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fewer than 2,127 boroughs and parishes out of an aggregate number of 2,304 are
levying rates at the present time of threepence and upwards in the pound, and in no
less than 310 boroughs and parishes is the rate levied one shilling and upwards in the
pound, as is evidenced by the Annual Reports of the committee of the Council on
Education.
That in the Parish of Rotherhithe, the rate required to satisfy the Precept of
the London School Board for the year ending 25th March, 1896, is no less than
12.63d. in the pound, producing a sum of £10,109, the amount required by the
School Board for the District to meet the deficiency in the School Fund for the year
named.
That the rates levied in the Parish for the year ending 25th March, 1896, amount
to the sum of 8s. 5d. in the pound.
That having regard to the whole of the national circumstances which gave rise
to the legislation of 1870; to the fact that local administration was resorted to in lieu
of State administration, notwithstanding the fact that education was compulsory and
the obligation of its provision a duty of the State ; to the unquestionable assertion
that in some cases at the present time the amount falling upon local taxation in
successfuly administrating the educational work of the country has now reached such
proportions that the charge is intolerable and a dangerous barrier to municipal
progress ; to the rapid increase of local taxation in general and to the duties annually
imposed upon localities for the purposes of local self-government by Parliament; to
the curriculum laid down by, and the ever increasing requirements of the Education
Department, your Petitioners humbly and respectfully suggest that the time has
arrived when the capitation grants should be increased and Parliament should limit
the amount to be raised by means of local taxation, and should provide out of
Imperial funds such other amount as may from time to time be necessary to meet the
deficiency which might exist in the local school funds throughout the country.
your Petitioners therefore humbly pray that your Honourable House will,
after due enquiry, pass a short Bill to redress what your Petitioners venture to
consider is a grievance caused by a burden improperly placed on local taxation, which
has assumed proportions beyond which Parliament ever intended or contemplated.
And your Petitioners will as in duty bound ever pray, etc.
The Common Seal of the Vestry of the Parish of Rotherhithe
was hereunto affixed by order this 21st day of January,
1805, in the presence of
JAMES J. STOKES,
Clerk to the Vestry.