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consultation with the Chief Executive Officers. It has been found
convenient to limit speeches to fifteen minutes, though further
time may be granted. The Council may, on the motion of any of
its members, resolve to hold an inquiry into any problem which
has not yet come before it—for example the provision of municipal
theatres and cinemas. This gives scope to the private member,
and increases the Council's store of knowledge.

THE METROPOLITAN BOROUGHS.

The County area, apart from the City, is divided into twenty-
eight Metropolitan Boroughs. All the Councillors for such a
Borough are elected at once for a three-year period in the
November of the same year as the L.C.C election. They choose
Aldermen to one sixth of their number; these serve for six years,
half retiring every three years as on the L.C.C. The Mayor is
chosen as in a Municipal Borough, and enjoys the same powers
and dignity, except that he is an ex-officio J.P. for his year of
office only, not the subsequent year as well. Of the functions and
procedure of these Coundils, there is no need to say much; they
resemble closely those of the smaller Municipal Boroughs which
have no separate Police Force or Commission of the Peace, and
are not education authorities. They are the rating and assessment
authorities for London, and compile the Voting Registers.
Health services are shared between L.C.C. and Boroughs; the
latter remove house refuse, prevent the adulteration of food,
provide clinics, see to the notification of infectious diseases,
and carry out the inspections which are the basis of housing
policy; some Boroughs have their own housing schemes and
maternity homes. Street widening and improvement may be
carried out by the Borough or L.C.C. according to the size of the
scheme. In the provision of libraries, baths and laundries the
' Boroughs are independent. Nearly all supplement the work of
the L.C.C. by providing parks and recreation grounds. More than
half the supply of electricity is by public enterprise; Fulham, for
example, has the largest municipal station in the world, and