parliamentary aid for this and other ameliorative work devolving upon local education authorities, will continue their valuable co-operation in meeting the needs of their hungry scholars by the existing practical if not perfect system."[256] The teachers had apparently been considering the advisability of withdrawing their services altogether, but this threat of a possible cessation of the meals induced them to continue their assistance. Footnote 254: At Birmingham we note the same defect. "The children are quiet and well-behaved; but all the time is taken in serving the food, and there is no opportunity to teach individual children to eat slowly. The tendency, especially with the cocoa breakfast, is to gulp down the drink, eat part of the bread and jam, and carry the rest away." (_The Public Feeding of Elementary School Children_, by Phyllis D. Winder, 1913, p. 42.) Footnote 255: Report of Bootle School Canteen Committee, 1911-12, p. 10. Footnote 256: _Ibid._, p. 11. (_b_) A second method is the service of the meals at local restaurants. This plan is strongly discouraged by the Chief Medical Officer of the Board of Education, since it is impossible to secure adequate supervision of the meals or proper control of the dietary; "the meals are consequently of little, if any, value from an educational or even nutritional point of view."[257] Any authority adopting this system is, in fact, animated solely by the desire to get the children fed with the least possible trouble. Footnote 257: Report of the Chief Medical Officer of the Board of Education for 1911, p. 272. Unfortunately the plan is still in favour with a considerable number of local authorities,[258] even in some of the large towns. Footnote 258: In many towns where meals are usually served at centres, local restaurants are utilised in outlying districts where the number of children is too small to allow of a centre being established.