necessary in several of the larger municipalities to employ a 

 salaried chairman. If arrangements can be made for lending 

 to municipalities the services of Government officers of the 

 rank of Tahsildars, Deputy Collectors or District Munsifs 

 for carrying on the duties of chairmen there can be no doubt 

 that it will much improve the efficiency of municipal admini- 

 stration, and while giving to non-official members full scope 

 for scrutinizing the work will prevent the danger of munici- 

 pal councils being split up into factions. The chairmen too 

 will be persons trained in public business, who, if they 

 neglected their duties, would forfeit their prospects of pro- 

 motion in the Government service. It would, of course, be 

 easy to point out in the conduct of local administration 

 instances of apathy and ignorance on the part of some mem- 

 bers and factious conduct on the part of others, but it must 

 be remembered that the whole scheme has had to be worked 

 on entirely new lines unfamiliar to the traditional habits and 

 feelings of the people. The old organic groups of castes, 

 village communities and guilds were broken up and new 

 bodies composed of members belonging to different creeds 

 with divers interests created. The duties entrusted to these 

 bodies at the outset were also not of a kind calculated to 

 appeal to their sympathies. These duties had nothing to do 

 with the care and superintendence of places of religioas wor- 

 ship and of charitable endowments which are generally more 

 or less connected with religion, with the relief of the poor, with 

 the assessment of taxes, with the maintenance of the police, 

 and with the administration of justice — matters affecting 

 closely the inner life of the villagers and in which they 

 might be sjipposed to be primarily interested. The construc- 

 tion of roads and bridges is best attended to by the central 



