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86
Your Committee have to report that, proceeding upon the reference
by the Vestry of the 11th October instant, they have considered
what action it may be expedient to take in view of the
approaching School Board Election, with the object of
obtaining a further reduction of the Rate.
Your Committee would, in the first place, remark that they are
far from attaching primary importance to a mere saving of
money. They most strongly feel that the best interests of the
ratepayers will be more truly served by the efficient training
of the rising generation, even at an increased cost, than by an
indiscriminate reduction of the rate. But your Committee,
after carefully examining the expenditure of the School
Board, are convinced that, not with standing a considerable
diminution, the expenditure of the Board will admit of further
reduction without in the least degree injuring the great work
of educating the masses.
Your Committee would further recall the fact that it was at the
instance of the St. James's Vestry that a Conference of the
Rating Authorities in the Metropolis was held at the Mansion
House in April, 1885, when a general opinion was expressed
that the expenditure of the School Board was excessive, and
to that extent prejudicial to the cause of popular Education.
It will be remembered that, as the Election of the School
Board in 1885 drew near, the Vestry again took the initiative
in convening a Conference of the Eating Authorities in the
Westminster Division for tbe purpose of selecting and submitting.
for the support of the ratepayers, candidates pledged
to loyally administer the Elementary Education Acts with due
regard to the circumstances of the mass of ratepayers who are
called upon to pay the bulk of the cost of the Board School
system of Education. Five Candidates were selected at this
Conference, and four of them obtained seats at the Board. The
Mansion House Conference, and the papers issued by the
Vestry in connection therewith, it may be fairly assumed, had
done much to direct public attention in other districts to the
possibility of a retrenchment in the expenditure of the Board,
without impairing the efficiency of the schools or impeding
the work of the Board. However this may be, the result of