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in England we were becoming more and more cognisant of 
the fact that the child is the greatest asset we have as a nation. 
During the last decade or longer, there had been a material 
reduction in the birth-rate, with the result that we were 
forced to recognise that we must take care of our children. 
On the Continent this had been done for many years. Alluding 
to the Provision of Meals Act, he observed that many more 
children were improperly fed than underfed. Whether that 
was due to the fact that many parents worked at the mill 
and so were unable to give adequate consideration to the 
cooking and preparation of suitable foods he could not say, 
but certainly a large number of children got food of a type 
which was not of value as regarded the building up of the 
system, food that generally upset them, and which was 
altogether wrong in a dietetic sense. 
Alderman T. Thornber, J.P. (Chairman of the Education 
Authority), said they had to evolve a scheme for the purpose 
set forth in Mr. Crossland’s lecture. A good mode of 
procedure, it appeared to him, would be to consult with a 
body of teacher’s representatives, and also a body of represent- 
atives from the doctors of the town. But the whole trend of 
legislation at the present time was to take the responsibility 
off the individual and throw it upon public bodies, either 
town councils or the government, and the question arose as 
to what extent the parent should be relieved. The parent, 
he thought, should look after his own children. In Burnley 
they had had returns once or twice with a view to seeing what 
the position was, and he was pleased to say that on the whole 
it was very satisfactory. Alluding to the tendency of the 
times to put more and more work upon the town councils, 
he stated that during the time he had been on the Burnley 
Council it had more than doubled. If work continued to be 
thrown upon it there would have to be a paid Council. The 
work was getting too onerous to be done voluntarily. 
Mr. George Gill, J.P., expressed the hope that parental 
duty would not be lost sight of in any scheme which was 
devised. 
Mr. A. R. Pickles, M.A., the President of the National 
Union of Teachers, held that in this country we had no proper 
evidence in support of the cry of physical deterioration. If 
we could have taken a census of the whole country on the 
question, say, this year, and compared it with what prevailed 
ten, twenty, and thirty years ago, he thought it would be 
found there was actual physical improvement, and not 
deterioration. There was a great outcry to-day because 
