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other matters, should review monthly, or at such intervals
as may be determined, the feeding lists and the work of the
feeding centres, so that proper and continuous control may
be exercised with due regard to efficiency and economy.
Conclusion.
The above scheme, in my opinion, meets the objections
which have been urged from time to time against the present
system of feeding, as well as the requirements of the Board
of Education. I am sure it will prove, if adopted, of the
greatest possible value to the children and the Authority.
The present selection of children on a poverty basis by associating
with the meals the stigma of pauperism goes far to
defeat the object of the Act, which is to improve the physical
condition of the children so as to enable them to profit
by the educational advantages offered by the Authority.
Such is indeed the immediate object of the Act, but remote
advantages likewise arise from improvement in the physical
candition of underfed and ill-nourished children, as it enables
them to resist attacks of disease in later life, and thus to
retain their places in the struggle for existence, and so
prevent their dependents in their turn coming below the
“poverty line" in the future.
It is also the case that many children suffer as much
from unsuitability as from lack of food, and the careful
organisation of the Provision of Meals on the lines indicated
above would certainly educate those children to provide in
later life for themselves a dietary suitable to their particular
needs, and generally it would enable all children to recognise
and acquire a taste for nutritious and health-giving food
stuffs. In this way the interests of the parents of the future
in distinctly homely and personal matters would be aroused
so that we may hope that successive generations will grow
up strong and healthy under the best possible conditions of
parental interest and control. Not only so, but it may not