Meanwhile the constant complaints of the varying methods pursued by the different Care Committees[396] in the selection of the children, and the rapid increase in the number of children fed,[397] led the Sub-Committee on Underfed Children to call for a report on the circumstances of these children, so that the cause of the distress might be ascertained and some light thrown on the question how far the provision of free meals was really an effective remedy for the evils which existed.[398] An investigation was accordingly conducted by the two officials who had been appointed by the Council to organise the work of the local Care Committees. Twelve schools were selected in different districts, and a careful enquiry made into the circumstances of all the children at these schools who were receiving free meals. In all 1,218 families were dealt with, containing 3,334 children. Footnote 396: The local Relief Committees had been re-organised under the name of Children's Care Committees in July, 1907. (_Ibid._) Footnote 397: The numbers greatly increased during the winter of 1907-8, and reached a maximum of 49,043 in March, 1908. (London County Council, Report on the Home Circumstances of Necessitous Children in twelve selected schools, 1908, p. 2.) Footnote 398: _Ibid._ In a small number of the cases, 3.9 per cent., the distress was found to be due to illness or some other temporary misfortune; unemployment of the wage-earner accounted for 5.7 per cent., and under-employment for 19 per cent., of the cases; in 44.7 per cent. the cause of the distress was attributed to the intemperance or wastefulness of the parents.[399] The necessity of providing school meals, at any rate as a temporary expedient, was clearly proved. It was found that, though 21.12 per cent. of the children were not necessitous, the remaining 78.88 per cent. were necessitous "in the sense of lacking sufficient food," and that they would require school meals "until effective Care Committees are able to check the diseases attendant on partial employment, bad housing and other evils."[400] So far little attempt had been made to improve the conditions of the homes by systematic visiting. With the majority of the Care Committees, declared the organisers, "their only active members are the head teachers and their only visitors are the attendance officers."[401] The complaints as to want of uniformity in the selection of the children were corroborated. In many schools "each department has its own system of enquiry, its own method of selection, its own standard of necessity, and the result is that it is seldom that all the school children of one family are on the necessitous list."[402] The extent of overlapping between the Education Authority and the Boards of Guardians was shown by the fact that out of the 1,218 families 39 were in receipt of out-relief while no fewer than 165 had been in receipt of relief recently.[403] Footnote 399: _Ibid._, pp. 7-8, 22.