methods of the administering Authority.

Out of a total endowment of L166,000 a year, a sum of over L100,000 was
placed at the disposal of the Department to be applied to the "purposes
of agriculture and other rural industries." These "purposes" are defined
in the Act as including--

"the aiding, improving, and developing of agriculture,
horticulture, forestry, dairying, the breeding of horses, cattle,
and other live stock and poultry, home and cottage industries, the
preparation and cultivation of flax, inland fisheries, and any
industries immediately connected with and subservient to any of the
said matters, and any instruction relating thereto, and the
facilitating of the carriage and distribution of produce."

This part of the Endowment Fund was, in short, a grant to the Department
to be applied to what may be described as rural development in the
widest sense of the term. As to the methods, little or no restriction
was imposed upon the scope of its powers; and in the expenditure of the
money it was to be as free from Treasury control as the Congested
Districts Board itself.

On the other hand, the Congested Districts Board was not only free from
Treasury control, it was free from any control whatever. It was an
unpaid Board, and it could spend its money where it pleased and how it
pleased, and there was nobody to say it nay. True, its members were
appointed by Government, and the Chief Secretary was _ex-officio_ a
member of the Board; but he had no greater authority given to him than
any of his colleagues, and in case of any difference of opinion the
decision was that of the majority of the Board. No single member of the
Board could be held responsible for any of its acts; and accordingly,
although the vote for the Board came annually before Parliament, of real
Parliamentary responsibility there was none.

Such an arrangement was not without its disadvantages even as regards
the Congested Districts Board itself: its adoption in the case of the
Authority to be created under the Agriculture and Industries Bill would
have been open to yet greater objection.

A further point was this. The Congested Districts Board was an unpaid
body. An unpaid body consisting of busy men cannot be in perpetual
session. The Congested Districts Board, as a matter of fact, met only
once a month; and in the intervals of its meeting there was no one with
full authority to act on its behalf.

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