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.