On Monday, in moving the Education Estimates, which amounted to
£2,149,000, Lord George Hamilton stated that last year the Voluntary subscriptions amounted to £786,000, the rates to £447,000, and the school pence to £1,138,000, so that, including the grant, we may say that the elementary education of the country costs about four millions and a half sterling. As the number of children educated is nearly two millions and a half, the total cost of education appears to be above £1 16s. a head, and Lord George Hamilton estimates it at £1 13e. 11d. in Voluntary Schools, and 12 1s. 41}d. in Board Schools. Excluding all private payments— that is, all subscriptions on the one hand, and the school pence on the other,—the education of a child in a Voluntary school is said to cost the country 14s. 4d., and in Board Schools .£1 158. 4d.,—i.e., for taxes, or rates and taxes, alone. Lord George made the cost of the Board Schools a great point against those who wish for increased School Boards and the extinction of Voluntary schools. The School Boards spend three and two- thirds times as much from the rates, he says, as they get from the grants. If they received the whole of the grants, they would, calculating at the same proportion, be levying £6,750,000 in rates alone, and would of course rouse the most vehement re- action against the burden of education. We certainly doubt whether any rational being would have been willing to pay all this money for the superior worth of School Boards.
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