miscellaneous charges included in this group, some are distinguished in the prescribed forms of account, viz. the contributions made by L.E.AS. to schools or centres maintained by other L.E.As. or other bodies or persons, boarding expenses of children in Public Elementary Schools (but this expenditure is very small), conveyance of children to school, and Supplementary Social and Physical Training (Section 86 of the Education Act of 1921). Amongst other items which may be specified by individual L.E.As. are expenses incidental to instruction in swimming, educational visits to Museums and places of interest (the visits to Wembley Exhibition came within this description), prizes, Teachers' travelling expenses, Head Teachers' postage; and the list might be extended into even greater detail.

24. From the years 1913-14 to the 31st March, 1921, "Administration and Other" expenditure were grouped together in one total; from 1st April, 1921, onwards the prescribed Form of Account now in use came into effect, in which Administration appears as a separate item. The figures of net expenditure from 1913-14 onwards are as follows :

25. Any attempt to analyse the increase in "Other" expenditure over the course of years set out above is confronted at the outset by the fact that these figures relate to net expenditure, not to gross. They are the net amounts which remain after deducting from the gross" Other "expenditure many varied kinds of receipts, and those receipts do not relate to the same items as the expenditure, so that within the total it is not possible to get any precise figure of net expenditure on any one item. It becomes necessary therefore to examine the increases in gross figures of expenditure, and to set out the gross income, which may, to some extent, be referable to particular heads of expenditure. The figures of net "Other" expenditure, when thus extended into gross expenditure

and gross receipts, are found to contain various book-keeping entries which are rather in the nature of corrections and adjustments than of expenditure or income, and also a certain amount of expenditure which properly belongs to other headings in the Account and has been brought under this heading for some special reasons, probably good in themselves but not apparent upon the surface. The analysis cannot at present be brought to a later year than 1923-24, as that is the latest year for which the audited accounts of all the Local Authorities have, up to the present, reached the Board.

Line 7 of the Table above has been further analysed for 1923–24 thus :

It will thus be seen that in order to obtain a figure of net expenditure on books and stationery, or on furniture, apparatus and equipment, or on any other item comprised within the group, it would be necessary to make some arrangement for setting off the income referable to each such item against the gross expenditure upon it; and for a complete analysis of net "Other expenditure it would be necessary to find a suitable way of treating every part of the income as referable to some part of the expenditure. The Board are at present, with the help of representatives of L.E.As., examining Other expenditure" in greater detail.

Special Services.

"

26. The Board's Estimates allow for an assumed expenditure by Local Education Authorities of £3,200,000 on Special Services in 1926, as compared with £2,796,000 in 1924-25, an increase, in the two years, of £404,000: the net total expenditure of L.E.As. on this group of objects has been as follows:

27. The Special Services are all related to the health or physical training of the pupils and are all supervised by the Medical Department of the Board of Education. Arranged in order of financial importance they are:

The net expenditure in 1924-25 may be thus shown in relation

Three of these services, namely Medical Inspection and Treatment, Provision of Meals, and the Organisation of Physical Training, are undertaken wholly by L.E.AS. The other three are undertaken both by L.E.As. and by voluntary Bodies. So far as these Special Services are undertaken by L.E.As., the Board pay grant at 50 per cent. of the recognised expenditure, so far as undertaken by non-L.E.A. Bodies the Board pay grants direct to those Bodies under Subhead C.2.

28. Special Schools.-The numbers and kinds of Defective Children for whom Special Schools are provided (about 26,700 in average attendance in L.E.A. Schools and 9,880 in average attendance in non-L.E.A.) are shown at page 27 of the notes to the Board's Estimates. Special Schools for defective children are a very costly service; a residential school costs about £80 a year per pupil and a day school costs £25 for some kinds of defective children up to £40 per annum for others.

A Committee is sitting to advise the Board on the general problem of the mentally defective child, and they are considering both the number of such children who should come within the range of L.E.As. and the possibilities of a less costly form of training. As regards the physically defective children, the Board are hopeful that the success of the medical profession in applying orthopædic treatment may considerably reduce the necessity of schools for crippled children. (There are at present 61 day schools and one residential school maintained by Local Authorities. for crippled children.) The open-air schools, both day and residential, for delicate children are expensive, and some Local Authorities are eager to increase their number. It would be difficult to name any limit to which this form of expenditure might be taken if all the Local Authorities were determined to incur it; but although there is now some expansion of this form of remedial treatment, it is held by some Authorities that if every ordinary public elementary school were made (so far as possible) an open-air school in the sense of being built for a maximum exposure to sun and air, the need for Special Open-Air Schools would be greatly diminished.

In view of the very high cost which would be incurred by providing Special Schools on existing lines for every child who is defective within the meaning of the Education Act, 1921, the Board are constantly considering in the light of past experience of Special Schools and of advances in medical and surgical knowledge, by what means a satisfactory scheme for all these children can be brought within reasonable financial limits.

29. Medical Inspection and Treatment. The important service of Medical Inspection and Treatment is a duty imposed on all Local Education Authorities, and each Authority must provide for the medical inspection of children in public elementary schools at three stages in their school career, viz., on first admission and at ages of 8-9 and 12-13 years. The