This book contains a collection of papers dealing with a range of controversial issues which exercised the minds of local authority officials from 1884-1908. The 28 items reproduced cover a wide range of matters. They are presented chronologically because many of the papers deal with more than one topic but also because it provides a clearer guide to the development of views on numerous inter-related issues. These issues are still of interest and relevant today: most of the papers deal with the need to improve the level of accountability to local electors – something which has been the main thrust of UK government policy since 1979. Other papers focus on the need to address internal accounting problems, such as the need for improved costing procedures to measure the performance of different activities.