TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 779 



3. Amendments founded on Experiences submitted for the Local 

 Government Bill. By Edwin Chadvvick, G.B. 



Extended Functions of the County Councils. — In great part the local administra- 

 tions of all sorts are now occupied by members who are concerned in contracts 

 for supplies. If the Committee on the Poor Law Relief had been carried further, 

 this might have been shown in evidence. Dr. Mouat might have been called 

 as a witness, and he would have shown, in respect to the supplies for the 

 metropolis, that he had examined them twice, and he might have given in 

 tables showing the extraordinary variations in the prices of supplies, and have 

 given reasons for the conclusion that these variations were mainly variations 

 in jobbing commonly at the expense of qualities. Of the children under the 

 administration of the poor-law, only one-third are in the large district schools ; 

 two-thirds of them are kept under an inferior admmistration in the union 

 houses, where they are mixed up and made familiar with the ways of old and 

 depraved paupers. But the consents of the guardians are necessary to the 

 creation of the superior district establishments freed from such influences, and 

 that are more economical as well as superior in results. It is perfectly well 

 known that the refusal to the formation of the district institutions is based on the 

 interest in the retention of the patronage of supplies. To counteract this, and 

 also for superior economy, it is proposed as an amendment that the County Boards 

 should be charged with the exclusive power of making contracts for supplies of 

 provisions and materials for the whole of the public institutions within the 

 county. This would give the benefit of a superior intendence, better qualities of 

 supplies, and the economy of wholesale prices. It would give a means of dis- 

 tributing employment in the diflerent institutions— clothing in one, bakeries, &c., 

 in others. The superior administration in Paris, where the whole of the supplies 

 for the hospitals and other public institutions are under one intendence, and well 

 organised intendence, may serve as a contrast with the conditions found by 

 Dr. Mouat, and flagrantly displayed in the divers vestries of London. But this 

 provision, shifting the contracts, would largely influence the new local adminis- 

 trations throughout the country. It would tend to clear them efl'ectively of the 

 jobbing interests, and to give a new and pure start to the new local administration. 



Remedies against Johhing Appoinfments.— One great vice of the present local 

 administration is the inveterate habit of jobbing the appointments. _ This is in 

 distinct contravention of early principles of securities provided in poor-law 

 administration against this evil, but which have extensively fallen through. 

 The remedy available for the local appointments is the principle of testing them 

 by competitive examinations, and this remedy is now sought to be introduced 

 in the United States. It has there been applied to about one-fifth of the public 

 appointments, and has worked so well that it is contended for general applica- 

 tion. The Honourable Mr. Seth Low, late Mayor of Brooklyn, states that it has 

 been applied there not only to policemen, but to labourers who are officially 

 employed. The extension of the practice to high officers is now being con- 

 tended for in France as a remedy for the great political corruption there. An 

 example of the application of tlie principle may be taken from the County 

 Grand Juries of Ireland. At Dublin competitive examinations are conducted by 

 the Scientific Board of AVorks, and on anj- vacancy occurring in the county 

 surveyorships some half-dozen of the leading competitors are presented to tlie 

 grand juries for their choice of one. A scientific administration is thus secured for 

 the roads of Ireland. Field-Marshal Sir John Burgoyne, who served there, has 

 shown that, under this administration, there is a saving at least of one horse out 

 of five, as compared with the roads as commonly administered in England. In 

 Ireland the cost of maintaining the superior road is 20/. a mile per annum. In 

 England the cost of the main road per annum is as much as 38/. per mile, with 

 the exception of some parts where a consolidation has been eifected by Mr. Thomas 

 Codrington, the scientific Inspector of the Local Government Board. It is sub- 

 mitted as an amendment that with the exception of those who have already 

 undergone competitive examination, such as the Royal Engineers and others, 



