ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. (TO THE EDITOR OF THE spEcrAroa:1 Sin,—Would not
an arrangement of the following kind be fair to all parties, and save the country from the threatened secularize- tion ? Instead of the Government grants to elementary schools being voted by the House of Commons, let an income-tax of a halfpenny in the pound (more or less) be imposed as an education tax (other taxes would, of course, be diminished in a similar degree), the income-tax collectors being supplied with printed forms for the payers to fill in with the character of the schools which they wish their contributions to support ; a similar course to be pur- sued with regard to education rates, both for building, or enlarg- ing, and for supporting additional schools, where required. In this way no one would feel that his contribution towards the main- tenance of elementary education was being applied in a manner of which he did not approve ; no secularist paying for religious instruction, no denominationalist paying for purely secular instruction.
With regard to the rates for building, the School Board would build new schools or enlarge existing schools in accordance with the returns of the ratepayers. There might possibly be a little waste of power in this arrangement, but not such as might not easily be borne, in consideration, of the cessation of our present difficulties.
—I am, Sir, &c., A SCHOOL MANAGER,
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