Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/88

 80] ENGLISH HISTOEY. [april

or Newnham or Cambridge. If a working man with technical and secondary education was incidentally for a time a better profit-making machine, he was also more valuable to himself, could command higher wages, and was less likely to be imposed upon. The chairman said it was evident, from both paper and discussion, that the range of the work of the technical education committees was only limited practically by the amount of money at their disposal, and that they could if they liked branch outwards and upwards into the higher fields of secondary education.

Municipal hospitals, municipalisation of the drink traffic, out-door relief, tramp children, art teaching in board schools and light railways, were among the other subjects which attracted attention, and invited discussion. On the question of outdoor relief, Mr. W. Crookes suggested " as a simple propo- sition and as a stepping stone to universal pensions," that every person above the age of sixty-five years or permanently disabled, whose income from all sources did not exceed 10s. per week, should receive 9d. a day, payable out of national funds. His aim was to utilise the existing poor law system as a stepping- stone towards old-age pensions, by adopting the regulations and restrictions under which out-door relief was actually afforded.

It was unlikely that the London County Council would allow Parliament to go into committee upon the London Government Bill without being informed as to the feelings and views of that board. A number of the Progressives were, as a body, hostile to the measure in any form ; but by a majority of two-thirds the recommendations of a committee especially selected to report on the bill had been adopted. These included suggestions that the word " borough " should be used in prefer- ence to " division of London " ; that considerations of local feeling and historical association should be weighed in conjunction with those of administrative convenience ; that the proposed borough of Wandsworth should be divided, and that the formation of a Greater Westminster was inexpedient ; that the Privy Council should have not so great freedom of action as was contemplated by the bill ; that the council of each district should consist of elected councillors only ; that it was undesirable that women should be elected as mayors or aldermen ; that elections should be triennial in May; that the auditors for the new councils should be appointed by the Local Government Board in the same manner as the auditors of the Council; that the Privy Council should not have power to revise the London Building Act, 1894, and to transfer duties from the Council to the new local councils; that the local councils representing merely divisions of London should not have the power of promoting and opposing bills in Parliament; that the proposals for op- tional transfer of power were inadvisable ; that the provisions of the bill dealing with rating were objectionable ; that the pro- posals with reference to the making of by-laws by the local authorities could only result in great complications and in