Provision is made not only for necessitous[558] children, but for those who can pay part or the whole of the cost. Non-necessitous children may obtain a dinner on payment of 2d., while the "semi-necessitous" may pay 1d. It is noteworthy that the number of free dinners is decreasing, while the number of penny dinners is on the increase. Of the 413,000 meals supplied during 1912-13, nearly 50 per cent. were supplied to "semi-necessitous" children on payment of 1d.; about 25 per cent. were given free, the remaining 25 per cent. being supplied to children whose parents were receiving relief from the Parish Council, children in Higher Grade and Special Schools, and the elder girls who helped in serving the meals.[559] The work of investigation has been greatly reduced by the introduction of the penny dinner, and it has been suggested that the provision of a halfpenny dinner would still further diminish the need for free dinners, and consequently the need for investigation. Footnote 558: There is no fixed scale in determining which children are necessitous, but free meals are usually granted if the gross income of the household is less than 3s. a head. Footnote 559: For the week ending December 19, 1913, the number of children fed was:-- Necessitous 442 Paying children 1,389 Parish Council children 207 For many years before the School Board undertook the responsibility for providing for its underfed children, the Parish Council was supplying meals to the children of mothers who were receiving parish relief. The Report of the Royal Commission on Physical Training in 1903 had drawn attention to the question of underfeeding among children, and the Parish Council determined to provide meals for the children for whose relief it was responsible, in order to ensure that no complaint might be brought against it.[560] Hot dinners were provided every day except Sunday.[561] They were intended chiefly for children whose mothers were at work all day, but tickets were also given in cases where an increase of relief would not have benefited the children, or where the children had a consumptive tendency.[562] The dinners were served in eating-houses where "the conditions as to the serving of the meals, and the manners of the children--entirely without supervision--" were "anything but civilising."[563] When the School Board took over the general arrangements for feeding, it seemed at first as if the Parish Council would still continue its own methods, but the superiority of the Board's scheme was soon apparent, and the Parish Council made an arrangement with it by which children whose mothers were receiving relief would have meals at school, the Council paying 1-1/2d. per meal to the School Board.[564] Footnote 560: Evidence before the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws, 1909, Vol. VI., Qs. 61553-5. Footnote 561: _Ibid._, Q. 61371 (12). Footnote 562: _Ibid._, Q. 55247 (31). Footnote 563: