L.— EDUCATIONAL SCIENCE 241 



reflection on the personal integrity of these last to express the opinion 

 that they constitute a serious danger to the system on the ground that if 

 there is a bureaucratic habit of mind, and if as some people believe it is 

 inimical to good government, these people possess it and bring it to bear 

 on their consideration of educational problems without the saving grace 

 of the professional educationist's training in and knowledge of the 

 particular branch of administration with which he is dealing. 



There remain, of course, many splendid people who give their services 

 to educational administration, and I must safeguard myself against 

 appearing to suggest by the use of the word deterioration that graft or 

 other forms of dishonesty are on the increase. That, I am glad to say, 

 has not been my experience. There is the risk, however, which is more 

 than theoretical, of intellectual dishonesty creeping into the discussion of 

 educational affairs when the Authority contains any substantial number 

 of members who are pledged to a set of opinions which may have a cross- 

 bearing on purely educational considerations. 



As I have pointed out the difficulties — I will not say the defects — in our 

 local government system at considerable length, I suppose I am under 

 some obligation to attempt to indicate possible remedies. So far as 

 the numbers, sizes and financial arrangements are concerned, it is not 

 difficult either to indicate the general lines which reform in theory should 

 follow or to envisage the practical difficulties which will confront the 

 reformer when he sets out to tamper with the traditional boundaries of 

 English local government. It would be a bold man who would under- 

 rate the strength of that local feeling which in its nobler aspects is 

 not unworthy of being termed local patriotism, but at other times 

 merely vocalises the parish pump. It is, however, possible for prac- 

 tical experience and even a priori reasoning to suggest certain of the 

 attributes which the ideal local government unit should possess. 

 It should be large enough to be able to provide the variety of 

 services which a modern community requires, but not so large that the 

 day-to-day discharge of routine administration necessitates a rigid or 

 bureaucratic attitude towards the problems presented for solution. In 

 education in particular it is important that the area should contain 

 sufficient children or students to justify the provision of the various 

 types of educational institution which modern needs demand. It is 

 difficult, for instance, for a small area to face the cost of modern schools, 

 particularly of the most expensive form of them, the technical college, 

 and although a solution may be found in co-operation between neigh- 

 bouring Authorities, it does not always follow that Authorities who are 

 contiguous geographically have similar needs, and there is also the risk 

 that the standard of co-operative effort may come to approximate to the 

 lowest common multiple among the Authorities concerned. 



Another important consideration from the economic point of view is 

 that the Authority should be sufficiently large to be able to obtain good 

 contracts for the supply of the various materials which it requires. 

 Modern methods of mechanisation and rationalisation have been slowly 

 but surely invading the province of local government, but their advocates 

 have not always been ready to recognise the fact that, while centralisation 



