METHODS AND PROBLEMS OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT 309

committees for such separate matters as supplies, appointments,
estimates of expenditure, and special branches of the work, such
as the medical work of an Education Committee. The reports of
sub-committees are examined by the committees, who in their
turn cannot makev final decisions, but must report to the whole
Council; reports are gone through, section by section, questions
and discussion ensue, and each section is then either adopted as
Council policy, or referred back to the committee for further
consideration. Most of the time at Council meetings is occupied
by committee reports; in addition there will be correspondence
to deal with, and the chairmen of committees will be questioned
as are Cabinet Ministers in Parliament. For all Councils, there is
a Statutory minimum of four meetings a year, and other meetings
may* be called by the Chairman or Mayor or at the Demand of
several Councillors. County Councils may well find the Statutory
minimum sufficient; the Councillors often live far from one
another, and the status of the Statutory Committees, makes
frequent Council meetings unnecessary. In the Boroughs,
monthly, and sometimes fortiughdy meetings are necessary, and
when attendance at committees is added, the Councillor, even of
a small Borough, must expect to spend at least one, if not two or
three nights a week, on the work. The Councillor in a large
County Borough will find that his duties make serious inroads
into his time.

COUNCILLORS.

It is appropriate at this point, to repeat that Councillors are
unpaid. So far as the smaller authorities are concerned, a politically
healthy community should contain sufficient people willing to do
the work from a sense of public duty. It is, no doubt, easier for
a leisured person to be a Councillor, and there are probably a
number of people who would make good Councillors, but are
prevented by their hours of work. This problem is not, however,
sufficiently serious to make payment necessary, and if it were
introduced, it might attract less public spirited people into local