24 
the case in Paris, no child should know who had received 
tickets gratuitously or who had paid, and the head teacher 
could easily devise means to secure that end. 
As to cost, a half-penny rate in Burnley would provide 
about £778. The experience of those who had been engaged 
in this work went to prove that a substantial mid-day meal 
for 40 children and upwards, could be provided for anything 
from ljd. to lfd. per head. Meals had been given costing 
as low as Jd., consisting of soup, bread nad jam. But that 
was mere subsistence diet, whilst their object must be to 
provide an ample meal sufficient in body-building material. 
Dr. Crowley’s valuable experiments in Bradford went to 
show that a good dinner — no restriction as to quantity — 
could be provided at an average cost of ljd. Three half- 
pence a day for five days a week and 44 weeks in the year 
(as in Burnley), would cost £1 7s. 6d. per child, and a £d. 
rate would feed 565 children, or 37 per cent, of the children 
in average attendance. Whether or not a large percentage 
of children in Burnley would need a free meal could not at 
present be stated with any approximation to certainty. This 
would allow for the feeding free of 27 children from each of 
the large mixed schools and a proportionately less number 
from the smaller schools. Of course, if it were found prac- 
ticable to give a penny dinner they must increase these num- 
bers by half, providing then for 848 children free or 5.5 per 
cent, of average attendance. 
In concluding this particular subject, Mr. Crossland said 
that apart from the gain to the children in superior physique, 
greater mental powers and improved morale, this would in- 
evitably improve the average attendance — a thing which, 
according to the last report of Mr. Jones, Clerk to the Educa- 
tion Committee, “ has been a subject of considerable concern 
to education authorities generally throughout the year.” 
Supposing that only half the absentees could be thus induced, 
or, owing to less illness, made fit to attend school, i.e., if 
1,150 of the 2,317 children now absent each day were in 
attendance, the Government grant would be increased by 
at least the equivalent of a ljd. rate, thus defraying out of 
the Imperial Exchequer the whole cost of the food, which 
ought to be done in an ideal Act, and imposing no financial 
burden on the local rates. 
A short discussion followed the delivery of the lecture. 
Dr. Pullon, J.P., the Medical Officer of Health under the 
Education Committee, said he was pleased to see that at last 
