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compromise between those who, while holding very divergent views, were equally desirous for the general interests of Elementary Education, and one general understanding, which more than any other influenced the mutual agreement, was the representation of the responsible Minister of the Crown, that the Act would not entail a rate exceeding threepence in the £.
Now, what do we find has resulted.
The London School Board, owing its very existence to this Act, has already, by its extravagant expenditure, raised the rate to about fivepence in the £, and as much more work remains to be done, and as the rate of increase still appears to be progressive, there is every reason to believe that this rate will be considerably exceeded in the future. The figures relating to the building of Schools show most conclusively that no less than a quarter of a million of money has already been unnecessarily expended. It becomes almost superfluous to compare the Board's with that of other bodies; a reference to the contents of these pages must convince all that, even judged by the standard of its own earlier work, it has developed more recently an extravagance which must at once be curbed. This duty now devolves upon the rate-payers, and the time and occasion have now arrived when they have the power, if they will only exert it, of returning representatives, who, while energetically working in the cause of Elementary Education, will bear in mind the pecuniary interests of those who have entrusted them with so high an office.
Note.—The cost of erecting the Schools designed by "outside Architects" has been taken from the Board Accounts of completed Schools next following the opening of each School, and does not include the cost of any additions made subsequently by the Board, as it is assumed, that when opened, these Schools were fully adapted for their respective purposes.
For Appendix see next page.
