Minutes of the London County Council, December 19, 1905, p. 2138. About eighty per cent. of the meals were paid for by the parents, the remaining twenty per cent. being paid for by friends or voluntary agencies. (Report of the Select Committee on the Education (Provision of Meals) Bills, 1906, Q. 326.) (b)--The Assumption of Responsibility by the County Council. No further serious attempt was made for some years to place the provision of food upon the rates. On the passing of the Provision of Meals Act the County Council took over the whole responsibility for the provision, the Joint Committee on Underfed Children, which had been composed partly of representatives of voluntary organisations,[391] giving place to a Sub-Committee of the Education Committee[392]; but voluntary funds were still relied on. In 1908, however, the supply began to fail. In July of that year a conference of the Mayors of the London boroughs had declared that there was no reason to fear that voluntary contributions would be insufficient to defray the cost of food.[393] The appeal subsequently issued met, however, with a very meagre response, only some L6,000 being subscribed.[394] By the end of the year it became clear that recourse must be had to the rates, and application was accordingly made to the Board of Education. The new system was put in force early in 1909.[395] Footnote 391: When, in 1904, the London School Board was superseded by the London County Council, the Joint Committee on Underfed Children had been continued by the latter body, its constitution remaining practically unaltered. (London County Council, Report of Education Committee, 1908-9, Part II., p. 3.) Footnote 392: This Sub-Committee was known at first as the Sub-Committee on Underfed Children. In December, 1908, the name was altered to the Children's Care (Central) Sub-Committee. (_Ibid._, p. 4.) Footnote 393: See Minutes of the London County Council, November 24, 1908, p. 1120. Footnote 394: "State Feeding of School Children in London," by Sir Charles Elliott, in _Nineteenth Century_, May, 1909, p. 866. Footnote 395: London County Council, Report of the Education Committee for 1908-9, Part II., p. 4.