Meanwhile there is room for congratulation in the fact that every square mile of the vast area of the State--coastal islands alone excepted--is incorporated, and that 160 local authorities with 1,310 members carry on the entire local government work of the country. These men, unlike members of Parliament, are unremunerated by the State, even free railway passes not being conceded to enable them to attend the periodical meetings. The alderman or shire councillor gives purely honorary service, and relieves the State Government of a vast amount of worry and expense.
[Illustration: CAIRNS RANGE AND ROBB'S MONUMENT, NORTH QUEENSLAND]
One good effect of local self-government is the exclusion from Parliament of the pestilent road-and-bridge member who in former years made himself so troublesome to Ministers and so often twisted the decision of the Assembly on important questions.
It would be a bad thing indeed for Queensland if the local authorities, or any substantial percentage of them, became inefficient. There may be room for anxiety at evidences of decadence which at times come to the surface; but that local government in Queensland is a vigorous and living entity is fairly evident from the fact that with very few exceptions the 160 city, town, and shire councils are members of the Local Authorities' Association which annually makes itself heard in conference in Brisbane. Manifestly the spirit of decentralisation is not dead in Queensland. The manner in which the various bodies have survived the stoppage of the Treasury endowment, simultaneously with the thrusting upon them of many new responsibilities by the Act of 1902, must be regarded as a clear indication that local government in Queensland retains undiminished vitality.
[Footnote a: See "Queensland Government Gazette" of date mentioned.]
Primary Education: Board of National Education; Education Act of 1860; Board of General Education; Education Act of 1875; Department of Public Instruction; Higher Education in Primary Schools; Itinerant Teachers; Status of Teachers; Statistics. --Private Schools.--Secondary Education: Grammar Schools Act; Endowments, Scholarships, and Bursaries; Success of Grammar Schools; Exhibitions to Universities; Expenditure.--Technical Education: Beginning of System; Board of Technical Instruction; Transfer of Control to Department of Public Instruction; Statistics; Technical Instruction Act; Continuation Classes; Schools of Arts and Reading Rooms.--University: Royal Commissions; University Bill; Standardised System of Education.