176 BOARD OF EDUCATION 
higher education, and about 85 of them still exercise 
those powers. This system of Local Education 
Authotities was set up by the Act of 1902.* 
Both from an administrative and an educational 
point of view, the distinction made by the Act of 
1902 between areas and Authorities for elementary 
and higher education is a serious embarrassment. 
While a County Council administers higher educa- 
tion in the whole of its area, it is excluded from the 
administration of elementary education in the areas 
of autonomous boroughs and urban districts. In the 
administrative county of Lancashire there are as 
many as twenty-seven of these autonomous Authori- 
ties. ‘This arrangement greatly complicates the 
co-ordination of elementary and higher education.t 
It is characteristic of English Local Government 
that Local Authorities can do only what they are 
empowered by statute to do. In this respect it 
differs, in theory if not in practice, from Local 
Government in many European States and in 
America, where Local Authorities can do anything 
for the good of their communities which the law 
does not forbid them to do. The statutes which 
confer powers on English Local Authorities may 
define the limits within which general powers may 
be exercised, may require that the previous approval 
* In addition to the Local Education Authorities the Act 
recognised as “Minor Local Authorities” for purposes of 
appointing managers of Elementary Schools, the councils of small 
boroughs and urban districts, and parish councils or parish meetings. 
The Act of 1go2 was applied to London, with some modification 
as regards the City and the Metropolitan Boroughs, by an Act 
of 1903. 
t See Chapter III, p. 53.