FROM 1,240 TO' £3,082 IN TWO YEARS. [To THE Emma
07 Tue " SPECTATOR.") 8112,—In your issue of last week you referred to the increasing burden of taxation. In this. country parish of Lamington, in Lanarkshire, there is a village school with 42 scholars, and a teacher with a female assistant. Up till 1918-the largest amount that the School Board had found it necessary to levy in local rates was £240. In that year the old parochial system a control, with its very fine record in Scotland, was abolished and the new Education Act passed. In 1919 the County Educa- tion Authority assessed the parish £1,797 for education, and for 1920 the anm assessed is 0,062. These figures in each case refer to the local rates apart from the Government grant. The new Education Authority inherited, a balance, and no debt in this parish in 1918.
The parish council is commanded, and indeed compelled, to raise this money, but when it asks why the sum is so large, and points out that this amount is not spent in the parish, the parish council is reminded that under the Education Act its business is to collect the money and not to criticize. Na one pretends that the education given in. the school is better ill 1920 than it was in 1918. Such are the facts, and there are other rural parishes which could tell similar tales of lavish expenditure on the one hand, and on the other of a. system of rating which tells very severely on rural areas, and makes them contribute an undue share to the education expenses of the More populous industrial districts. The Act of 1918 10°' 'sides for raising the school age, for more secondary school', and for continuation classes.- These expenses have not yet he'ln
incurred, hut when they are one wonders what the education
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