PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 729 
3. ‘Yes, on account of the gradual but certain deterioration in the type of 
members of Councils.’ 
4, ‘Certainly ; County Borough Councils are simply swamped with work.’ 
Boroughs :— 
1. ‘Yes. If the 1902 Act had been passed in 1870, we should have been 
a long way behind our present position.’ : 
2. ‘Yes. The duties of a Town Council are so numerous that the members 
cannot devote the time necessary to cope with the demands made to carry out 
the Education Act’s regulations and demands. Hence the work of many members 
is simply attending Committee meetings.’ 
3. ‘In districts of a reasonable size, with a population of at least 20,000, I 
am thoroughly convinced, after many years’ experience of both systems, that an 
Authority elected ad hoc is far preferable to the present system. Although an 
official, I must confess that the control of education at present seems to be 
largely in the hands of the Education Officers.’ 
4, ‘The present system makes education too much a matter of rates.’ 
5. ‘Yes, with power for the Local Authority to appoint representatives on 
such Authority to temper their educational enthusiasm to the financial position 
of the Authority.’ 
6. ‘Most certainly, but of course not in the small areas as in the School 
Board days, but in areas as at present constituted. I don’t at all believe in 
centralising the County Authority, but to decentralise to districts of fair size.’ 
7. ‘Yes, prefer ad hoc. It has the weakness of allowing people to be run for 
their religious views, but although a Nonconformist, I am distinctly of opinion 
that a Churchman keen on education, and possibly on that alone, is a better 
person than a Nonconformist who is elected to look after streets, trams, &c.’ 
8. ‘No. Generally speaking, the better the class of work put on to the Local 
Authorities the better type of representative elected.’ 
9. ‘The present system is decidedly superior, as the School Board elections 
were more or less a farce.’ 
The Act of 1902 gave to the County Councils, as regards the constitution of 
their Education Committees, considerable powers of co-option. I was anxious 
to find to what extent this power had been utilised, and, therefore, my third 
question was :— 
_ Question ITT. 
“To what extent has co-option of members of the Education Committee been 
adopted in your area—i.e., what proportion do the co-opted members bear to the 
whole Committee, and what is the proportion of co-opted women members?’ 
The average percentage of co-opted members is curiously equal in all three 
classes—viz., thirty-one, thirty-three, thirty. The highest percentage is forty- 
eight, and the lowest three. It is noticeable that the percentage of co-opted 
members is less in Wales than in England. A reference to the tables will show 
that a considerable number of Directors are desirous that the principle of 
co-option should be extended. 
The following are samples of the replies to the question: ‘Would you wish 
to see the principle of co-option extended?’ :— 
Counties :— 
1. ‘Yes; several useful men with experience of Secondary and Agricultural 
education have little chance of securing election to the County Council owing to 
their views not being in accord with those of the majority of the electors in the 
district where they happen to reside.’ 
2. ‘Unnecessary; the majority of our County Councillors are University 
men.’ 
3. ‘In an ad hoc authority I would abolish it. Under the present Act I 
would raise the number of women.’ 
County Boroughs :— 
‘Diminished, because then the Education Committee would be more nearly 
on a footing with other Council Committees and their proceedings viewed less 
as the proceedings of an unknown body.’ 
