The utmost consideration has been shown by the Boards for the difficulties which the Department have to overcome; and I think I may add that due regard has been paid by the administrative authority to the representative character and the legitimate wishes of the bodies which advise and largely control it.
The other statutory body attached to the Department has a significance and potential importance in strange contrast to the humble place it occupies in the statute book.

The Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act, 1899, has, like many other Acts, a part entitled 'Miscellaneous,' in which the draughtsman's skill has attended to multifarious practical details, and made provision for all manner of contingencies, many of which the layman might never have thought of or foreseen.

Travelling expenses for Council, Boards, and Committees, casual vacancies thereon, a short title for the Act, and a seal for the Department, definitions, which show how little we know of our own language, and a host of kindred matters are included.

In this miscellany appears the following little clause:-- For the purpose of co-ordinating educational administration there shall be established a Consultative Committee consisting of the following members:-- (a.) The Vice-President of the Department, who shall be chairman thereof; (b.) One person to be appointed by the Commissioners of National Education; (c.) One person to be appointed by the Intermediate Education Board; (d.) One person to be appointed by the Agricultural Board; and (e.) One person to be appointed by the Board of Technical Instruction.
Now the real value of this clause, and in this I think it shows a consumate statesmanship, lies not in what it says, but in what it suggests.

The Committee, it will be observed, has an immensely important function, but no power beyond such authority as its representative character may afford.