Anyone who has attempted to write the history of a municipality will have felt the need to consult a history of local government to see how his particular area fits into the general scene. Now there is such a reference work, but only for New South Wales.

This book (The Advancement of Local Government in New South Wales 1906 to the Present by F. A. Larcombe, Sydney University Press, $25, 486 pp) is subtitled A History of Local Government in New South Wales Volume 3. The other two volumes are The Origins of Local Government in New South Wales

1831-58 and The Stabilization of Local Government in New South Wales 1858-1906. This reviewer has not read these earlier volumes, let alone seen them in the bookshops, but, if they are of the same standard as the third, then they form a very important contribution to our knowledge of the third level of government in this country.

Frederick Larcombe is well qualified to tackle this task, having lectured and researched in local government for over thirty years, as well as writing the histories of three Sydney metropolitan councils. He has written his history because he believes it forms the basis of the reform of local government.