Sir Richard Temple on Thursday introduced in the London School
Board the Budget of the year. It is not a pleasant one, the total to be expended by March 25th, 1887, being 21,568,406, or, roughly speaking, a rate on the new and increased quin- quennial valuation of 9d. in the pound. That is a heavy addition to the burdens of the ratepayers; and though Sir Richard was careful to explain that it was all due to the late Board, we do not much believe in promises of reduction. The Board must do its work ; and though building outlays may decrease, population increases, and the desire for more teaching never ends. Sir Lyon Playfair, for example, will fight for more science. Nor is £2 per house for education an irrational outlay, the true evil being rather the incidence of the taxation than its amount. Sir Richard promises various economies, the most hopeful being, perhaps, that books shall no longer be given gratis to well-to-do children.
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