[28]. Charity Organisation Review, January, 1885, p. 25. As we shall see (post, p. 19), their fears in this respect were realised.
[29]. The Times, Leading Article, January 20, 1885.
[30]. The School Board Chronicle, December 13, 1884, p. 627.
[31]. Such voluntary agencies were established, for instance, at Hastings (about 1882), at Birmingham and Gateshead (in 1884), at Carlisle (in 1889).
[32]. School Board Chronicle, December 13, 1884, pp. 629-630.
[33]. Ibid., p. 628.
[34]. The Times, December 16, 1885.
[35]. Thus at Liverpool, about 1885, the Council of Education resolved to offer grants to School Managers for the supply of needful appliances for penny dinners, provided that "the payment of a penny should absolutely cover the cost of each dinner, so as not only to avoid pauperising the recipient, but also to render the scheme entirely self-supporting." (Report of Special Sub-Committee on Meals for School Children, in Minutes of London School Board, July 25, 1889, p. 383.) At Birmingham the School Board allowed a voluntary committee to erect kitchens on the school premises. (London School Board, Report of General Purposes Committee on Underfed Children attending School, 1899, p. 253.) At Gateshead, in 1884, the School Board arranged for a supply of dinners in the schools in the poorest parts of the town. (Report of Select Committee on the Education (Provision of Meals) Bills (England and Scotland), 1906, Q. 4101.) In London, the School Board in 1885 resolved "that the Board grant facilities to local managers and to other responsible persons for the provision on the school premises of penny dinners on self-supporting principles for elementary school children, where it can be done without interference with school work or injury to the school buildings." (Report of Special Committee on Meals for School Children, in Minutes of London School Board, July 25, 1889, p. 374.) At Manchester, as early as 1879, the School Board initiated a scheme for providing meals. The chairman, Mr. Herbert Birley, had been in the habit of supplying breakfasts to poor children in some of the schools, and on these schools being transferred to the School Board, he induced it to continue the work. (Report of Inter-Departmental Committee on Medical Inspection and Feeding, 1905, Vol. II., Qs. 2745A, 2754, evidence of Mr. C. H. Wyatt.)
[36]. In Manchester there had been a serious attempt to meet the difficulty. There the Board of Guardians maintained a "Day Feeding School" and gave three meals a day to its out-door relief children for some years between 1856 and 1866. (Report of Royal Commission on the Poor Laws, 1909, 8vo Edition, Vol. III., p. 148 n.)
[37]. See for instance the evidence given before the London School Board in 1895. (See post, p. 17.)