roblem, then, in connection with the expenditure of the Endowment
Fund was to provide for its administration by an efficient and
promptly-acting executive, responsible to Parliament on the one hand,
and on the other hand brought by the very nature of its administrative
machinery into the closest possible touch with the new local
Authorities, as well as with the voluntary organisations which were now
springing up all over the country.

In order to satisfy these requirements, the Bill provided that the
control of the Endowment Fund should be vested not in a Board attached
to the new Department, but in the Department itself; that is to say, in
a Minister appointed by the Government of the day. The Chief Secretary
was to be the titular head of the Department, but it was not intended
that he should intervene in its ordinary administrative business. The
real working head was to be the Vice-President, a new Minister with
direct responsibility to Parliament. So far as related to certain powers
and duties transferred from existing departments of the Irish
Government, and similar to the powers and duties of the English Board of
Agriculture, the new Minister was to have complete executive authority.
But as regards the administration of the Endowment Fund, a different
arrangement was proposed--an arrangement without precedent, so far as I
know, in any previous legislation in this country.

In order to bring the Department into close touch with local bodies, the
Bill attached to it a "Council of Agriculture" and an "Agricultural
Board." One-third of the members of each of these bodies were to be
nominated by the Department, and the intention was that in making these
nominations due regard should be had to the representation of voluntary
organisations. The remaining two-thirds were to be elected in the case
of the "Council of Agriculture" by the newly created County Councils, in
the case of the "Agricultural Board" by the "Council of Agriculture,"
divided for this purpose into four "Provincial Committees." In addition
to the functions of an electoral college thus entrusted to its four
provincial committees, the business of the "Council of Agriculture" as a
whole was to meet together, at least once a year, for the discussion of
questions of general interest in connection with the provisions of the
Act; but its powers were only advisory. The "Board," on the other hand,
was more than an advisory body; for it was given a veto on any
exp