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Mr. F. Horeet.l (Chairman of the Hospital Board and Rangiora County Council) thought it would be wise on the part of the President to accept the hint given by Mr. Maslin by taking a motion mi the> deletion of Education Boards from the Bill. It was generally admitted that they should be deleted, and what was the use of referring to them when criticizing the general principles of the Bill? So long as Education Boards were retained in the Bill they would be referred to. Tf the delegates removed them from the scope of the Bill, then some other delegate could move a motion for the deletion of something else, and they would thereby reduce the size of the Bill. Mr. John iSiudholmu (Ashburton County Council) trusted that the President would not agree with the suggestion just made. They wanted to consider the Bill on its broad principles first. If the delegates proceeded clause by clause they would be left quite in the dark, 'the removal in deletion of clauses or parts was for the Committee to deal with, and that would be later. There were certain principles in connection with the Bill which, if deleted, would kill the Bill entirely. They should, in the first place, discuss the Bill as a whole. Mi , . G. J. Garland (Auckland) said he was sorry that the President had ruled in the way he had, because if Part X was deleted the Committee that would bo appointed to report thereon could devote their energies to more useful work on other Committees. He would be delighted if the Conference removed Part X before it went to Committee. He believed the Conference would delete that part referring to primary education, because that was what it referred to, inasmuch as it did not materially affect secondary education. Mr. E. N. Liffitok suggested that the ruling the President in a matter such as that was not as rigid as the laws of the Medcs and Persians. It should be remembered that the Prime Minister himself had told them that in his opinion the control of Education should not be included in the Bill. Whilst the subject was in the Bill members could not refrain from discussing it. The President replied that he had not ruled anything in respect to Part X. It was- settled by the Executive this morning that the discussion should range over the entire Bill as it stood. The question of education was a very important one. It might be, indeed, that some gentlemen thought that some responsibilitj - should be placed upon local bodies, not for primary education, but for manual and technical instruction, and for the large buildings for those special purposes that were asked for. He was not, however, saying that that should be done. They should discuss the Bill, and have a fail , and full discussion with regard to its various aspects. The discussion this afternoon should be an all-round discussion upon the Bill, and no portion should be eliminated until after the Bill had been discussed by the Conference. Mr. Moore (Deputy Chairman of the Lyttelton Harbour Board) thought it would be very much better eliminate Part X from the Bill, particularly after the statement they had had that morning from the Prime Minister, whatever was done by the Conference Part X would be struck out of the Bill at a future time. His opinion was that the members of the Conference would be found unanimously in favour of striking it out. To this statement there appeared to be some dissent, but he believed his opinion would be found to be practically correct. He did not know whether the Conference was prepared to accept everything the Executive might submit to them, but did not think that at all probable. Mr. A. E. Jull (Chairman of the Counties Association) said it appeared to him from the tone of the speakers that there was every likelihood of education not being finally included in the Bill. That, too, was apparent front the intimation made by the Prime Minister; but if they cut out education they had intimation that other sections of the Bill might be cut out, and they would not be able to get a general discussion ;it all, but merely a sectional discussion. For the benefit of the Committees which would be set up to consider the whole question, in his opinion it was desirable that they should have a discussion upon the whole Bill, and upon every part of it. Then, if gentlemen were so confident that education would not be included in the Bill, they need not take up time in discussing that feature of it. Mr. Venn thought they should accept the ruling that had been given, and moved, That they go on with the business in the manner indicated from the Chair. The President remarked that a ruling had been given. He had not restrained discussion, but it was usual that a ruling should be accepted without discussion. He hoped they would now proceed to discuss the Bill as a whole. A suitable opportunity would afterwards be given to move for the exclusion of any part of the Bill, but the time for that had not yet come. Mr. R. Lee (Chairman of the Wellington Education Board), as one representing very important interests set forth in the Bill, wished to say at once that the Bill had in it a good deal which deserved the full consideration of the Conference. It was without question that there was plenty of scope in the Dominion for the improvement of administration among local bodies, and even regarding education the cost of the official part of the administration of the system was, say, 4 per cent, in the hirger centres and quite double that percentage in the smaller ones. Again, he was strengthened in anything he had to say by the fact that the Education Boards had been fully represented at a Conference held on the previous day, and the motions then passed unanimously by the representatives of the Education Boards of the Dominion had already been read to the Conference. It was abundantly clear from the resolutions referred to that there was only one mind regarding education as dealt with in the Bill under consideration, and that was that the Bill did not in any way satisfy any of the demands for improvement in administration With regard to hospitals, he might say that he had been on a Hospital Board for two or three years, and was familiar with their management. The representatives of the Hospital Boards had passed a resolution very much on the lines of that passed by the gentlemen representing the Education Boards, saying, in effect, that it was necessary this work should be specialized, and that men who had had training in the administration of hospitals would give better service to the Dominion than could be rendered by a mixed body, such as was proposed by the Bill. Regarding the third matter, the inclusion of the City of Wellington in the provincial administration, the members of the Wellington City Corporation were firm in the opinion that nothing in the way of benefit to the city would result from its